The Culture Endures

The culture doesn’t.

 

Such is the nature of Collegiate swimming and diving.

 

It’s been that way for years. If it’s up to program leader and head coach Mike Peters and the practitioners of the sport past and present, it will remain that way forever.

 

“We support each other,” said Charlie Mayr, a senior, five-season varsity veteran, and Notre Dame commit. “The youngest members of the team support the seniors who have swum for five years, and the older swimmers support the younger ones. We help each other out.”

 

That mutual encouragement and admiration and the one-for-all, all-for-one spirit paid dividends yet again in the League of Independent Schools and Prep League championship meets, contested Feb. 3 at the Kenny Center at St. Catherine’s.

 

Collegiate’s girls team, the odds-on favorite, generated 540 points and won the LIS for the third consecutive year. St. Catherine’s placed second (487) followed by Trinity Episcopal (288), Norfolk Academy (274), St. Anne’s-Belfield (210), St Gertrude (127), Veritas (77), and St. Margaret’s (22).

 

The Cougars won 10 events. Each victorious swimmer (and numerous others, for that matter) eclipsed her seed time.

 

Sophomore Emory DeGuenther accounted for 40 points and earned Swimmer of the Meet honors. She won the 100 butterfly (55.79) and 500 freestyle (4:57.39) and swam legs of the victorious 200 medley relay (with Bella Little, Savannah Harris, and Maddie Jewett, 1:46.22) and 400 freestyle relay (with Valentina Linkonis, Jasper Jones, and Elizabeth Cribbs, 3:32.41).

 

Jones won the 200 freestyle (1:57.04), Linkonis the 100 freestyle (53.26), Little the 100 backstroke (57.71), and Harris the 100 breaststroke (1:07.16). Linkonis, Amelia Chen, Little, and Jones teamed to capture the 200 freestyle relay in 1:36.93.

 

“The girls’ performances were very impressive,” said Peters, the LIS coach of the year.  “We had girls swim above seed. We had girls who dropped a ton of time. They don’t take anything for granted. They’re not rolling out their hats and saying, ‘We’re the higher seed. We’re going to win.’ They attacked that meet like they were the underdogs.”

 

Collegiate’s boys team, 12 swimmers strong, placed third with 339 points behind St. Christopher’s (483) and Trinity Episcopal (360) and ahead of Norfolk Academy (322), Fork Union (191), Woodberry Forest (181), and St. Anne’s-Belfield (167).

 

Mayr and J.D. Chen scored 40 points each and shared Swimmer of the Meet honors with Patrick Puzon of Trinity.

 

Mayr won the 200 individual medley (1:55.23) and 500 freestyle (4:35.11). Chen completed a rare double by winning both the 1-meter diving event (355.45) and the 100 breaststroke (58.48). Both outperformed the performance list, as did many of their teammates.

 

“It’s definitely been tough with just 12 guys, but we’ve emphasized the fact that we’re small but mighty,” said Mayr. “We might not have 20 or 30 guys like some teams do, but we have fast guys that are there to work every single day. This season has built up very nicely. We’re ready to go to states (Feb. 16 and 17 in Christiansburg).”

 

While Mayr takes satisfaction in his career accomplishments for which he has earned numerous personal accolades, he considers Collegiate swimming all about team.

 

“We have a ton of seniors this year,” he said. “We’ve been to [championship] meets before and know what they’re all about. It’s showing the young guys that if they make mistakes or have some funny swims, they need to prepare themselves better mentally, take care of themselves through the practice regimen, and attack a race better.

 

“Personally, I want to repeat as [state] 500 free champion and score as high as I can in the 200 IM and place as high as we can in the two relays I do (200 medley, 200 free), but it’s very much the team aspect, doing it for team points, doing it for the relays, doing it to be the best leader I can be.”

 

While Collegiate swimming is about collegiality among teammates, it’s also very much about traditions. In fact, those traditions have inspired collegiality among current teammates as well as among swimmers of the past.

 

“The girls have a really cheap piñata called Shayna that they take around,” Peters said. “They don’t know who it’s named after. They bring it to every meet and pass it down every year.”

 

Whether this “mascot” purchased on a whim at Target long ago has had any effect on the Cougars’ success over the years is unknown, but it’s been a fun part of the swim and dive experience. And, for the record, it’s named after Shayna Cooke, the wife of Upper School history teacher Brad Cooke and a former Collegiate swimming coach, who, by the way, still finds joy in the fact that the piñata bears her name.

 

There’s more…

 

“They [the boys and girls teams] have their meetings [before competitions],” Peters added. “I’m not involved with that. I have my own meeting before that’s logistical and goal oriented. They do things that are specific and unique to them, but it’s the same meeting that’s been going on for years. It’s passed on down.

 

“And when the girls finish the 400 free relay and their meet is done, they don’t leave the deck. They’re in their tech suits that are extremely tight and uncomfortable. They want to get into comfortable clothing as quickly as possible, but they know they’re going to be out there for the two heats of the boys [400 free] relay and cheer as loudly as they did for their own team.

 

“Swimming is a little different now. Tech suits make kids swim faster now, but the atmosphere at meets and what the kids bring to the meets doesn’t really change at all.”

~Weldon Bradshaw