The pain in Aaron Clark’s left shoulder was so intense, the Emporia High senior could barely stand.
Moments after finishing second in the 100 freestyle at Thursday’s Emporia High Swimming Invitational, Clark slumped into a chair near the pool with a look of agony washed over his face while he gripped his shoulder.
Clark had entered Thursday’s meet having experienced shoulder problems over the past few years, and only recently had it gotten worse.
It hurt badly after he won the 50 freestyle earlier in the meet, but the strain of the 100 free simply was too much for Clark’s shoulder to handle.
The pain, Clark said, was like “a knife stabbing through my shoulder.”
That made his performance all the more impressive. Though he already had qualified for State, he eclipsed the State-qualifying times in both the 50 and 100 free, and even recorded a new personal best in the 50 with a time of 22.82 seconds.
But the concern now is how his shoulder will hold up in the coming weeks. Before Thursday’s meet, Clark already had set up an appointment to get a cortisone shot this coming Monday, but EHS coach Bob Yevak said even more caution would have to be used as to when to get Clark back in the pool.
“I don’t think it’s a thing that’s like, ‘OK, you can’t swim anymore,’” Yevak said. “I’m hoping that the cortisone will take that irritation out of there ... but my goal is to take care of him and not hurt him. Really, the only meets that it is important that he swims is League and State.
“We’re just going to have to wait and see how things pan out with his shoulder.”
Though Clark was pulled from participating in any of his relay events, his performances were enough to help the Spartans finish second as a team behind the winner, Newton, which outscored EHS, 446-354.
“We swam really hard today,” Yevak said. “We’re in great shape right now, we just don’t have any speed, and we won’t for a while. We don’t need it right now.”
While Clark’s win in the 50 free was Emporia’s lone title of the day, there were several impressive performances for the EHS swimmers.
The meet began with the Spartans’ 200 medley relay team of Dillon Suprian, Michael Stauffer, Cord Stanley and Scott Peterson finishing third in a time of 1 minute, 59.51 seconds.
Adam Coburn turned in a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle, touching the wall in times of 2:08.58 and 5:50.58, respectively.
Ryan Schlup cut the most time of any Spartan with his 13th-place finish in the 500 freestyle, chopping nearly 10 seconds off his season-best (6:28.65).
“He’s come from 7:05 to 6:28 in two weeks,” Yevak said. “That’s phenomenal for a kid that doesn’t swim in the offseason. He could be down to around 6:15 by League, and that would be unbelievable.”
Cody Yevak placed fourth in the 100 butterfly (1:06.21), Stauffer finished fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:17.97), Sergio Segura came in fifth in both the 50 free (24.44) and the 100 free (54.13) and the 200 free relay team of Coburn, Peterson, Suprian and Segura placed fifth (1:40.89) to round out the top-5 placers for EHS.
Emporia picked up a pair of sixth-place showings: Peterson in the 200 individual medley (2:32.60) and the 400 freestyle relay squad of Derek Krause, Yevak, Schlup and Andrew Wayman (4:14.54). Suprian also placed eighth in the 100 backstroke (1:08.37).
Emporia High’s next action comes next Wednesday when it travels to the Manhattan Invitational.
Emporia Swimming Invite
Thursday at EHS
Team Scores
1. Newton 446, 2. Emporia 354, 3. Seaman 337, 4. Blue Valley 317.5, 5. Topeka High 282, 6. Hayden 240, 7. Campus 120, 8. Parsons 5.5.
EHS Individual Results
200 Medley
3. Emporia “A” (Suprian, Stauffer, Stanley, Peterson) 1:59.51
200 Freestyle
4. Adam Coburn 2:08.58
7. Cody Yevak 2:18.29
8. Andrew Wayman 2:18.45
200 Individual Medley
6. Scott Peterson 2:32.60
9. Michael Stauffer 2:44.69
14. Larkin Bennett 2:53.66
50 Freestyle
1. Aaron Clark 22.82
5. Sergio Segura 24.44
10. Cord Stanley 26.15
100 Butterfly
4. Cody Yevak 1:06.21
8. Cord Stanley 1:15.54
100 Freestyle
2. Aaron Clark 50.55
5. Sergio Segura 54.13
9. Dillon Suprian 57.69
500 Freestyle
4. Adam Coburn 5:50.58
12. Andrew Wayman 6:25.61
13. Ryan Schlup 6:28.65
200 Freestyle Relay
5. Emporia “A”
(Coburn, Peterson, Suprian, Segura) 1:40.89
12. Emporia “B”
(Hudson, Morey, Hrabik, Yevak) 1:58.67
13. Emporia “C”
(Brummett, Johnson, Krause, Stone) 2:04.40
100 Backstroke
8. Dillon Suprian 1:08.37
13. Cody Muckenthaler 1:18.60
15. Dustin Loewen 1:25.28
100 Backstroke
5. Michael Stauffer 1:17.97
6. Scott Peterson 1:18.22
11. Larkin Bennett 1:23.04
400 Freestyle Relay
6. Emporia “B” (Krause, Yevak, Schlup, Wayman) 4:14.54
14. Emporia “C” (Hrabik, Johnson, Brummett, Stone) 5:16.45