Emporia High junior swimmer Hilary Larson spent most of the offseason not in a pool, but in a weight room.
Though she swam occasionally, she dedicated most of her time to lifting free weights at the gym to build her muscular strength.
The thought was that by replacing offseason pool workouts with muscle-building strength exercises, it would help her once she actually got back in the water.
“I worked hard on dry land,” Larson said, “so hopefully it pays off when I get in the pool. I can already notice a difference.”
If her theory is correct, Larson could have a season to remember for Emporia High.
She’s coming off a season a year ago in which she individually qualified for the State meet in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle races and also swam on the 200-yard freestyle relay team that made it to the season’s final meet.
Her coach, Bob Yevak, said she already “looks as good now as she did at the end of the season last year, if not better,” which gives way to her personal expectations of qualifying for State in every freestyle event — 50, 100, 200 and 500 — and even, as Yevak believes, the 200 individual medley.
“I think Hilary will qualify for State in multiple events,” Yevak said. “She is so much stronger this year. She has put in a lot of time and effort to get better ... and she’ll have a lot more power in her swimming.”
Larson’s quest to be a five-event State qualifier begins in earnest today, as the Emporia High girls swimming and diving team opens its season at home by playing host to the Emporia Invitational.
“I’m very excited,” Larson said. “I’ve been ready for it.”
Other returning State qualifier’s from last season are Caitlin McGuire and Whitney Star, who teamed up with Larson and graduated senior Megan Durbin in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
“I think Whitney and Caitlin will definitely make State consideration times,” Yevak said, “but whether or not they make automatic times is going to be up to them. They are very capable, they just have to go out and do it.”
The diving competition for the EHS Invite began Monday, with freshman Aubrey Armitage participating in her first high school diving competition.
Armitage was the only EHS swimmer to participate in Monday’s event, as her sister, sophomore Alli Armitage, is recovering from a slight shoulder injury while freshman Haley Risley is out with a more severe shoulder injury — one that could keep her out for the season.
“I’m going to have to go scrape the hallways for a diver,” Yevak said. “We’ve got to have three divers, because if you don’t you give up a lot of points at the League meet.”
At last year’s Centennial League meet, it was Alli Armitage who stepped in to fill a diving hole for EHS, as she agreed to begin diving just weeks before and actually ended up scoring points at League to help the EHS girls tie for the team title.
Yevak said he was confident that once Alli gets back from her shoulder injury — he anticipated that being within the next week — that she should have no problem qualifying for the State meet after nearly making it last year.
“We go to Topeka at the end of the month, and she’ll be ready,” Yevak said. “She volunteered to dive last season, and being the athlete that she is, she stepped right in and I think it took her two weeks to get 11 dives, where some kids never get 11 dives in a whole season.”
One thing is certain, and that is that the EHS girls hope to continue the end-of-season success they have experienced recently, as they have either won or tied for the Centennial League title three out of the last four years.
Yevak said this season looked promising, and said that he hoped to qualify as many girls for State as early in the season as possible so that the team could focus on building cardiovascular strength.
“You rest girls more than you taper them,” he said. “Usually, what you get out of girls during the season is what you’ll get at State. The thing is, you can pound and pound and pound on girls in practice, and the next day, they’re ready. They can bounce back better than boys.
“They’ll be ready for the season.”