The name Joel Rousseau is literally all over the WPI swimming
and diving record books. The eight-time All-America held 13 school
records at the time of his graduation (eight individual and all
five relays) and still holds five individual school
standards.
As a freshman, Rousseau made huge splash in college swimming
circles. He guided the Engineers to the first of three straight
Worcester City Championships, captured the 2004 NEWMAC title in the
100-yard butterfly, and participated in his first NCAA
Championships.
He earned his first All-America award as a sophomore, placing
third at the 2005 NCAA Championships in the 100 butterfly, an event
where he posted the fastest time recorded all season in Division
III. During his junior season, he was named National Swimmer of the
Week by CollegeSwimming.com, regained his NEWMAC 100-yard butterfly
title, and swam in the finals at the NCAA Championships in the
100-yard butterfly (fifth) and 100-yard backstroke.
“As a multi-time All-America, most people would assume
that Joel would be best remembered for his hard work and
determination to be the best, and, while this is very true, Joel
was so much more than that,” remembers his head coach Paul
Bennett. “He made those around him better. Joel wasn’t
the type of personality to call people out or to vocalize his
displeasure—he just worked, and when things didn’t go
well, he went back and worked harder.”
His senior season saw him garner Worcester City Swimmer of the
Meet honors to go along with NEWMAC Swimmer of the Year award after
touching the wall first in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard
backstroke at the conference championships at Wheaton. Rousseau
again brought home All-America honors after placing third in the
100-yard butterfly and sixth in the 100-yard backstroke.
“I think if you ask him what his favorite moment in his
career was, it may not have been earning All-America status or
qualifying for senior nationals,” continued Bennett.
“It was probably anchoring our men’s 400 freestyle
relay to a come-from-behind victory over Brandeis, a team WPI
hadn’t beaten in 60 years of swimming.”
The Pittsfield native certainly left his mark on WPI swimming.
He was a four-time NEWMAC champion and six-time all-conference
performer. Rousseau participated in four NCAA Championships,
earning eight All-America awards, and he still holds the WPI school
records in the 50-yard butterfly (22.39), 50-yard backstroke
(24.20), 100-freestyle (46.63), 100-yard butterfly (49.09), and
100-yard backstroke (51.23).
Since his graduation in 2007, Rousseau has worked as both an
assistant project superintendent as well as an assistant project
manager for Whiting-Turner Construction Company’s Boston
Division. Several of the local construction projects that he has
worked on include the Burlington mall renovation, the Worcester and
Nashua Target renovations, Logan airport terminal B renovation as
well as a 150,000 square foot, 5 story office building for
Oracle.
Rousseau is currently working as an assistant project manager on
a data center development for a major search engine company in
Iowa. He currently lives in Omaha with his girlfriend, Alisa.
