After about two decades in the pool, Kaitlyn Orstein still has a love for her sport. She loves swimming competitively and winning, and has done plenty of both.

Orstein, of Mt. Lebanon, a junior at Washington and Jefferson College, added to her resume last weekend when she won two more NCAA Division III championships in Houston, Texas. She won the 200 individual medley, an event in which she holds the Division III record, and the 200-breaststroke. That gave her five Division III titles and made her an 11-time All-American.

"No, I never get tired of winning," she said with a laugh. "I still really enjoy the excitement of the big meets and of knowing that at those kinds of meets, everyone is watching me. It's all about that two to five minutes you spend in the race. That's what is still really exciting for me."

It takes plenty of hard work and preparation to be able to fully enjoy those minutes. Orstein and her fellow swimmers put in plenty of time with morning and afternoon/evening practices, and when they are not in the pool, spend time in the weight room and preparing for their next races. Orstein readily admits there are times it wears on her.

"You have to fight through that," she said. "It's part of being mentally tough. You've got to love it and want to do it."

Orstein loves it enough to be one of the more decorated local swimmers. She won the 2007 Presidents Athletic Conference Swimmer of the Year Award, the third year in a row she has taken that honor. She holds 10 conference and 16 school records.

That followed a high school career in which she won four PIAA titles in the 100 breaststroke and two in the 200 IM. She holds the PIAA record in the 200 IM and was the 2004 PIAA Swimmer of the Meet and the Dapper Dan Female Athlete of the Year.

Orstein still holds nine Mt. Lebanon records and helped the girls' swim team there win three WPIAL championships and a state title.

One of the driving forces behind her success is her father, Mike, head swim coach at W&J.

"Two things really helped her this year," Mike Orstein said. "She got physically stronger. She spent a lot of time in the weight room. The other was that she became more race savvy. She learned to swim her events better. I think that comes with experience and with a better understanding of different races."

Kaitlyn Orstein said some things she did outside the pool led to her success in Houston.

"Especially for this meet, I rested more," she said. "I didn't walk around as much before the races and I ate better. I usually eat what I want, but this time I cut out salt and a couple of other things. I think that helped. All of those little things added up."

As did the work in the weight room.

"I did a lot of work this year to get physically stronger and that was a big help, too," she said. "I put more into our dry-land training program and I also worked a lot on my backstroke. That's been the weakest part of my IM."

Her father said Kaitlyn has a bit of an advantage in the IM by being so good at the breaststroke.

"She really does not have a glaring weakness in any of her four strokes," he said. "To be good in the IM, you have to be strong with all four strokes. But her best stroke is the breaststroke. That's where she dominates because that's where a lot of IMers slow down a bit."

Orstein has no plans to slow down, although she has no major national or international events on her itinerary in the short term. In 2004, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 100-meter breaststroke and 200-meter IM and last year won five gold medals for Team USA in the 2006 Maccabi Australia International Games in Sydney, Australia.

"I'm not really planning anything like that this year," she said. "That was fun and I think the training helped me a lot, but I'm not doing it this year.

"I think I can do a lot of things to get better, things like more weightlifting and working in improving my turns. Those little things can make the difference between finishing first and eighth. But the important thing, I think, is to try to keep getting physically stronger."