Frisbee ends 2022 club year with a title

Aug. 27—Competing in two of his final club events before heading to Southern California for college, St. Mary's alum Asa Frisbee certainly showed why he's ready for the next level.

Frisbee, the Crusaders' recently graduated state champion who was competing with Team Eugene Aquatics, placed first in the men's 200-meter freestyle at the 2022 Oregon Swimming Inc. state championships at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham in late July.

"That was probably the most fun I've had at a meet in years," said Frisbee. "That was my last state meet I will have gone to and what made it better is that all of my friends were in the ready room and we were all cracking jokes and having a good time."

A week later, Frisbee competed and qualified for a pair of finals events at the USA Swimming Futures Championship in Santa Clara, California, most notably recording a winter junior nationals A qualifying time in the 50 free, while making the B cut in the 100 and 200 free.

"I feel like I had a lot of chances, a lot of opportunities that I missed," said of his performance at the Futures meet. "I feel like I could have done better. Overall, it was a good meet and I had a lot of fun. That was another one of my most favorite meets.

"But based on my performances only, I feel like there's a lot of things I could have fixed. And if I had fixed those things during the meet then I could have done a lot better."

Overall, they proved to be a pair of meets that Frisbee feels like gave him a nice springboard into what he will see at the collegiate level.

"Going into college, I know there's going to be kids that are just as fast or faster, so the competition is going to push me," he said. "The competition, I love competing and I love putting in that effort of trying to beat somebody that's faster than me."

At the state meet, Frisbee made the finals in four different events — 50 free, 100 free, 200 free and 50 butterfly. He also competed on a trio of Eugene Aquatics relay teams in the 200 free relay, 4x400 free relay, the 800 free relay and the 200 fly relay.

In his victorious 200 free final, Frisbee finished with a personal-best time of 1 minute, 57.79 seconds, a two-second improvement on his previous top time.

Frisbee won the 200 free by nearly two seconds over Eugene Aquatics teammate Tyler Ahten.

"Going into it, I knew what I could do," said Frisbee. "I knew that in the prelims it wasn't my best swim, I knew I could have cleaned things up coming out of it. Going into the final, it was mostly about focusing on that back half, that last 100. It was just about making sure I'm kicking good, making sure I'm reaching, making sure my stroke is long. And just going into the finals, you've just got to race ... you've just got to get up and race and that's all there is to it. Finals is just racing at that point — you've made it to the finals and it's your time to just go all out."

Frisbee capped his senior season at St. Mary's with three titles — two individual and one relay — at the Class 4A/3A/2A/1A state meet at the Tualatin Hills Swim Club in Beaverton in February.

He set a new meet record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:04.71, while also winning titles in the 100 free and leading the Crusaders' 200 free relay team to cap his big day.

"Just experience," said Frisbee of what his 2022 meets have helped with. "No matter if it's prelims or finals, I know a lot of college meets are going to be tough."

Frisbee will begin his career at Cal Baptist University in Riverside, California, in a matter of days. CBU, which has made the transition from NCAA Division II to the Division I level within the last five years.

The collegiate swimming season runs from October through March.

And it's a step up in competition that Frisbee is definitely looking forward to.

"I'm really excited," said Frisbee. "Just the competition itself, I'm excited to compete with people that are extremely fast and I'm not going to shy away from it."

Not only is Frisbee excited about the next step in his swimming career, but he's also feeling good about where he is at. Events like the two he competed at last month confirmed that to him.

"I feel pretty prepared," said Frisbee, who most recently has trained under Robin Brickenden. "I know what I'm capable of right now and what I'm capable of doing in the future. I have big plans for myself and really want to do well in college. I think these big meets that we had in the spring and the summer got my mind right because during COVID there wasn't a lot of meets. Being able to swim at those big meets allowed me to get back into it."

Reach reporter Danny Penza at 541-776-4469 or dpenza@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @penzatopaper.