Esser sets school record, finishes top-15 at state

Feb. 20—AUSTIN — After finding out she made the state meet from the call-ups, Huntsville's senior Reece Esser made the most of her opportunity on the biggest stage.

Esser would compete in the 100-meter butterfly, where she would finish 12th in the state with a time of 58.52 seconds.

"It was absolutely amazing that I was able to make that improvement from 22nd to 12th," Esser said. "We were all surprised after finals and we were excited about it."

"It's a phenomenal achievement and it was a gutsy swim by her to keep going and dropping time," Huntsville swim coach Bruce Lester said. "She just had an amazing fortitude and her nerves didn't overcome her. A lot of people were at the state meet and it is so overwhelming. She just improved every swim. She was very determined."

Esser qualified for the state meet as a call-up after finishing the state qualifier with a time of 1:00.35. She would enter the state meet in 22nd place. Esser would make the climb back to the top-15 on the first day of the state meet.

In her first swim, she would swim a time of 59.22, which qualified her for the final heat. From there, she would shave off more time and become the new record holder for Huntsville High School.

"It's been my goal since I was a freshman," Esser said. "To be able to have my name up there is absolutely amazing. To achieve the goal I've had for four years, I'm very excited about that."

In order to achieve this new goal, Esser and Lester had to come up with different methods to get there. During the warm-up periods, they worked on how to change her approach.

They worked on the different forms of opening up her arms to allow more push for more water rather than her hands. She also changed her start from three kicks to four kicks before coming up to start swimming.

All of these changes were on the fly and paid off for Esser in the end.

"I was nervous because there are many people and a lot going on," Esser said. "I was nervous when we changed it up."

Now, Esser will take her swimming talents to the collegiate level as she will decide to swim with either the University of the Ozarks or Centenary College of Louisiana.