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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Tradition Continues
Central Kansas, KS
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By: Kim D. Kimbro
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Photo(s) By: A.M. Thomas
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The Wichita Swim Club consistently has churned out nationally-competitive swimmers since its inception in 1954
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Lisa’s specialty is the butterfly, which fits her personality since it is the most difficult (stroke) to do, Nelson says. It helps out that she is strong in body, mind, and spirit – which enables her to do the stroke effectively. She is a national level swimmer in the butterfly and has won at the sectional level of club swimming.
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If a little boy grows up peeping through a knothole in a green-painted fence with dreams of someday hitting a walk-off home run to win the World Series, and a little girl visualizes sinking a half-court shot at the buzzer to win an NCAA Championship for the Tennessee Vols – what drives the hundreds of swimmers that knife through the waters at swim clubs across the country year after year?
It is those five colored rings that signify the highest level of athletic competition. It is the chance to represent the United States of America at the Olympic Games that motivates swimmers everywhere in America. Right here at home, the Wichita Swim Club has kept Olympic dream alive in young, up-and-coming swimmers.
Competing on the national and international levels is where the bar is set for members of the club, but Eric Nelson, head coach and general manager at WSC, knows the reality of the situation. No matter where you’re from, very few swimmers ever make it to that level.
But it’s the idea of the Olympics, the possibility of earning a spot on the Games’ prestigious stage, that fuels swimmers. The 5 a.m. awakenings, the countless laps completed before most have eaten breakfast, the sore, bulging traps while getting dressed for school – it’s worth it, because there’s a worldwide competition open to anyone constituted with the talent and work ethic necessary to qualify.
Nelson’s favorite swim event in the world, however, is the precursor to the Olympic Games. For Nelson, who came up in the Wichita Swim Club in the late ’80s before starting to coach there in 1991, the event marked by the highest level of competition and beholden of the most drama for the American swim community is the U.S. Olympic Trials.
“The Olympics is kind of a galvanizing thing in swimming,” Nelson says. “Very few people make the Olympics and not that many people make the Olympic Trials. To be honest with you, the Olympic Trials is a better meet than the Olympics themselves. Only two from each country go to the Olympics and there is a lot of hype that goes with that, but the Olympic Trials is great because of the drama that goes into making the United States team.
“It is amazing. It is an elite meet, too, because the time standards to get into the meet are fast. That meet holds a pretty high level of prestige.”
Two of Nelson’s youngest and brightest swimming stars at the club, Lisa Lunkenheimer and Ryan Sellers, have set a berth in the Trials as their goal.
Lunkenheimer, a senior at Derby High, started training at the Wichita Swim Club at nine years old. A glance at the club’s record book shows that Lunkenheimer has etched her name on some top marks at each age group in which she has competed. Her best event is the butterfly stroke, and Nelson says that is probably not by mistake.
“Lisa’s specialty is the butterfly, which fits her personality since it is the most difficult (stroke) to do,” he says. “It helps out that she is strong in body, mind, and spirit –
which enables her to do the stroke effectively. She is a national level swimmer in the butterfly and has won at the sectional level of club swimming.”
Lunkenheimer defended her title in the 200 yard butterfly in late February at the USA Swimming Region VIII Sectional Championship held in Columbia, Mo. She is also the defending KSHSAA state champion in the 100 yard butterfly and the 200 yard freestyle as a competitor for Derby. She is a busy girl.
“It takes a lot of time. We get the month of August off and usually spring break,” Lunkenheimer says of her full schedule as a swimmer. “The level that I am at now – we practice two times a day with Wednesdays and Sundays off during the summer. Now, we go every day after school and some mornings during the school year.”
She credits the Wichita Swim Club atmosphere for keeping her on top of her training and preserving her from any concerns of burnout.
“I have been swimming with the same people ever since I was nine and we are kind of like family and we keep it fun,” she says. “The coaches try to push all of us to do our best, and our peers are going through the same thing. We all encourage each other when it gets tough.”
The work has paid off for Lunkenheimer, as she will attend college on a swimming scholarship. She has signed a national letter of intent to swim for the University of Arkansas following the completion of her prep career.
Razorback coach Jeff Poppell is excited about what Lunkenheimer will bring to the program. “Over the past year, Lisa has established herself as one of the top butterfly swimmers in the Midwest,” says Poppell. “She continues to improve her versatility and will be able to help provide depth in the middle distance freestyle events.”
Before moving up to the collegiate level, Lunkenheimer will compete once more in a Grand Prix club event, which has been her favorite during her time competing at WSC. The reputable event will be hosted by Stanford University in Palo Alto in early April this year.
“We have been to a couple of Grand Prix meets where a lot of Olympic hopefuls compete,” she said. “My goal right now is to get to the Olympic Trials cut mark which I am less than a second away from in the 100 and 200 butterfly.”
The time standard for women in the 100 is 1:02.39 and is 2:16.69 in the 200, and Lunkenheimer knows that the Trials begin on June 29 in Omaha, Neb.
Ryan Sellers got his start at the club a little earlier than Lunkenheimer. He was one of those younger brothers who started tagging along to swim practice at the early age of four.
Sellers attends Valley Center High, which doesn’t have a swim program, but he has participated on the golf team the last two years. He sees both some advantages and disadvantages in not having a high school swimming program.
“For the purpose of practicing and preparation, it is better (at the swim club),” says Sellers. “But it is not as good as far as a social life. I guess the high school kids with teams know what that is like – and I don’t, since I really haven’t had that experience.”
Sellers, a junior at Valley Center, sacrificed teammates and the fun and pride that comes with competing for a high school team. He also opted to give up golf this spring to hone in on swimming. Sellers spends his mornings and afternoons chasing his own Olympic dream.
“Right now I am shooting for the Olympic Trials which are this year,” says Sellers. “That is kind of the reason that I took off from golf this year, because I’m really trying to focus on swimming. The events that I have a chance in are the 100 and 200 backstroke. I still have quite a few more chances to get the time I need to qualify.”
Sellers has been dominate at the club level and currently holds 12 of 17 top marks among club members at this time. He will likely sign with an NCAA Division I swim program after he completes his prep eligibility next year.
Due to the fact that he does not participate in high school competition, Sellers’ status as one of the top swimmers in the state remains obscure. Nelson is well aware of this, and it adds to his admiration for Sellers’ willingness to compete on a daily basis.
“(Sanctioned high school sports) certainly get a lot of recognition from the media, school and friends,” says Nelson. “If you are having success in high school, there are a lot of pats on the back.
“For someone like Ryan who doesn’t get that, he has to be more self-driven and internally-charged to get the most out of it. He also sees that his times in many cases would have won a lot of high school meets.”
On Nelson’s watch, the Wichita Swim Club has produced one Olympian, Caroline Bruce in 2004, and one Paralympian, Jarrett Perry, a gold medalist the same year. Nelson began coaching at the Wichita Swim Club in 1991 and moved into his current position as head coach and general manager in 1997.
For the past 11 years, Nelson has been the driving force behind the club, started in 1954 by Bob Timmons. Timmons, a track coach at Wichita East High before taking over the Kansas University track and cross country programs in 1966, established the swim club’s prestigious tradition which Nelson has continued. In addition to coaching legendary miler Jim Ryun at East and KU, Timmons trained two-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Jeff Farrell in the early years of the club.
The most notable recent alumnus of the Wichita Swim Club is Bruce, who now attends Stanford University. Bruce, a graduate of Trinity Academy in Wichita, finished ninth in the 200 breaststroke at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and is alreadya two-time NCAA champ and nine-time All-American as a junior at Stanford.
But alongside the perennial success enjoyed by competitors at the Wichita Swim Club is an overriding sense of community cultivated by Nelson and his staff.
“That is a vital part of what we do as a club,” says Nelson. “To make it fun while making it a worthwhile venture is our goal. As a swimmer, it is important – the friends that you make and the good times that you get out of it. That is what you hope for when someone gets to be in high school, like Lisa and Ryan – is that they’ve been able to take it all in and get the family atmosphere out of it.”
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A collection of this month's best action photos.
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