“My mom put me and my [older] brother in the pool when I was in kindergarten just to take some energy out of us” said Brittney Straw, 18, a senior at Truckee High. Seemingly, it didn’t really work, as she has found enough energy reserves to be a standout swimmer in her four years at Truckee High, and has recently decided to attend college at UC Santa Barbara in the fall, where she will swim at the Division 1 level.
She competes as part of both the high school team and the Tahoe Truckee Swim Team — a club team — at various meets throughout the year. Growing up, she played other sports like tennis and soccer, and was a ski racer into her freshman year. But at the onset of high school, she had to make a choice of where to focus her efforts, and she committed to swimming, which demanded year-round work.
But it paid off, as she holds a plethora of top times in her league, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association D1A league. She is first the in 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter breaststroke, 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter individual medley, and 200-meter freestyle. She also placed first all three years at the state championships in the 100-yard breaststroke. Her final state meet is later in May in Las Vegas.
STRONG BACKING
Competitive swimming is a combination of individual and team events, but Straw credits her peers with much more than the direct contribution the athletes make with their swim times. “It’s so much harder swimming when my teammates aren’t around. They provide motivation and it’s always better when they’re beside you when you’re dying in the pool,” Straw said. This year, the graduating class will lose four senior girls who qualified for state championships: Kyla Burrill, Ingrid Suter, Niki Kates, and Straw.
The positive group dynamic channeled through the close-knit team has been essential to their success, according to Brittney’s coaches. “They all need each other for help and support,” said Jody Burril, the coach of the Truckee High swim team, who has watched Straw swim since the fourth grade, and recognized her as an “instant standout” even at that young age.
The future of Tahoe swimming appears to be bright even as Straw is soon shipping off to college. Six-foot-6-inch sophomore Cooper deRyk is chasing a spot on the Junior Olympic team, working toward an NCAA Division 1 scholarship, and already has a list of accolades including being runner-up in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle events at the 2015 High School State Championships. And 13-year-old Kaikea Crews, who is in 7th grade, holds three Sierra Nevada Conference swimming age group records for boys 11 to 12, and is in the top five of the fastest 11- to 12-year-old boys in the US.
ATTACK MODE
Straw and the rest of the swimmers are put through a rigorous training program. Cyrus Crews, coach of the club team (and the father of Kaikea), said that during the peak season, which lasts about three months, his athletes partake in eight water sessions per week. In addition, they do two strength sessions per week, making for three double days. While this pace is only required for about three months out of the year, they are still competing and involved with swimming in some form every month of the year.
Crews, who has been coaching swimming for 15 years, says Straw has a champion’s mentality. “She has an incredible work ethic, and just attacks everything I throw at her. She has the competitive spirit in her DNA.”
Crews started coaching the club team in the fall of 2015, and knows that even at the young age of 18, it can be difficult to see vast improvements. Nevertheless, as he worked with Straw, he pushed her, and she recently came away with a second-place finish in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:19 at the Far Western Championship against some of the top 17- to 18-year-old girls in North America. “It was a true breakthrough performance,” said Crews.
Straw’s goals in college are to make the NCAA time standard, a highly competitive level for college swimmers, and improve in her signature breaststroke. She describes the highlight of competition as the moment she finishes an event and the satisfaction and excitement in seeing a fast time. “It’s such hard work and can be so tiring. It’s incredible to feel the accomplishment of meeting a time standard.”
