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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Four Tippecanoe Valley swimmers qualified for the IHSAA state finals, which begin at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis at 6 p.m. tonight. From left – Isaac Whetstone, 200 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay; Marcus Smith – 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke, 200 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay; Carson Parker – 50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 200 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay; Tucker Whetstone – 200 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay.
AKRON — Carson Parker, Marcus Smith, Isaac Whetstone and Tucker Whetstone will represent Tippecanoe Valley at the IHSAA boys swimming state finals this weekend, and they took an indirect route to get there.
Due to construction at Valley, the Vikings had to swim at Warsaw this year. So while most teams practice at their home pool right after school, Valley’s practices started at 7 p.m. and ran until 9 p.m.
That affected eating schedules and sleeping schedules and when they had time to get their homework done.
Despite all that, while Warsaw won the team sectional title at their home pool Saturday, it was third-place Valley that made themselves feel right at home, which in a sense it was:
Parker, a senior, won the 100 breaststroke in 59.13 seconds. That came two days after he broke the school record in 58.83 seconds in the preliminaries. He also finished second in the 50 freestyle in 21.69 seconds and earned a state berth in that event on a callback. The 21.69 was also a school record.
Smith, a junior, won the 200 individual medley at the sectional for the third straight year and the 100 backstroke for the second straight year. His 100 backstroke time of 51.25 seconds broke his own school record.
Isaac Whetstone, a junior, won the 200 freestyle in 1:43.44 and the 100 freestyle in 47.01 seconds. Both times were school records. Just minutes later, Isaac broke his own school record in the 100 freestyle when he swam a 46.87 in the first leg of the 400 freestyle relay.
Tucker Whetstone, a freshman, swam the anchor leg on the 200 medley relay and the second leg on the 400 freestyle relay. Parker, Smith and Isaac Whetstone filled out the rest of both relays. The 200 medley relay time of 1:36.99 and the 400 freestyle relay time of 3:14.19 were both school records.
Now they will again be swimming at night, specifically 6 p.m. tonight at the state preliminaries at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianpolis. The top 16 in each event advance to Saturday’s finals.
“Even the relays surprised,” Valley first-year coach Scott Whetstone, a 1997 Valley grad who himself was a former state qualifier, said. “We were hoping that’s where we were going to be. … We were hoping to get that medley relay, and to get that first one, that just got things going, and the kids kind of rode off that one and made it happen.”
Carson Parker
Parker had made it before as part of the relays, but he’s also headed to state as an individual for the first time.
He said he was not a breaststroker until high school, but he got times which he called “decent” in the event at the end of club swimming.
“I thought I’d try it,” Parker said. “I was pretty close to the record, so I thought I’d go for it, and I ended up being a breaststroke main (event).”
Parker said he was “really surprised” by the callback in the 50 freestyle. He finished behind only Logansport’s Jake Fincher, who swam a 21.55 Saturday.
“Last year, there was the chance of me getting called back down for the breaststroke, but I fortunately didn’t end up getting called back,” Parker said. “But just hearing that I was called back for the 50, I felt super blessed. My mind was blown. I couldn’t believe it, but I feel super fortunate that I was able to get called back down.”
Parker said he thinks he has been swimming since he was 8. He said Tom Alexander was his first coach, and he helped him become a good swimmer. He said there have been some “rough patches” in his swimming career during club season, but he said he has enjoyed swimming in high school.
He said that coach Whetstone has emphasized technique more in practice.
“As of recently and as of all of high school, I’ve just loved it the whole way through,” Parker said. “It’s a lot different than club, and I love every bit of it. … The meets are just so much more lively. There’s so much more good feelings when you win, and everybody’s cheering a lot more, I feel like, and you’ve got teammates. It’s just a lot more exciting than club meets.”
He said he likes the pool at Warsaw, and the practices there helped them prepare for the sectional.
Having said that, having to swim there at night has been a “struggle.” He said he eats two small dinners – one before practice and one after. His bedtime is 10:30 p.m. this season; previously, he got to go to bed between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
“It’s hard to practice from seven to nine to get the energy going, which they did an awesome job,” coach Whetstone said. “But the other problem is it’s hard to relax after that. So once they got home, they had some late nights because you needed to practice early in the day, and it gives you time to wind down a little bit, and they didn’t have that. Not recommended by any means, but we’re glad we had Warsaw as an option and glad we had a season to speak of.”
Parker calls the IU Natatorium “the best pool in the state.” He said he was “super nervous” when he first went down there, but he talks now about having “fun” and a “positive mindset.”
Parker said the team has maintained its work ethic despite the unusual circumstances.
“This is our third time in a row,” Parker said. “I think we’ve all put in the work, and we’re all pretty deserving of this, so we’re all really exciting to go down again.”
Marcus Smith
Counting this year, Smith has made state in an individual event six times in his career and in a relay six more times.
The 100 backstroke turned into a duel between Wabash’s Cael McCann and Smith.
Smith said he focused more on his kick during the backstroke because coach Whetstone has said his feet tend to drag. That, some rest and a different swimsuit made a difference.
McCann swam a 52.99 in the backstroke in the prelims as compared to Smith’s 54.34.
But in the finals, Smith put on a tech suit and came up with his school-record swim – he also beat the state cut time of 52.09 – while McCann slipped to a 54.42.
“It did feel like there was more pressure,” Smith said. “I felt like there was more competition this year because of Cael McCann.”
Smith was the No. 1 seed in the 200 individual medley but by only 0.13 seconds over Warsaw’s Caelin Swinehart. But in the final, Smith swam a 2:01.06 and beat Swinehart by 1.74 seconds. The rest of the field was over eight seconds behind Smith and Swinehart.
“I was saving some for the backstroke because I was a little worried,” Smith said. “So I kind of held back a little bit. … I felt tired after my 200 IM on Thursday (during the prelims), but I wasn’t wearing a tech suit, and it was much easier on Saturday because I was wearing a tech suit. And so, I was able to leave some in the tack for the backstroke.”
Smith said a recent health issue concerned him to the point where he went to see a doctor.
“Recently, I haven’t been feeling too energized,” Smith said. “So I went to the doctor for that. They believe I have mono. The test hasn’t come back yet, so I might not have mono.”
He also said it has been “rough” having practice at Warsaw.
“It’s hard to sleep sometimes because I have to eat later, a lot later,” Smith said. “I do eat before practice, but I can’t eat as much. If I eat before practice, then I’ll feel sick during practice. So eating later kind of makes it hard to sleep sometimes. So it’s been rough. It’s been time-draining.”
Isaac Whetstone
Whetstone said he likes the aspect of swimming that involves having teammates, and he said he remembers a meet at Carroll (Fort Wayne) earlier in the year in which the team posted good times despite not going through a taper.
This showed how hard he and his team had been working.
“We just ended going in at it, and we did pretty well,” Isaac said. “We just went in and had fast times there, just to guess where we were going to be for sectionals, and we swam pretty fast.”
Isaac’s individual events at last year’s sectional were the 500 freestyle and the 50 freestyle, and he eventually made state in the 500 freestyle. This year, he decided to swim the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle instead.
“I swam 4:53 last year, but this year, the fastest I was down to was like a five-flat,” Isaac explained. “At Plymouth I went pretty close, and I decided to switch over to the 100 and 200 instead. I think I had a better chance of doing something in the sprints this year because I haven’t trained enough for the 500.”
He smiled when he spoke of what it takes to swim the 500.
“You’ve got to be nuts if you’re going to swim the 500, especially if you’re swimming fast,” Isaac said. “It’s a challenge for sure.”
Eventually, he told Rochester’s Jake Seuferer that he was not going to do the 500 a couple weeks before the sectional, and Seuferer replied by entering the 500.
Seuferer, who swam with Isaac going back to their Royals days and who later swam with Isaac on a relay on Valley’s club, eventually won the 500 freestyle at Warsaw.
“We talked a little bit one time,” Isaac said. “I told him I wasn’t going to do the 500. I said I moved over to the 100, and he was planning on doing the 100, and I think my dad had a conversation at some point with someone that knew their coaches and stuff, and he told them that I wasn’t swimming it, so he’d have a heck of a chance if he swam the 500 this year, and he ended up getting it.”
Coach Whetstone said having to practice at Warsaw factored into the decision to drop the 500.
“It was probably about midseason, and mostly driven by being late at night training at Warsaw,” coach Whetstone said. “If you’re going to train the 500, you almost need a second practice, and we weren’t going to be able to get it this year. Even though he was swimming really well, and he was swimming if not faster in his 500 in-season than he ever had. But … we’ve been working more on the speed work, which obviously we were able to show a little bit on Saturday.”
Isaac said he was sick the week before sectionals, and said it was “kind of a struggle” getting back into it.
“I pulled through it, came back to sectional and took home a couple dubs,” Isaac said.
Isaac Whetstone said he started swimming when he was 9 or 10. He swam with the Rochester Royals at the time. His first head coach was Chris Beall, though he remembers a coach named Marla who helped him develop an interest.
He said this year has been a “struggle” without a home pool.
“I would normally go home and do some work or, most of the time, sleep because I wanted to get a little more extra sleep, but we went over, got there, swam from seven to nine,” Isaac said. “But it was a struggle. It’s a lot more of a struggle than last year because last year, we’d just go straight in and do practice from 3:45 to 5:45 and get home at a good time, but this year, having to swim late, it’s not fun.”
Tucker Whetstone
With Karl Parker having graduated, Valley needed someone to replace him on their top two relays. Valley won the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays last year. This year, they decided on the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.
And the man to step in was freshman Tucker Whetstone, Isaac’s younger brother. He had made age group state for the first time last year.
“Going in as a freshman is pretty cool,” Tucker said.
The 200 medley relay begins with Smith on backstroke, followed by Isaac Whetstone on butterfly and Parker on breaststroke before Tucker swims the anchor in the 50 freestyle.
He follows Isaac in the 400 freestyle relay with Smith following him and Parker swimming anchor.
He was asked how Parker, Smith and Isaac have treated him.
“I think I’ve been accepted,” Tucker said. “It’s kind of weird that Karl was here last year. I think he was a really funny guy. He was a lot of fun to hang out with when I could hang out with him. But it’s kind of hard trying to step up like Karl because they really accepted him really well, but just being related to Isaac and both of the guys really liking Isaac, I think I’ve fit in pretty well.”
He said that it was “destined” that he would swim on the top relays.
“Because of dad’s genetics really pushing in high school and getting records,” Tucker said. “It took a lot of work though. A lot of people doubt swimming saying it’s not that hard. But it takes a lot of work. I feel like it’s more mental than it is physical in some ways. But it was pretty fun this season.”
Tucker said he has been swimming since he was a third-grader with the Rochester Royals. Chris Beall, who is his pastor, is also the coach there.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Tucker said. “Sometimes it’s hard just to go through it because it’s a lot of mental and physical on your body. It’s been a rough road but a lot of fun.”
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