By Jim Rueda
Free Press Sports Editor
MANKATO —
With apologies to Robert Duvall in “Apocalypse Now,” Mankato East/Loyola senior swim tri-captain Megan Helms loves the smell of chlorine in the morning.
Helms has been swimming since she was eight years old and says she needs her pool fix on a regular basis or she feels lost.
“I just love going to the pool,” she said. “No matter how bad a day I’ve had, if I can get in the water and start swimming everything else just sort of disappears. And when I get out I have this feeling of having accomplished something through hard work.”
Although she admits early-morning practices can be a drag, and going through timed-500-freestyle workouts on Wednesdays can be daunting, she says she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“So much of my life has been wrapped up in swimming. If I’m away from the pool for even a few weeks or a month, I start to get crazy. When I’m at the pool, it feels like I’m home.”
East/Loyola head coach Tim Johnson says Helms’ love for the sport has spilled over on to the other team members. The team’s other two captains — Erin Connell and Grace Benzkofer — are just as gung-ho as Helms and it has had a positive affect on the team.
“These girls have really come in with a different outlook this year,” Johnson said. “They want to work hard and they want to be successful. I really think this can be the best team we’ve had in about eight or nine years.”
Helms’ best events are the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. She also plans to contribute it the 100-butterfly, the 200-medley relay, the 200-free relay and the 400-free relay.
“Anywhere I can help the team, that’s what I’ll do,” Helms said. “I’m a senior captain now so for me it’s all about the team. What I accomplish individually is secondary to what we do as a team.”
Helms’ love for swimming is so contagious she even got her dad, Drew, to take it up.
“He was never into swimming before and then, all of sudden, he started doing triathlons,” she said. “We’ve done some as a family, too.”
Other than divers, the Cougars have not had a state entrant since 2005 and Johnson believes that could change this year. He thinks East/Loyola’s medley relay team has an excellent chance as well as a number of individuals.
Among those individuals are Erin Connell in the 100-backstroke, Chandra Bouman in the 100-breaststroke, Maren Peterson in both the 500-free and 200-individual medley. Junior diver Kali Schlingmann also has a legitimate shot.
One of the reasons for Johnson’s optimism was the Cougars’ performance at the team’s first meet at Hutchinson the last weekend in August. Nearly everybody on the team had a personal best during that meet.
The 400-free relay cut 11 seconds off it’s time from the previous year and the medley relay went faster than it did in the section finals last season.
Erin Connell, who has had to deal with back issues off and on the last two seasons, is optimistic the team will do well.
“We have a lot of young swimmers who are willing to work hard to make us a better team,” she said. “I really think we have a chance to get some swimmers to state this year.”
Benzkofer agrees, saying the swimmers respond well when she has to get on them to persevere.
“I’m a vocal leader,” she said. “If somebody needs a push to keep going or to put a bad race behind them, I’ll do that. I remember how much that helped me when I was one of the younger swimmers.”
Among the other team members who can be expected to make significant contributions this year are sophomore Jen Neufeld and freshman Carolyn Osdoba in the breaststroke and Abby Connell just about anywhere.
“We’re going to try Abby in a lot of different spots for awhile,” Johnson said. “Wherever she can help us, that’s where we’ll put her.”
The diving contingent should also be strong again. In addition to Schlingmann there’s senior Brittany Baynes, senior Stacie Sprague, sophomore Katrina Voda and sophomore Ashley Sprague.
The Cougars return to action today with a 6 p.m. nonconference meet at St. Peter. On Thursday, East/Loyola begins Big Nine Conference competition with a 6 p.m. home meet against Rochester Mayo.
