Alumni Spotlight: Kylene Ronayne

Kylene Ronayne '18/BA swam four years for the Pirates and was a two-time member of the All-BIG EAST Team. Ronayne also helped break multiple school records during her time in South Orange, of which, her place as part of the top 400 Free Relay team in school history still holds. Ronayne also holds five top-10 times in program history.

The Springfield, Pa. native now resides in New York City where she works as a digital designer for luxury lifestyle brand, AERIN.

"Originally, I was really interested in sports because it was like merging my two lives together: swimming and graphic design," Ronayne said. "But, there's so much opportunity in fashion and I actually really love it."

Ronayne has found that her life as a swimmer and the lessons she learned have actually carried over to her professional career in fashion more than anticipated.

"I feel like swimming is just a whole different breed of a sport because I still wake up super early and everybody that I know who has been a swimmer is more of an early bird. It can be the worst, but I also feel so much more productive when I get up every morning, workout and have a very organized routine," Ronayne said. "I was able to manage my time because I had to manage my time being a student athlete."

During her junior year, Ronayne helped the Pirates to their best finish at BIG EAST Championships to date with a third-place finish on the women's side. Overall, the 2017 BIG EAST Championships were an exceptionally strong showing from the entire Seton Hall program with the men capturing their first BIG EAST title.

"Nobody really expected it but everybody did so well that the general attitude and morale of that meet was something that stood out to me. It was just such a positive experience and so much fun," Ronayne said. "I remember just like looking at the scoreboard the last day and being like, 'Are the boys going to win?' It was such a blur but is definitely one of those things where I feel like I couldn't sleep the rest of the week because we were just so high on adrenaline."

Now, seeing her younger brothers embark on their college career, Ronayne is reminded of how important it is to take advantage of one's time in college and be present in each moment.

"I give them the advice to really take advantage of every moment, relax and have fun. Take advantage of the time that you have because it goes by so fast."

Q: Favorite memory at Seton Hall?
"My senior year and finishing out swimming was such a surreal thing because I had been swimming for most of my life. Once I started to realize it was all going to be over soon I took advantage of the smaller moments with my team. I was able to enjoy and make the best of every moment. My whole senior year is something I definitely look back on with very fond memories."

Q: Favorite place to compete?
"Any place that my parents were there. I always felt more at home. My mom was a swim coach growing up and my dad has no idea how to swim so it was always a little bit less pressure when dad was there, though."

Q: Ever step on the seal?
"I don't think I ever did before I graduated. I don't even know if I did after. Maybe when I came back to visit but I never tried to test my luck."

Q: Any advice for student-athletes?
"I'm very competitive and I was always a perfectionist when it came to a lot of the aspects of my life. With swimming I think that a lot of that kind of got enhanced but at the end of the day it isn't everything. Looking back I remember getting all in my head for no reason but now I can't even remember my times at that meet. The only things I took away were all of the memories. Sometimes I wish I could go back and tell myself to relax and have a good time. Most of the time you will probably end up doing better if you just relax and have a good time. That moment is just one pixel out of the entire screen in your life so take a step back and look at the bigger picture."

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