Swimming Peak Performer of the Year: Pine Creek's Madison Mintenko makes the most of her time in the pool
Apr. 10—Pine Creek sophomore Madison Mintenko wastes no time in the pool.
A swimmer who has been in the water since ages 2 and 3 and chose to pursue the sport year round at age 12, she said her favorite aspect of being in the pool is the opportunity to be around and learn from others.
That's where she learned what could be the most important lesson. The best swimmers, whether dedicated solely to the water or pursuing one passion among many, are scrupulous about their time.
"One of the largest mentalities that I've been exposed to is never wasting a yard. When you don't train very often, or can't have the resources or don't have the opportunity to train very often, which some of these girls don't, and they have this little time during high school season to swim in this pool that is so graciously given to us by the school and they come in and they don't waste a single second," she said. "They're always thinking about something; they're always working on something. I think that never wasting your time in the pool is a huge thing that a lot of the athletes and coaches that I've been surrounded by kind of idolize and kind of push for other athletes."
As is often the case, the habits rehearsed in training manifest in crunch time and Mintenko is one of the state's best at not wasting time in the water, adding four state titles this season to the two she won as a freshman last year.
In February, she swam the anchor, and fastest times, on Pine Creek's state champion 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays and won individual events in the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle, the same two she won last season. She set 4A records in both the 200 and 500 with times of 1:45.93 and 4:47.70 respectively.
Her name is next to Olympian Missy Franklin who holds the state records. She also helped the Eagles take home a team title after sending 21 swimmers to state.
Her high school coach Kent Nelson compared Mintenko to another well known athlete who also wore green.
"I talk to my athletes all the time about Larry Bird, the basketball player," he said. "Where the Celtics used play with the parquet floors, he used to go out there before games for hours and bounce the ball on each piece of parquet because the ball would go different directions at different times. And so he kind of knew what the ball was going to do during a game because he knew how the floor got put down that day. Madison is a very similar swimmer when it comes to that. She's first one in for warmups, usually last one out. When we're at meets she's the one that still in warmups at the end doing the little things that are necessary, working on her turns, working on her streamlines, working on all the stuff that makes great athletes great."
Nelson said Mintenko is an elite athlete but doesn't carry the arrogance that can sometimes come with it. Some athletes of Mintenko's level would distance themselves from their teammates. Mintenko surrounds herself with her friends, lifting up her teammates and learning from them as well.
"I think some of the most influential athletes for me have been the two Burton sisters, (Isabella) and Molly, who both swim on Pine Creek," Mintenko said. "They just have been so welcoming and they set up so many activities that our team did this year and they really just helped me understand what it's going to be like for me in the next two years to hopefully help lead this team if given the chance. They just are some of my best friends and I really adore them."
Of course, Mintenko gets a lot of support from her parents who, as Olympic swimmers themselves, help her navigate her time in Pine Creek academics and swimming as well as her club team Pikes Peak Athletics, which she has competed for most of her life.
Mintekno recently competed in the Speedo Sectionals in Austin, Texas, where she placed first in the 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyle. She's in the water for training six times a week and supplements that with weight training sessions where she works on ankle mobility and squats to improve the speed with which she comes off the wall and pulls water.
The balancing factor in all that she does is her parents, who have been there before, even if the sport has changed over the years.
"They know the grind and the mental stress and they do such a great job of keeping life normal for their kids," Nelson said. "Truly it is a credit to Mike and Lindsay, the young woman that they are raising. But I think that's where you get your level-headedness from is usually from your family. And I think that's how she navigates everything so well because she's had parents that have done a lot of this before and can kind of guide her in the right direction."
The result is a swimmer who wishes to guide herself and her teammates in a positive direction. To that end, both Mintenko and Nelson are thrilled that Pine Creek will open a new pool at the school at the end of the school year or in the summer. They're more thrilled that they will have the opportunity to christen the new pool with the team's newly won state banner. The victory and ceremony they hope will elevate the program's status as a school that's known for its dominance in other sports.
"I think all the girls on the team are really just trying to get the sport some recognition," she said. "When they think Pine Creek sports they think football and hopefully in the future, especially with the new pool coming and with the recent state championship, people won't just think football and they'll think maybe girls swimming. Or maybe some other sports that really deserve the recognition because there's a crazy amount of athletes putting their heart and souls into these sports. And they just really deserve the recognition."
