PITTSBURGH — What Molly wants, Molly gets.

That's the case when it comes to swimming for Carnegie Mellon University senior and Butler graduate Molly Evans.

Evans will return from the holiday break owning Tartan records in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke, 200 and 400-yard individual medley, 200, 500, 1,000 and 1,650-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly.

She's also swam a leg on the school-record 200 and 400-yard medley relays, 400 and 800-yard freestyle relays.

“Molly possesses great focus,” CMU swim coach Matt Kinney said. “She has a great physical presence in the water, just a tough competitor.”

Besides all of that, Evans is carrying a 4.0 grade point average as a biology major.

“I'm not sure what direction I'll take yet in terms of a career,” Evans said. “I may take a year off and do some lab work, go to graduate school or veterinary school.”

She knows precisely what direction her swimming is taking her — directly to the NCAA Division III National Championships. Evans has been there every year.

She doesn't want to go alone this year.

“My goal is to have some teammates go with me to Tennessee (site of nationals),” Evans said. “I don't want to be the only woman from Carnegie Mellon.”

Kinney said the Tartans' relay units have come “ever so close the past three years” to qualifying for nationals.

“Those units have barely missed the cut,” he said. “Molly takes that personally because she's part of that.”

Evans has scored in all three of her events at nationals in the past three years. She finished a career-high second in the 200-yard backstroke at nationals as a freshman. She placed fourth in the 100-yard backstroke that same year.

All told, Evans has been honorable mention or All-American nine times in her career.

“She'll add at least three more to that total before she's done,” Kinney promised.

Evans arrived at CMU the same year Kinney came in as head coach. She was not recruited to swim there.

In fact, she didn't choose CMU for its swimming program.

“I was going to school there even if there was no swim team,” Evans said. “My success in the pool just sort of happened.

“It's been a nice part of my college experience and I'd love to go out with a big finish.”

What stroke she finishes with doesn't seem to matter.

Kinney put Evans in the 400 IM this season and she snapped the school record by five seconds. He put her in the 200 butterfly and she broke that mark. She's already made the A-cut for nationals in both events.

“Part of her success is that she's a great racer,” Kinney said. “A bigger part is that she's not afraid to work at something she's not used to or isn't strong at doing.

“The breaststroke is a weakness for her, but Molly has worked to minimize that weakness, which in turn helps her IM. I could insert her in any event. She'd try it and succeed at it.”

Evans said she will miss swimming, but not the training.

“There's all that wear and tear on my body,” she said. “I don't foresee myself coaching, but I'd like to stay involved.

“If I go to graduate school and there's a team there, maybe I'll be a volunteer assistant or something. I may help out.”

If she walks away from the sport, she's already helped out Carnegie Mellon's team plenty.

“From a performance and leadership standpoint? Molly has far exceeded expectations,” Kinney said.