Baber looks forward to return trip to State Finals
Feb. 9—Erika Baber has already re-written the Lewis Cass record book in girls swimming.
She's looking to put an exclamation point on her Lady Kings career this weekend at the IHSAA State Finals.
The state finals begin at 6 p.m. Friday at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. The top 16 in each swimming event advance to Saturday's action with the top eight competing in the championship finals and the next eight in the consolation finals.
Baber is making her second straight trip to state and she's competing in the same two events she did last year: the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.
She's looking to improve on her showing from a year ago, when she placed 28th out of 32 swimmers in both events. She swam a 1:58.39 in the 200 free and a 5:23.30 in the 500 free.
She was comfortably seeded in both 200 and 500 free at this year's Warsaw Sectional and easily won both. She hasn't really been pushed this season in either event and is looking forward to being pushed at state.
"I'm just looking to improve on my times," Baber said. "Sectional I was really pleased with how I did. I'm really hoping to get pushed at state, which I know I will, and hopefully get a lifetime PR and maybe set a new record."
Baber owns six Lewis Cass school records, including individual records in the 100 free, 200 free, 500 free and 200 IM. She's also part of two school record relay teams, the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay.
The relays were her main focus at the sectional as her individual events were in all reality a battle for second place.
The Lady Kings had two relay teams that had a shot of advancing: the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay. The other three swimmers were juniors Maci Garland and Haley Miller and sophomore Maryn Zeck.
Both relays lost to Culver Academies in close races. Cass' medley relay swam a 1:55.26, finishing behind Culver by 1.47 seconds. The free relay swam a 3:48.89, breaking its own school record but finishing 1.72 seconds behind Culver.
"I really think that we gave it our all," Baber said. "They pushed so hard that week just because they knew it was their goal, they've worked hard all season for it. I really couldn't ask for anything more. We re-broke our record. I am beyond proud of them."
Lewis Cass coach Mandy Hall said her relay teams had a strong showing.
"They set a lifetime PR in the 200 medley relay and they missed the school record by .4, the record has been there since 1991," Hall said. "I know it was hard enough for them to not get first when we were seeded first. Culver had a flyer who went a :26 and we hadn't seen that. We had been researching, all the girls were researching meets from the beginning of the season and the fastest butterflyer we found was a :28 and the fastest breaststroker we found was a :33, so they were prepared to go in and win that relay, and Culver brings a swimmer that didn't swim in prelims for the finals and it caught us off guard. We just didn't have enough umph like Culver does to be able to swim that fast in prelims and then change out swimmers to swim them in finals. That's what happens when you're from a small community and a rural community school."
Baber was gaining ground on Culver while swimming the anchor in the 400 free relay before running out of time. She swam a personal-best 52.9 seconds in the final 100 yards.
"I had a lot of people message me and say that if Baber had 5 more yards you guys would have that relay going to state," Hall said. "And I'm very confident that that would have happened."
Hall and her sister, Cass assistant Haley Ramer, were named Coaches of the Year at the sectional.
"That is awesome," Baber said. "I have had great coaches over the years but these two definitely stand out to me. I've only been here for three years and they have turned my training around. I came in at a 2-flat and my PR over the three years is a 1:56. So I owe it all to God and these coaches for developing those practices that I need and doing all that off time and just everything that they've done, it's well deserved."
Hall said the award was certainly not expected.
"Haley and I, we were really shocked. They announced our names and we kind of scratched our heads and were like, 'wait, did they just call our names for Coaches of the Year?'" she said. "All the other swim coaches in the sectional, they vote and they were just all rooting for us. It seemed like a lot of opposing teams were rooting for our relays because they just know how small we are and how difficult it is for a small school to get out of sectional. And I think they just really saw that we have some pretty special here in Walton, Indiana. We're competing against pretty large schools. Warsaw is pretty large, Culver is large. They've got swimmers from all over the country and the world."
Baber has one more weekend to swim for the Lady Kings. She has already signed to swim at Division-I Eastern Illinois University.
"I am just looking forward to having one more meet as a Lewis Cass King and then I'm going on to college, so I'm just really trying to soak it in like I did last year and go in with a positive mindset," she said.
Hall said is big day is planned for Friday.
"We have a parade at 1:15, we're going to have a police escort out of Walton, we're taking a bus full of teammates down to Indianapolis so that we can all cheer her on during her two events," she said. "I think it's going to be an exciting night and I know Haley and I are both super proud and thrilled to be able to represent her down at IUPUI."
Hall added the success that Baber and her teammates have enjoyed the last couple years is making an impact on the program overall.
"It's made a big impact on our junior high swimmers because they see the hard work and the benefits, and they see their names on the record boards. My daughter [Mia Hall] is an eighth grader and she'll be a freshman next year and she wants her name right there on that board. She looks up to Erika, Maci, Maryn and Haley and she wants that success like these girls have had."
