Besides the excitement of qualifying for the Indiana High School Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships in the 100-yard butterfly, Maren McClure is looking forward to a bonus reward.
For the first time, the Seymour swimmer gets to swim at the Indiana University Natatorium, the fabled pool that has hosted Olympians and other renowned competitors in one of the sport’s friendliest American environments.
“I’ve never been in there,” said McClure, who posted her personal best time of 1 minute, 1.61 seconds last week in winning the Floyd Central-hosted sectional. “I’m just thankful to swim in that pool.”
McClure was the only Owl swimmer to qualify for this weekend’s races, the field determined by a combination of sectional winners and the next fastest times clocked.
The usual schedule, as has been the case in most sports, has been altered by methods of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. McClure is scheduled to swim in a heat sometime after 5:30 p.m. today.
Those who record the top 16 times will advance to Saturday’s rounds, the fastest eight in the preliminaries going for championship honors and the ninth through 16th fastest in consolation rounds.
Seymour wanted to have some additional qualifiers to keep McClure company. The school record-setting 400-yard freestyle relay team, of which McClure was a member, came close. The sectional quartet of Samantha Jacobi, McClure, Katya Cox and Sandy Cerino placed second, and the group’s time was just shy of sending the squad forward.
“We were kind of hoping,” coach Dave Boggs said. “They swam lights out.”
McClure’s specialty was the breaststroke until a year or so ago before shifting her emphasis to the butterfly.
“She has worked on it and refined it,” Boggs said, charting McClure’s improvement in the fly. “She’s very coachable and can take to changes and apply them immediately. That’s a great thing to have in any sport.”
McClure lowered her swiftest butterfly time by 1.38 seconds in the sectional, a big jump, and she and Boggs think she may be ready to go even faster in this meet.
“(Coach) has told me that I’m a slower taper to get my full results,” McClure said. “Maybe another week can help me, so it may be I can go faster.”
The natatorium, located on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, has a reputation for producing fast swims, as well, and the big-meet atmosphere, fast swimmers and her own desire may combine to push McClure to go quicker.
She is intrigued by everything she has heard about the capability of the natatorium to yield personal bests.
“That’s what I’ve heard,” McClure said.
It’s fine with McClure if her PR 1:01.61 in the fly becomes obsolete after only a week.
“I’m hoping to beat that Friday,” McClure said.
And if she can break through the 1-minute barrier, a long-held goal, at the same time instead of waiting until her senior year, she wouldn’t mind that one bit, either.
“For sure,” McClure said. “I’d love to do it on Friday.”