During their Conference meet two weeks ago, five swimmers broke three school records, including the 200 medley relay (1:36.83), 200 free relay (1:28.01) and 200 individual medley (IM) (1:57.61).
The 200 medley relay team consists of senior and team captain Aiden Rush, juniors Alex Richardson and Kody Livezy and sophomore Caleb Howe. Unsurprisingly, the 200 free is made up of Rush, Richardson, Howe and freshman Ben Duffy. The 200 IM record was set by none other than Richardson. The boys are state-bound this weekend and have high hopes for setting more records.
A few of the medley relay swimmers could hardly believe they had defeated the previous record.
“I think we had a very good chance of doing it, and then we only beat it by a couple hundreths, so it was a cool surprise at Conference to do that,” Livezey said.
Rush was in for a sweet surprise.
“I didn’t even realize we [beat the record], because I was at the end of the relay. I thought we’d missed it, but then everybody else started cheering,” Rush said. “It got super exciting after that.”
Livezey enjoyed an additional victory.
“I was pretty happy. My older brother was part of the record that we broke, so it was pretty cool to beat it,” Livezey said.
Howe noted that pressure from his coaches and the tightness of the medley team motivated him to work hard to set the record.
“I’ve swam with every guy on that relay for a long time,” Howe said. “That’s been our go-to order and people in that relay since the start of the year, so I’ve felt a connection with them to make it better.”
Howe was not only thrilled to have his name on the record board, but for his teammate to live his dream.
“I was extremely excited, especially because we had [Rush] on the relay, and [he] has worked really hard and wanted to be on the record board,” Howe said. “It’s his senior year, so it was a nice thing to do for him.”
During his 200 IM, Richardson told himself that he had “no doubt” he’d beat the record. It certainly shows that he put in the mental effort.
“I was thinking about what my splits needed to be, what my stroke needed to be like, how I’m going to feel during each one of these 50s. I knew that I had no one next to me, so I just needed to swim against the clock, not try to just beat other people, because I know that if I go and just try to beat the other guy, then my time could be slower,” Richardson said.
According to Howe, the 200 free relay team was decided only a day before the Conference meet. Apparently Coach Damuth knows what’s up, as the boys beat the previous record by a nail-biting 0.23 seconds.
Duffy, particularly as the only freshman, was pumped by the news.
“I was very excited, because I wanted to be put in [the 200 free relay],” Duffy said. “I knew we’d do really good with that, especially because we had so many other good swimmers in that relay.”
Rush was ecstatic, especially to realize they beat the record right away this time.
“During the sprint relay, after I completed my portion, I’d say the one thing going through my mind was the adrenaline and cheering for my teammates, and just seeing how close we were [to the previous record] was really exciting,” Rush said.
Despite shattering several standing records, the boys are still hungry for more.
States are this Friday and Saturday at Oakland University in Detroit, and all of the record-breakers have big ambitions.
“I’m hoping to go a 1:55 in the 200 IM, hoping to just crush my own record again. Then, in the relays, I really want to go a 25.5 in my 50 breast, which will drop our 200 medley school record a lot more,” Richardson said. “In the 200 free, I’m hoping to lead off in the 50 free in a 21.3, break the school record in the 50 and then also break the school record in the 200 free all together.”
Rush shares the sentiment.
“I plan on shattering the two records that we got at the Conference meet as well as getting an individual in the 50 free, because that one hasn’t been broken in a long time,” Rush said.
He is only about half a second away from reaping in the record.
Several of the guys noted that both relay teams have a decent shot at being top eight, and the overall state team will hopefully make top fifteen in the state.
“My goals are to get top sixteen in both my individual events and, for our relays, get top eight, which means I’ll make it back for finals,” Howe said. “I think that’d be really cool if I could get to that.”
The swimmers have been working double time to beat the records they set at Conference and are confident in their capabilities.
“We’re all on track to destroy the record again,” Richardson said.
