Ryan ChartrandThe Hurko brothers are accustomed to being stared at.
Sophomores at Cal Poly, the brothers are all on the Mustang men’s swimming and diving team and share classes, extracurricular activities, an apartment and a face.
Identical triplets Chris, Andrew and Stephen Hurko receive “a lot of awkward stares,” Stephen said.
Putting a bewildered look on his face, Stephen turned his head three times and stared, shocked at the supposed image of he and his brothers walking the same route to the same class a few minutes apart from each other.
“It’s like triple d‚j… vu,” he said.
Business majors Chris and Stephen share some classes with Andrew, an agricultural business major, and the three are often in the same area of campus, if not in the same classroom.
To avoid being grouped and looked at as a unit, the three are very competitive with each other, in and out of the water.
“If we know we’re compared to each other we always try to do better,” Stephen said. “We end up doing better overall, even though one may be slightly better.”
Cal Poly head coach Tom Milich said he sometimes has trouble telling the triplets apart. He described them as consistent swimmers who are dedicated to practice.
Milich described the triplets as competitive, but also supportive of one another.
On the Cal Poly swimming and diving team, the triplets usually take on an “us versus them” mentality, Andrew said, but not always.
“In races, sometimes when it comes down to the end, it’s more satisfying beating a brother than an actual opponent on the other team,” Andrew said. “Then you have bragging rights until the next race, which could be a while.”
The Hurkos have been swimming since they were 2 years old.
“We needed to burn off extra energy I guess when we were little, so our parents just threw us in the water,” Chris said.
Milich is not surprised to see triplets on the Mustangs.
“In general, swimming runs in families,” he said.
Although the triplets have practiced and competed together for the duration of their swimming careers, Chris, Andrew and Stephen are three different swimmers, Milich said.
Andrew competes in the backstroke and IM for Cal Poly, while Chris swims the butterfly and IM. Stephen competes in freestyle and butterfly.
The triplets were involved in both swimming and soccer growing up, but ultimately chose swimming when they entered high school.
“On a hot day, I’d rather be in a pool than on a field,” Andrew said.
Andrew was captain of the swim team from 2003-04 at Leigh High in San Jose, the brothers’ hometown. Chris is a former six-time all-league event winner, and Stephen earned all-league honors in the 200 freestyle and 200 free relay.
Swimming serves as a fun, competitive hobby and as a stress reliever for the Hurkos.
“I like that when I’m in the water, I don’t think about class, I don’t think about if I have a midterm. I just clear my mind,” Andrew said.
Even if Chris has had a bad day, swimming turns it around.
“Once I’m done with practice, I feel better,” he said. “I have no energy, but I somehow feel better, like I’ve accomplished something.”
Although the Hurkos sometimes dread attending hard practices, especially distance-day Mondays, they know the harder practices will make them faster, better, stronger.
To break up the monotony of the longer, more boring distance-day workouts, Stephen sings songs and tries to remember arbitrary pieces of information as he swims.
“It’s fun because when you’re tired and you’re oxygen-deprived you can’t recall much,” he said.
During the Monday practice after the Sunday NFL Draft in April, Stephen focused his attention on trying to remember the first 32 picks. He got to pick seven.
As members of the men’s swimming and diving team, the Hurkos spend a lot of their time balancing swim training with homework and a social life.
“I think we’ll always fit in the social life,” Andrew said. “It’s just a matter of fitting in the school and the swimming.”
Stephen feels being involved in competitive sports helps him manage his time.
“When we were in our offseason for two weeks, I just didn’t get anything done,” he said. “I had no structure in my life.”
Chris said that swimming, school and a social life all fits together well, “it’s just sometimes you think about how much better other things would fit in if you didn’t have swimming.”
Despite some difficulties in having a busy schedule, none of the brothers feel they’ve missed out on anything by swimming competitively.
Stephen considered joining a fraternity his freshman year. Instead, they feel like they’ve gained friends by being a part of a close-knit team.
“Everyone’s a good friend, everyone gets along really well,” Stephen said.
The brothers have as much fun as they can during an intense practice session.
“You have to think of really good jokes because you only have a 10-second window to say them,” Stephen said, describing the exchange of one-liners between sets.
Milich said he expects Andrew, Chris and Stephen to continue to work and improve as swimmers on the men’s swimming and diving team in future years.
The triplets agree, planning to stay with the team.
“This is probably as much fun as I could be having,” Chris said.