State Swim Narrative

CHAMPION’S STORY Kevin Glenn reporter

Senior swimmer gives first person account of boys State Championship Three-peat

“When I heard the Spotlight Staff was brainstorming a first-person account of state swim, I was hesitant. I swim for BV West to help the team and my school. Swimming for personal recognition is not what I’m about. Anyone who knows me, knows I try not to draw attention to myself. I hope this narrative gives credit to my teammates, they deserve it.” -Kevin

The week of the state meet our practices were a bit shorter and easier. Swim workouts progressively get harder throughout the season and then get easier toward the end, so we aren’t tired or sore for big meets like State. Swimmers always look forward to this time we call taper. We feel strong and rested. I could tell by how much all of the guys were laughing the night before at senior Sam Pankratz’s house that they felt good. The morning of the meet, we had to go to our classes. Needless to say, it was hard to concentrate. I knew I needed to have some food, so I’d have enough energy for my races but it’s hard to eat on race days. We met at the school vans around 1 p.m. With so many guys qualifying, we needed three vans to get everyone to the pool. The Team Mom, Marty Sinclair, met us at the vans with snacks, drinks and balloons. (She’s the best!) For the first time since _____ state swim was not in Topeka, Kan. We only had to travel about 20 minutes to the new Shawnee Mission natatorium in Lenexa. A few of the guys are on my club team, the Kansas City Blazers; we’ve been practicing there when we can, so we were familiar. I still got a little nervous walking in. Even with the new “COVID-19” format, no finals and no spectators, it was still State. Each team was assigned a place in the stands. We sat right in front of Shawnee Mission South, behind our coaches. We had a great view. We put on our warm-up suits, most wore Speedos, and jumped in. Most of us swam about 1100 yards. Everybody swam some freestyle, besides that, guys practiced the strokes they’d qualified in, as well as starts and turns. Once we got out, it was time to suit up. Swimmers have lots of suits, but most have a racing suit that they feel helps them swim faster. I wore my new Mizuno. It was pretty tight, looks a lot like boxer briefs, and took almost 15 minutes to get on. The first event was the 200-medley relay. Each school can have one group of four guys with each doing a different stroke. We were in the final heat of three; it was considered the fastest and we were seeded first. (We were supposed to win.) While we thought we could win, we also knew we had a shot at the state record. Sophomore Grayson Moyer went first doing the backstroke. He had to be nervous-only three seniors wanting the record were behind him. Moyer was great and did what he had to do to keep us in the race. Senior Ethan Evans was next doing the breaststroke and took the lead in the first 25 yards of his 50-yard swim. I was next doing the butterfly. My fly felt great in practice all week and even better that night. When I touched the wall, our lead was expanded. Pankratz was our last swimmer. It was clear that we’d probably win. The record? It was going to be close. Pankratz popped off a great swim. 1:34.02 ! 1st Place. State Champs. State Record. School Record. All-American Consideration. What an amazing feeling! Our team went nuts. (BV West was winning this meet.) Next up was the 200 freestyle. Moyer and Pankratz were up again. Moyer got 13th; a good swim considering he just did the relay. Senior Hunter Rey swam a respectable 1:45.31 to get 7th but Pankratz was still full of adrenaline from the relay and dropped more than three seconds to get 4th with a 1:44.53. Nice! The 200 Individual Medley was next. Instead of four swimmers each doing one stroke, one swimmer had to do all four. Three of us were in the race. I was seeded first but my time was not fast, I really wanted to have a good swim. Sophomore Jack Schreiber swam in the first heat and swam a best time by more than a second. Senior Sam Foster swam in the second heat and got 11th overall. I knew the two Shawnee Mission East guys next to me from Blazers, I really wanted to beat those guys but also the two guys from Olathe East. If any team was going to beat us for the team title, it would have been OE. “Swimmers take your mark.” Beep. I was out in the fly almost as fast as on the relay. My goal was to get a good lead. The backstroke was next. I wanted to put a lot of water between me and the rest of the field. When I flipped onto my stomach for the breast, I could see the other swimmers still doing backstroke. That pumped me up to really press it. Once I hit the wall for the freestyle, I just let my legs take over. Coaches always say, “kick to win” and that is what I was doing. When I was done, I’d dropped more than four seconds to go a 1:52.48. That was a good one! I lowered the school record in the event. I knew Coach Sample was proud. The coach of the winning swimmer gets to give out all of the medals. What a great feeling to get that handshake.

While I was cooling down by swimming a few laps in an adjacent pool, the 50 freestyle was going on. Everybody loves that race; it’s just never been my favorite. Clearly it was good for Evans who was close to our school record with his 3rd place 21.39 swim. A Google search shows that he got 3rd in Alaska at their State last year. Boy’s fast. The next swimming event was the 100 Butterfly. Even though Rey has our school record, he already swam the 200 free and had the 100-freestyle right after the fly so it was up to junior Aidan White to get us some points. After waiting the whole day to race, he was ready. White won the “B” heat and went so fast that his time put him above three other guys in the “A” final to get 5th. Nice! Unfortunately, the final round of diving took place after the 50 free and OE had two guys in the top three. They also had a kid win the fly. They were ahead. Some guys were starting to worry about our three-peat. I remained confident. I just kept saying, “look at the heat sheet.” OE may have been up for a little while, but we had some power coming up. Rey’s time to shine had arrived, the 100 freestyle. He already had the BV West school record by beating the time of one of my older brother’s friend’s time from 2011. He got a best time and almost won the race by going a 45.84 to get 2nd. Great swim. Up next was the 500 freestyle. Our training was some of the best but so was OE’s. We had two great guys in the event and so did they. Their top distance guy, junior Keaton Kristoff, took off like a rocket. All of our team thought for sure, the kid would “die.” He did not. He just kept going faster and faster. We were shocked. The kid went a 4:39.47-really impressive. Almost as impressive as White. He was seeded 6th, dropped more than seven seconds and got 3rd-another podium swim! Our team went nuts. Foster was seeded 1st but got 6th. Unfortunately, OE scored 29 points from the event and so did we, they were still ahead. The 200-freestyle relay was next with White, Foster, Rey and sophomore Sean Willer. The guys swam a season best of 1:29.45 but got 3rd. It’s tough to get medals from a coach from a different school. Making matters worse, OE extended their lead over us by six more points. Dudes were getting worried. My response? “Look at the heat sheet.” BV West had the three fastest times in the state in the 100 backstroke. OE? ZERO swimmers. 0! I planned to win, thought Pankratz would get second after seeing him do some impressive work in practice, and knew Moyer, even as a sophomore, had the talent to get third. We all waited in the “ready room” for the final heat. We walked out together. Moyer in lane five, Pankratz in lane three and me in the middle. When the starter gave the signal, we all jumped in the water, planted our feet, grabbed the starting block and waited. “Swimmers take your mark.” We all lifted ourselves up to our starting positions. Beep. I could see Pankratz out of the corner of my eye. What a great arch! I knew I needed to have great underwaters. I dolphin kicked for as long as I could without breathing or getting disqualified. Damn, I timed the turn wrong. I swam hard. Damn, I timed the second turn wrong. I really worked my underwater dolphin kicks. Damn, I missed the final wall. I kept my head back and swam toward the finish. Boom. The clock read 49.54. New best time. New State and school record. All-American consideration time. I was right, Pankratz hit next followed by Moyer. We scored 53 points. Olathe East? Zero. BV West back on top. Let’s goooo! The Jags weren’t done yet. Two events to go. We had three swimmers entered, OEt just one. Our guys blew us away. Schreiber dropped time and moved up to 13th. Sophomore Eric Sinclair was supposed to get 16th but swam up to 9th by dropping more than two seconds. Evans brought it home. He was seeded 4th but stunned the field by winning the event. What a night! We were all so pumped; we could feel it. The last event was the 400-freestyle relay. Our team of four seniors, Rey, Pankratz, Evans and I, were seeded first and all of us wanted it. A lot. Rey was first and held his own against the strong field. Pankratz was next and swam a 47.25-nice. Evans, straight off of his 100-breaststroke win, went a terrific 48.45. Once Evans tagged the wall, I shot off of the blocks. I didn’t think we could get the record but wanted to put as much time as possible between us and the other teams. I swam the fastest 100 freestyle split of my life with a 45.46. We won. The race. And the meet by 79 points. Winning our third State Championship felt like a win. In 2019 we beat BV North by 2.5 points. Last year we beat Olathe East by just 1 point. I knew we could win by a lot, I hoped maybe even by 100, but we had a few swims that didn’t quite go the way we wanted. In all honesty, that’s OK. Fighting for the win made it that much sweeter. I can’t thank the team enough for all of the great meets, State Championships and fun. Seriously, you guys are the best. Thanks also to Coach Sample, Coach Rowlen and Coach Stack. They put up with my unique training; not a lot of coaches would have believed in me like that.

Last thing. Can we get a reasonably sized ring this year?