Baylor Aside, McCallie Swimming Points Toward State

Last Friday afternoon, January 23, saw the McCallie swimming program celebrate its four departing seniors prior to its meet with Baylor inside the Student Activities Center.

Well, it celebrated three of them in person: diver Jackson Barger and swimmers Ryan Ellis and Grant Goins. Fellow senior swimmer Ocean Gorecki was battling a flu bug so severe he missed the ceremony and the meet.

“I’m just incredibly proud of all of them,” said first-year head coach Zane Hamilton, who took over for Stan Corcoran after 37 years, though Corcoran still works with the program. “Those seniors have been out here every day since August, working out on Saturdays, holidays, providing wonderful leadership for our younger swimmers. They’ve made it an incredibly successful year, and we still have the state meet in Nashville the first weekend in February.”

Thanks in part to Gorecki’s absence and Goins attempting to swim on one good leg due to a lower leg injury, the Baylor meet did not go exactly as planned for the three-time defending state champs. Baylor prevailed 186-124. McCallie did win two of three relays, and junior Collin Holgerson won two events, setting a pool and school record in the 100 breaststroke. 

But to return to Hamilton’s quotes about senior leadership, consider the words of Ellis as he prepared to enter the pool for the final time representing the Blue Tornado against the Red Raiders.

“I’ve been swimming for McCallie for seven years,” he said. “I’ve been swimming with Stan since I was two years old. It’s crazy. I haven’t really processed that yet, and now it’s almost over.”

Swimming isn’t like most sports, which are seasonal. Swimming goes on almost all year, every day.

“Our guys swim five days a week during school, lift weights four mornings a week, and also swim on Saturdays,” Hamilton said. “That’s 10 practices a week. It requires tremendous dedication to be good at this.”

Ellis added up the hours in his head. “I’m probably in the pool close to 15 hours a week, 52 weeks a year,” he said. Do the math, and that adds up to 780 hours a year in the pool.

Of course, the fruits of all that labor hang on banners in the SAC, where, as Ellis quickly pointed out, “We’ve won a state title every year (three) I’ve been in high school.”

However this season ends at the state meet at Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville on February 6 and 7, Ellis will take his aquatic talents to Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, next season.

But first there is that state meet, where a healthier Goins and Gorecki will both be available to make a run at a fourth state crown.