Addition by subtraction: Trio powers North's state-bound relays
Max Irwin, an academic all-American during his days at Indiana University, knows his math.
By late December he was convinced that three becoming one, while it might subtract a bit at sectional, would add up to bigger returns in the long run. So he presented the numbers to his top swimmers on the Bloomington North boys’ team, including the increasing possibility for medals, more of them, and better ones higher up the podium.
His plan was for sophomore Jay Stewart, junior Ben Buehler and senior Jack Steiner to let go of an individual event and invest their time in three relays instead of the usual two. Ben Dixon would join them in the two freestyle relays and Hunter Tang would fill out the medley relay.
Irwin foresaw three teams that could win sectional titles, make state cuts and be a force at state.
From there, he left it up to them. After all, to get where Irwin thought they could be would mean a big sacrifice from each of them.
“I know that’s a big ask, so I just want to talk to you about what I think we can do as a team,” said Irwin, recalling what he said to them at the meeting. “And I want you guys to think about what you want to do as individuals and amongst yourselves and then come to a group decision, if you want to go the relay route or the individual route.
“I figured it didn’t matter to me that much as a coach. The ball was in their court.”
'Let’s do it'
They took Irwin’s plan and ran with it. Stewart would drop the 50 free, Buehler the 200 individual medley and Steiner the butterfly. And they would practice a lot of relay starts.
North swept the relays at sectional for the first time since 2002, when Bob Scales went the 3-1 route, also winning the 200 individual medley. The Cougars will head to state on Friday at the IU Natatorium seeded sixth in the 400 freestyle relay, seven in the 200 free and 14th in the medley relay.
“It felt a lot more team oriented and I like that more,” said Stewart, who won a sectional title in the fly with a career best time, a surprise, he said, given he had to take some time off late in the season after turning his ankle.
Stewart found the 3-1 assignment also changed his mentality during the meet.
“It felt a little bit easier, especially after my 100 fly,” he said. “Because it felt like there wasn’t that much pressure on me because I knew the team would pull through no matter what.”
“The main thing was, we were more excited for the relays for state than for sectional,” Dixon said.
Without their buy in, Irwin thinks, North might have gotten only two groups there.
“The guys said it would be fun to win all three relays and send three to state and hopefully medal in three relays,” Irwin said. “And they all ought to make the top 16 and on a good day, make the top eight. That’s a lot of hardware, a lot of medals.”
Records, too
In addition to the hardware, they are in position to leave another legacy with their names on the school record board. The 400 group went 3:10.59, just .29 off the mark set last year. The 200 free went 1:26.12, not far off the record of 1:25.75. And the medley at 1:35.79, chasing a 1:34.43.
The group keeps pushing each other in the freestyle relays where comparisons are inevitable.
“You take your big dogs and put them together and mathematically speaking, someone is going to have the slowest split,” Irwin said. “You don’t have to worry about motivating them. They’re very competitive with each other.
“I just have to tell them not to push the starts too much.”
With the medley group locked into their spots (Stewart in the back, Tang the breast, Steiner the fly and Buhler the free) Irwin also had to come up with the order that made the best sense for the free relays, including from a tactical standpoint.
“I put Jay in the leadoff for the two free,” Irwin said. “There are a lot of big, strong humans making waves and if you put your fastest guy out first and he gets ahead, it helps get the other guys diving into cleaner water.
“That’s one thing I learned at IU is to beat that wave. East Central had a fixed bulkhead with no slats for the water to flow through, so you have this huge wave bouncing off all the walls. With Jay out first, great, then I felt all three had great splits.”
North won that race by just .68, with Stewart’s 21.29 putting the Cougars out in front by 1.25 seconds.
At one time, Irwin was a part of all three North record-holding relay teams until the 400 relay record was toppled by .01 in last year’s state prelims. So he knows the power Optimus Maximus brought to the cartoon Autobots in their fight against the Decepticons.
“I think it was just a push in that direction that they were not necessarily going to make the top eight or even make it to state,” Irwin said. “But it’s kind of like Transformers, you combine them and get this super star.
“It’s tough for teams to do because you have to have four good swimmers. And from the standpoint of visibility and prestige, being able to say, ‘Hey, we won three relays' is a neat thing to say.”
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com or 812-331-4381 and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington North trio powers relay team headed to state sectional
