EHS swimmers, diver thinking big heading into State meet
State meet begins Friday in Topeka
By Michael Ashford
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Emporia High boys swimming and diving coach Bob Yevak believes the contingent of athletes he will take to Topeka for the State meet on Friday and Saturday are more than ready to compete.
How does he know?
He can hardly control them.
“They’re a pain in the butt in practice right now,” Yevak said with a laugh. “I think they feel pretty good right now. They have the energy, and none of them have been complaining about being tired. I think we’re on.”
The athletes who will represent Emporia High might be small in numbers, but that hasn’t stopped them from thinking big when it comes to just how well they will fare at the State meet, which begins at 1 p.m. on Friday and runs through Saturday.
Take, for instance, sophomore diver Derek Krause.
After finishing 21st at State a year ago as a freshman, Krause expects his second time through to go more smoothly.
So smoothly, in fact, that he has his sights set on reaching some pretty lofty goals.
“To get into the top five is definitely a goal,” he said, “and maybe break the school record I set earlier this year. I’d like to score over 400. I probably won’t, but you never know.”
Krause’s school record in the 11-dive competition is 390, which he set at the EHS pool on Jan. 26. Since then, Krause has been as steady as ever in taking second in the dive competition at the Manhattan Invitational before winning the Centennial League title a week ago.
With as well as Krause has been diving this season, Yevak said he expected a strong showing in Topeka.
“I think Derek’s got a shot to finish in the top eight,” Yevak said. “He’s so on right now.”
The rest of Emporia’s delegation to the State meet are swimmers, headlined by senior freestyler Aaron Clark.
Clark will compete in the 50 and 100 freestyle events. He enters the meet seeded eighth in the 50 and sixth in the 100, making him one of the favorites to advance to Saturday’s medal swims, which begins at 12:30 p.m.
“He should, in my opinion, be in the finals in both events,” Yevak said.
Clark also will be a part of two relay squads that will make the trip: the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
In the 200 relay, Clark will team with Sergio Segura, Dillon Suprian and Scott Peterson. The quartet enters as the 18th seed, meaning it will have some work to do to earn a second swim on Saturday.
“There are six teams that are all right there,” Yevak said, “so if we swim good — and I think we will — we should have a good chance of getting that relay in.”
The knowledge that it might take everyone’s best effort of the season coming together at once to advance had some of the EHS swimmers slightly on edge.
“I think everybody’s still a little bit nervous because it’s such a big meet,” Peterson said, “but I think we’re all ready. Hopefully, we all cut time and we’ll all be faster.”
As for the 400 team of Clark, Segura, Peterson and Adam Coburn, the odds are quite a bit longer to make it past the first day. Emporia’s 400 free relay team is seeded 27th, making the task of achieving a top-16 time to earn a second swim particularly daunting.
“We’re trying to do it with high school swimmers against all club kids on other teams,” Yevak said. “But we could do it. We’d need to drop about 3 seconds off our time, and we dropped 7 last year, so we could do it.”