Menu
Firebaugh gears down in preparation for state finals
Greencastle junior Nash Firebaugh is not the favorite to win a swimming state championship this weekend.
He does not have the fastest 100-yard butterfly time in the state this year, and his 50-yard freestyle time is the second-slowest to qualify for the meet.
The top swimmers can scan the Indiana High School Athletic Association boys' preliminary heat sheets and might glance right past him.
And that is exactly how Firebaugh wants it.
"I'm not sure if everyone knows me as well as the guys who are above me, but I think I'm a competitor," he said. "Sometimes you don't want to know who they are because they're kind of intimidating -- their personality and their times -- but they're just normal high schoolers like you."
Firebaugh, the GHS school-record holder for the 100 fly (51.30), is seeded sixth in his best event. The top two swimmers -- junior Aaron Whitaker (Chesterton) and senior Max Irwin (Bloomington North) are a cut above the field.
But Firebaugh, and GHS swimming coach Kent Menzel, think if things go as planned there could be some fireworks.
"The goal going into the state meet is to swim on Saturday," Menzel said. "That is the goal on Friday, and then Saturday the goal is to make that final push and to place as high as we possibly can."
The state finals is a two-day event, with preliminary races Friday and championship heats on Saturday.
Each event has 32 swimmers entered. Most are winners of their sectional, but many of the top seeds advanced to the IHSAA finals by simply fast.
Before the postseason, the IHSAA set a time barrier in every event. Anyone who broke that time got to go.
Firebaugh's 51.30 was well under the state cut (1.36 seconds under). He won the sectional in the event, but he'd have gone to state even if he hadn't.
He also won the 50 free, but in that event he's seed No. 31.
"The two races compliment each other very well," Menzel said. "The 50 free and the butterfly, as far as timing is concerned -- at the prelims -- are in a very nice relationship with each other. Completing the warmup for the 50, and then racing the 50, becomes, for us, a very good warmup and preparation for his heat of the 100 fly."
Some swimmers would see that as a deterrent, as a reason to pull back and prepare for the fly. But Firebaugh sees it as another chance to go fast.
"I'll have 15-20 minutes in between," Firebaugh said. "I think it'll work out well."
The 50 free and 100 fly are events four and six on the program, normally divided by a round of diving and a warmup period. At the prelims, there is no diving.
There's a break, but Firebaugh will still be thrown into consecutive events. With the pressure of the crowd, though, swimming more could actually calm him down.
"The 50, aerobically, isn't that bad," he said. "But I think it prepares you because it gets you in the proper mental state. It gets that adrenaline flowing."
Firebaugh has been here before. He swam the fly last year, finishing the prelims in ninth, and dropping to tenth on Saturday. The experience with the meet -- the pressure, the crowd -- will give him a leg up on some of his challengers.
"We're going to change our warmup a little bit this year and take a little more time to get Nash prepared," Menzel said. "The key things that are important to learn as an athlete swims in state preliminaries from year-to-year are all the different ways to stay calm, to stay confident and to prepare as well as you can for your swims."
It's a long season for swimmers, one that never truly ends. Most of the work is done in the mornings and in the summer, long before the state meet approaches.
The final two weeks of training are mostly a break from training. Swimmers work themselves to complete exhaustion for most of the year, firing their muscles to full capacity several times each day. They relax, then go again.
The training is designed to teach a swimmer how to react under fight-or-flight times. To strengthen him physically, to be sure, but also mentally.
But just prior to the last meet -- sectionals for most, state finals for the elite -- the training calms down. It tapers off.
The body has been depleted for months -- never fully recovering, learning to work when it's weak -- and then rested. When it's done right, this training helps a swimmer peak at just the right moment. At just the right meet.
"These last couple days before Friday, we're going to do practically nothing," Menzel said. "We've completely pulled volume out of the picture, and we're working solely on technique and form in the water and Nash's feel for the water, and then adding in little bits of speed to keep all of his muscles activated as best we can."
By now, practice is more about mental preparation than physical. Firebaugh's body knows what to do. He's trying to get his mind out of the way to let it.
"The physical stuff is already done, you just have to get in a zone," Firebaugh said. "It's just believing in your training. You've done everything that you could to this point. You're prepared. You've done morning practices. You've listened to your coach.
"If you believe all the training you've done to get to this spot, you can relax and just don't think about anything and let your body do the racing."
Firebaugh traveled the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis pool, where the finals will be held, on Tuesday. He's getting a feel for the pool and the environment. Learning the rhythm of the water and where to begin attacking his turns.
At this level, even the slightest adjustment or the slightest bit of tension can make the difference between a top-five finish and missing Saturday all together.
There are four preliminary heats in every event. The top eight prelim times move on to the championship heat, and the next eight race in Saturday's "B" finals.
Of the 32 swimmers in each event, 16 go on to Saturday. Firebaugh's goal is to make the championship heat in both.
Last year, as a sophomore, he finished 10th in the 100 fly. At the time, he said, his goal for junior year was top-three.
"I think, if I'm more relaxed, I can do a lot better than last year," Firebaugh said. "I think I can do that. That's definitely within reach. The top-two are just way out in front. Their times are so much faster than everybody else. They're definitely going to maintain that, but I think top-three is realistic."
It won't be easy, but it's not impossible either. Whitaker and Irwin are a cut above the field, based on qualifying times, but the rest of the pack is bunched together.
"If I maintain my stroke and maintain it under water in each wall, I'll be in good shape," Firebaugh said. "(The difference) is all in my second 50 (yards)."
Firebaugh is in lane one for the first heat of the 50 free, which is a disadvantage, but he's in lane five, heat two of the fly.
Swimming in the center of the pool puts a swimmer in front of the competitors wake and gives him a better look at what his competition is doing.
Firebaugh has never swum in lane one at IUPUI, making the 50 free hill that much harder to climb, but the pool sets up to give him a chance.
"Going out to prelims, the crowd is just roaring the whole time. It's a pretty intense feeling," Firebaugh said. "You don't let it overwhelm you, but you do let it inspire you. Like, 'Everyone is here watching me.' It'll be interesting."
The fly is a significantly different opportunity. Firebaugh will be swimming next to No. 3 seed Bowen Anderson (sophomore, Penn).
In some races, beating your heat isn't enough. But because he's going against Anderson. If Firebaugh can keep pace, he'll be in a good position for the championship heat on Saturday.
As the race gets closer, and the tension starts to build, Firebaugh said focus is becoming increasingly important.
In the final days and hours of preparation, everything starts to slow down.
"I try not to think about anything, which is really hard to do. It's a really hard skill that I've tried to get better at over the years," Firebaugh said. "You try not to think about anything and just know that you're going to go faster than what your best time is."
Though Menzel wouldn't put a time on it, Firebaugh said his perfect race would give him a chance to steal the show.
He set his previous career-best at the state prelims in 2012. If he does that again, against the field ahead of him, it'll be an exciting weekend for the Tiger Cub.
"At sectional I was a little afraid of (disqualifying), because if you go past 15 yards (underwater following a turn), they DQ you," Firebaugh said. "I can't be afraid of that. I have to go all-out. I can't leave anything in the pool."