WILMINGTON, N.C.— A swim and dive athlete at UNC Wilmington (UNCW) is also part of the Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue team, combining her love for the water with her desire to help others.

This past summer, the nation experienced a shortage of lifeguards. Tink Niebel and the Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue team were still able to have a successful year by covering every stand. Niebel said it all came down to planning from leadership.

“They had it all planned out to have almost pretty much every single stand covered every day, and that led to a pretty good, successful summer,” Niebel said.

An important part of lifeguarding is swimming, which is something Niebel has been doing her entire life. Her dad is an active-duty Marine, which meant they moved around a lot, but she always had swimming to fall back on.

“We got to move every two to three years and there is always one constant in my life which was swimming. I would join like a new club team every single time we would move somewhere, so it was kinda always like that one thing that was consistent,” Niebel said. 

Once Niebel realized her potential in swimming, she took her passion to the next level.

“It was kind of always like on the back of my radar, maybe swimming in college, and fortunately one of my club coaches, Brandon, he swam for UNCW,” Niebel said.

Niebel says being on the Seahawks swim team is about more than swimming fast and winning races, it is also about the family atmosphere.

“It’s really about how much you work with your team and putting in the hard work to get results, but it’s definitely focused around being one family,” Niebel said. 

Niebel found this family atmosphere in the Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue Team as well.

“Really tell from the outside looking in kind of how tight and unique these people are that I had the opportunity to work with. And so that kind of drove me to try out and it still is the best decision I ever made,” Niebel said.

Niebel said that lifeguarding encompasses the some most important things in her life.

“I kind of have an affinity for two things in my life, which is the love for water and then also helping people,” Niebel said. 

Niebel is finishing up her final year at UNCW studying supply chain management. She hopes to pursue a career in that field once she graduates.

While she does not plan on swimming professionally, she wants to continue having it play an important part in her life.