Kyle Ediger surprised himself — and now, he’s kicking himself.
The Emporia State University student took part in the U.S. Masters Swim Meet for the Missouri Valley region earlier this month thinking he’d qualify for the national meet in Gresham, Ore. Kyle didn’t plan on going to Gresham, though, and he hadn’t budgeted to make the trip to the Pacific Northwest. If he barely qualified, as he expected to do, he figured the trip wasn’t worth it.
“I thought I’d maybe just qualify by a little bit,” he said. “If I’m gonna make a big trip out somewhere, I’m gonna need to be competitive.”
Instead of treading water at the regional meet in Lenexa, Ediger qualified in spectacular fashion, winning the 50, 100, 200 and 400 freestyle races for the 25-29 age group. His top times in the 100 and 400 now have him ranked sixth place nationally in his age group, and he’s ranked seventh in the 200.
Yet thanks to the cost of the trip, he still won’t be in Gresham as the U.S. Masters Long Course National Championships begin there today.
“I commented to my dad that if I would’ve known (how well I would do), I would’ve bought my plane ticket to Oregon a long time ago,” he said. “But there’s no real way that I could’ve known that, because I train by myself, I coach myself.”
The Junction City native, 26, is entering his first semester at ESU as he tries to finish his degree in recreation. He moved to Emporia this summer and became a manager at the Jones Aquatics Center and a coach of the Emporia Aquatics Club.
Ediger only began swimming competitively 10 years ago, when a serious knee injury kept him from trying out that year for the Junction City High School basketball team. He went out for the swim team to rehab his knee and quickly took to the water, enjoying what his father, Mark, called a reasonable amount of success as a high school swimmer.
Out of college, he attended the University of Kansas and was a member of KU’s last men’s swimming team before the university eliminated the program in 2001. He transferred to Truman State University, but his collegiate swimming career ended when he blew out his anterior cruciate ligament during dry-land practice in 2002. It wasn’t until last August that he began seriously swimming again.
Kyle describes himself as a very competitive person, and Mark Ediger agrees. Mark said he never saw any doubt in Kyle’s mind that he’d make it back from the second knee injury.
“If you played the game Risk with him, or if you run with him, or if you swim, whatever you do, he is a competitive guy,” Mark Ediger said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
That fire is what’s going to make it tough for Kyle as he follows the results of this year’s national meet online. He wants to win at nationals someday, and he’s already planning to make next year’s shorter trip to the national meet in Indianapolis. But over the next few days, he faces the prospect of seeing first-place results on his computer screen from competitors he could’ve beaten.
“It would be definitely difficult,” he said, “to see slower winning times. But it’s not in the cards this summer.
“Next summer, I’ll go out and get ’em.”
LCoverdale (anonymous) says...
We are so proud to read this article about Kyle! My husband and I knew Kyle and his family when we lived in Junction City.I hope that he will continue in his swimming endeavors because he obviously has a natural talent that's just waiting to be released - go for it Kyle! I emailed this article to his swim coach in Manhattan,KS!
August 15, 2008 at 1:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jc79 (anonymous) says...
I had the honor of coaching Kyle from the beginning of his HS career continuing until he left for KU. The improvement he made was nothing short of spectacular. He was extremely coachable and worked as hard as anyone I ever coached. Nothing he has done has surprised me. I have no doubt he will make a big splash on the National Masters level. Way to go Kyle.
August 15, 2008 at 10:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )