By Ken Barhorst
Sidney Daily News
There hasn’t been a swimmer from the Sidney-Shelby County YMCA qualify for the YMCA Nationals since 2008.
But that all changed earlier this year when Sidney’s Chase VanTilburgh qualified in the 50-meter freestyle at the Division 1 high school district meet back on Feb. 17 and 18 at Miami University.
The time he needed to make it to nationals was a 22.09, and he swam a 21.96 in finishing 11th in the district 50 meters.
He left Tuesday for the YMCA Short Course National Championships. The meet began on Monday in Greensboro, N.C., but VanTilburgh’s event isn’t until Thursday.
“The goal is for him to bring down that 21.96,” said Jannides. “That’s his best time ever.”
He will definitely face some intense competition.
“When you go down there, there will be 25 heats in the 50 free, and the one that he will be in will have a hundreth of a second difference among the ten swimmers,” Jannides said. “If he make makes the time he qualified with, or betters it, I will be happy.”
She said VanTilburgh is a hard worker, but has really had to step up his workouts the past two weeks.
“He didn’t know how hard workouts could be until the last two weeks,” said Jannides. “He has improved his 50-free time immensely in the two weeks, but it’s all a matter of technique and keeping his endurance up.
“We start the second week of February with the high school sectionals, then district and state,” she continued. “He didn’t make it to state, so that gave us an extra week before the YMCA took over. So it’s been a hard grind. I taper him for the district, then have to bring him back up for nationals.”
VanTilburgh, still only a junior, will be just one of 3,000 swimmers and divers at the nationals. And from the Southwest District, Jannides said most high school swimmers also swim YMCA. “So we will have one of the largest contingents at the nationals,” she said.
The local Y has had some outstanding swimmers go to the nationals, including Paul Miller and Derick Roe.
“Not too many have have made it to the nationals from this area,” said Jannides. “And he has a chance to qualify in other events. The kids have time trials in other events, and if he wanted to try like the 100 free, he can do it, after the main events are done. So he might make a good time in something else.”
As it stands, VanTilburgh gets to practice in the pool today (Wednesday), then compete in the 50-free on Thursday.
“We haven’t had anyone in the Y nationals since 2008, so this is big,” said Jannides.
