Payton Woodring has continued to improve during her time at the University of Cincinnati and aims to end her swimming career on a high note.
Woodring is a 2022 Gilmer High graduate and was a standout on the swim team during her time as a Lady Cat. She has since appeared in all nine regular season meets in all three seasons with the Bearcats and established the womens new backstroke record last season.
She served as team captain as a junior and is ready to reprise her role in her final year with the program.
“For me, I’m thinking about what I want my legacy to be,” Woodring said. “I’m trying to be remembered for not only what I did in the water but who I was outside of the water and the type of leader I was. Next year for me I want to instill some of those leadership qualities in the junior and sophomore classes.
“I have those personal goals I want to achieve inside the water, but if those are reached and I feel like our team culture got worse when I was here, then I don’t think I’ll see it as a success overall. If I’m remembered more about who I was and the work I did outside of the water, that will be more important for me.”
Woodring is no stranger to being in the water nearly year-round. In addition to swimming with the Gilmer youth team, she constantly traveled with club teams as she plied her craft. However, all of her training did not compare to what she experienced at the top of the sport collegiately. She credits teammates and the positive team culture as the factors that eased her transition.
“It was definitely an adjustment coming from a small town to a bigger city,” she said. “But I think the biggest thing was getting in there and training. You realize it’s more than anything like you’ve ever experienced.
“It’s truly a grind with those 20-hour weeks on top of lifts and everything else. It’s just such a higher level of training. Obviously, it took me a lot to get to Big XII Division I, but at the same time, once you get there, the training just keeps getting greater and greater. That’s the biggest jump from high school or club swimming to a Division I level team. The competitiveness every day at practice is just so much greater.”
During the season on non-meet days, Woodring practices from 7 to 9 a.m. before breakfast and classes. She is back in the pool by 1 p.m. for another two-hour swim followed by a hour-long weight training session.
As a freshman, she recorded a pair of personal best times in the 50- (26.04) and 100-yard backstroke (55.19). Her highest placement was third in the 100 back (57.73) against Miami, Ohio. She ended her season by competing in three events at the American Athletic Conference Championships.
“I really didn’t have the freshman season I wanted and had higher goals I wanted to achieve,” Woodring said. “But I’ve always said ‘Set the bar high, and you’ll still be proud of the outcome even if you don’t reach those goals.’ There were some good times, but I think a lot of that season was getting used to the learning curve (of what it takes to compete at a high level collegiately).”
She continued to improve her finishes as a sophomore and took second in the 200 back versus Indiana in 2:04.76. She also secured third versus Xavier in the 100 back (57.73) and turned in a personal best in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.65) at the Big XII Conference Championships.
“I really took what I learned my freshman year and applied it to my sophomore year to better myself,” she said. “That sophomore year is pretty challenging for really anyone, and I really struggled that fall semester just because you know what you’re getting into, and it can be challenging to hit the ground running again after such a crazy freshman year.”
That spring, Wooding said she started to attack her goals with the mindset of “getting 1 percent better” and found one thing she could improve every day. That paid off last season when Wooding made her mark in Cincy’s record book.
She set the school record in the 200 back in 1:56.42 when she placed 12th in the finals of the Big XII Conference Championships. She also qualified for the finals in the 200 free (1:49.52, 21st place) and 800 free relay (7:13.85, fourth). She served as first alternate in the 100 back finals after posting a preliminary time of 55.01.
“That was such a pleasure to be a part of that 800 relay team, and that adrenaline is something that I’ve never experienced before on that first day of conference,” Woodring said. “Getting to race with teammates at a high level isn’t something a lot of people can say they did. I was really proud and honored to be a part of that and place so high too. That was a really fun race.
“After being named captain, I wanted to lead the very best I could. Not to sound cocky, but I tried to put the team on my back and lead the best I could. I think a lot of that confidence transfered over to my swimming and is why I saw those results.”
With her demanding swimming and training schedule, Woodring has continued to do all of the work needed to succeed in the classroom as well. She has a 4.0 GPA, is studying sport management and just wrapped up an internship with Pepsi. She was named to the all-academic team when Cincy was in the AAC and has been named to the Winter Academic All-Big 12 Team the previous two years.
“For me, it hasn’t been too bad,” Woodring said of handling academics. “I’m pretty organized, and I take time on Sunday nights to look at the week and decide when I’m going to set aside time to do homework. Regardless of what level you’re at and what your major is, anyone can do it if they stay on top of it consistently.”
Outside of the collegiate season, Woodring has spent summers swimming with her Bearcat teammates as members of the Cincinnati Aquatic Club. Swimmers are able to maintain their conditioning through additional training and meets. It has also served as a way to improve team chemistry and culture, according to Woodring.
“We get to prepare for what we want in the next season,” Woodring said. “We’re also training long course to beat those times we set the year before. Swimming is a sport where there’s really no offseason.”
In her two free weeks following the conference meet, as well as during the summer, she has continued to lift and improve her strength. Cincy’s 2025-26 season begins in October.
“Ive been swimming since I was 4 years old so to think I only have seven months left is kind of crazy,” Woodring said. “That new chapter of my life is quickly approaching and weird to think about.
“I would love to break the 200 back record again and better that. I want to stay on the 800 relay and see best times in all of my races. It’s easy to say that, but it’s more important that I find the daily things I can do to help reach those goals.”