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GREENSBORO — Eugene Godsoe, a Southeast Guilford graduate and Stanford senior with the nation's third-fastest 100- and 200-yard backstroke, stays low-key.

Even before swimming in the NCAA championships, which will start Friday in Columbus, Ohio.

"I stay as relaxed I can," he said, until moments before the event. "Once we're in the ready room, I'm all business, and then I channel some angry energy."

The energy was enough to earn Pac-10 Championships swimmer of the meet this month.

Godsoe scored victories in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke and second-place finishes in the 100 butterfly, 200- and 400-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay.

He has higher expectations for the NCAA championship — national titles.

"I've set myself up perfectly for this to be the best meet of the season," he said, crediting his parents for his success.

His dad, Gene Godsoe, compares his son to "Shane," a 1953 western movie starring Alan Ladd.

"He just kind of reminds you of those old western movies, where the hired gun comes into to town, does his job, and rides off," Godsoe's father said.

Eugene Godsoe had natural swimming talent as a youth and teenager, but not until he was 16 did he increase his dedication to the sport.

The decision meant two-a-day practices and weekend sessions.

"Instead of parents pushing you to make the jump," he said, "I did that on my own."

And then he got hungry for success, said Kevin Thornton, head coach of the Greensboro Swimming Association and a coach for Godsoe. He recalled a story when Godsoe had placed as a teenager at an event in Indianapolis.

"He got out of the pool and looked at the scoreboard," Thornton recalled. "He said, 'That's my name up there. I want to see more of that.' "

The easygoing-but-focused demeanor is one the half-Japanese swimmer carries over to aspirations for medical school and the 2012 Olympics.

"We told him to do the best you can, and don't look back," said his father, who lives with Godsoe's mother, Yoko, near Forest Oaks. "He just kind of adopted that."

Godsoe talks with an even cadence that gives the air of calm and experience. He's been on the big stage before as a competitor in the 2008 Olympic trials and a four-time swimmer in the NCAA championship for Stanford.

Help also comes from team support, he said.

"The alumni were sending us lots of e-mails and stuff like that," he said. "It fires us up."

Being an alumni of Stanford's men's swimming team means being part of a tradition that includes 29 straight Pac-10 championships. That tradition includes Olympians such as Ben Wildman-Tobriner, Jeff Rouse and dozens of others.

But Godsoe doesn't carry the pressure. He's OK relaxing with his piano — he's been playing since childhood — and gaining focus moments before a race.

"Honestly, for me, I'm not much of a routine kind of guy," he said. "I do whatever feels right."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com