Swimmers don’t mind hard work, but they like routine.
As the Seymour boys swimming and diving team prepared for this week’s sectional at Floyd Central, they followed a closely prescribed workout and rest plan.
Then it snowed. Then school was interrupted. Now, it is supposed to snow again. Over the entirety of the 2020-21 season, everything was subject to twists and change because of the COVID-19 pandemic, like having home meets in an empty house with no fans allowed.
Now, the Owls will wake up today not even 100% sure they will have preliminaries, scheduled for 6 p.m. Or if they will have prelims Friday. Or if they will have prelims and finals back-to-back Saturday. Talk about treading water.
That was after missing a couple of days of calibrated practices early in the week.
“I would like to get back in the pool,” said junior Clayton Greenawalt, who was fidgety enough for exercise he counted shoveling snow as a worthwhile endeavor Tuesday.
It is not about extra mileage or fast workouts right now, but swimmers talk about having a “feel for the water.” Greenawalt was almost desperate enough to count a bathtub swim as a lap.
“I’m not sure how the flip turns would be,” Greenawalt joked.
Sectional is the first step to the state meet Feb. 26 and 27 in Indianapolis. Athletes must win their sectional or post a qualifying time. It marks the culmination of a long season of dual meets with the most important contests of the year.
Coach Dave Boggs’ program is designed so the body is in peak form for sectional, for swimmers to record personal best times in this meet. Whether they are elite swimmers hoping for a state meet shot or they are less-experienced swimmers, everyone has his eyes on the clock.
Asked which Owls might shoot for lifetime bests, Boggs said, “I’m excited for them all. Everybody wants to drop time. If they establish lifetime bests, I’ll walk away happy.”
Smaller meets against other teams count on the scoreboard, but Seymour does not consider those events major showdowns, but uses them as a gauge of fitness.
“We swim through the season, but we train through them,” Boggs said. “We only care about sectional and state. We’re peaking for this weekend.”
Tapering to a fine point with a background of high mileage puts the swimmers in prime position when they go head to head against other top swimmers who have followed similar training methods. The results are generally the fastest of the fast.
Four Owls have earned top-four seeds in individual events. Besides Greenawalt, senior Bryce Miller, sophomore Paul Montgomery and freshman Pedro Cerino are viewed as the most likely prospects to advance beyond sectional.
Cerino has had a first-rate debut high school season with solid times in several events, including the 100 butterfly, and he has turned in top relay legs. Seymour’s 200-yard freestyle relay team is seeded No. 1, and the 400-yard free relay is seeded No. 2, just a half-second behind No. 1. The swimmers are looking for the thrill of victory in those events.
“We are hoping to get to state in that,” Montgomery said of the 400 relay.
Montgomery was more of a long-distance swimmer before this year, but now, his top two events are the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
“The 100 free is definitely my favorite event,” he said. “Last year, I was not swimming those events. I did the 500. It’s a pain to swim that every single meet.”
When you swim every day and suddenly get unplanned days off due to a storm, it seems weird.
“It’s not the best week for it,” Montgomery said. “It’s important to keep getting some exercise. I’m just really excited to get in the pool again.”
Is there such thing as too much rest? Boggs doesn’t think his guys should be psyched out because of the extra days sidelined.
“The resting and extra couple of days off are not going to hurt them,” Boggs said. “But they want that feel for the water.”
Greenawalt felt he had calories to burn, even if snow shoveling will not be a sanctioned event alongside his 200 and 500 freestyles.
“I had to do something,” he said. “I’m feeling well-rested. I definitely feel I can perform well.”
For him, that would be in the 1:58 range for the 200 and going under his current personal best of 5:25-ish in the 500.
“This is a pretty good meet to cut seconds in those long distances,” Greenawalt said.
Montgomery is after a 51-second 100 free and perhaps a 1:02 in the backstroke with the dream of cracking a minute.
The shorter the event, the more precious are tenths and hundreds of seconds of improvement. Miller sprints the 50 and 100 and knows all about that. A main goal this season was dipping under 50 seconds in the 100, and he did that, clocking 49.44 seconds.
“I’m hoping sub-48.5,” Miller said of sectional. Or maybe a little quicker, such as breaking the school mark of 47.78 seconds. “It is still a goal. I still think I can get it.”
The big-meet atmosphere with big stakes on the line makes for a special environment to shine, a showcase opportunity for those relay teams.
“We’d be very, very happy to win,” Miller said. “It would be very exciting. This is really a fun meet to swim at. You get to see the outcome of all the work you put in.”
As long as the Owls can get out of the bathtub and dodge the snowflakes.