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Gilmour's McNichols heads to Olympic Trials
(by Tony Lange - June 21, 2012)
Gilmour's McNichols heads to Olympic Trials
By TONY LANGE
Sports fans who witness a tie might feel they didn't get their buck's worth.
Overtimes, shoot-outs, extra innings, sudden deaths -- that's when spectators scoot to the edge of their seats to watch a winner emerge.
In swimming, a tie race down to the hundredth of a second often takes place in the age of fully automated timing systems, especially in the shorter races, such as the 50-meter freestyle.
Swim-offs, the overtime of the sport, rarely occur, but are necessary when there is a deadlock for the final spot of a finals heat. It's not like two swimmers can share a lane eight.
A swim-off is exactly what happened to Gilmour Academy upcoming junior Macie McNichols last August during her 50-meter freestyle race at the 2011 Speedo Junior National Championships.
It was the best tie of her life, she said.
"I had tied two swimmers going into the finals at nationals, and we had to do a swim-off, and there were three of us in the heat, and I was in the middle of the two other girls," McNichols said. "I remember touching the wall and seeing the other two girls touch after me and thinking, 'Oh, this is going to be a fast time,' and I looked up at the scoreboard, and I'm like, 'Oh, my gosh. I went a 26.2. I got my Olympic Trial cut. I'm going to Omaha.' And I screamed. Everyone around was like, 'Oh, she's happy.'"
McNichols, who swam her race in 26.29 seconds, which bettered the cut time of 26.39 seconds, will be competing at the U.S. Olympic Trials June 25 through July 2 in Omaha, Neb.
A 15-year-old, McNichols lives in Old Brooklyn and will be representing her USA swimming club, the Lakewood Rangers Swim Team, head coached by Jim Stacy, whom she has swam with for six years.
During the short-course high school season, McNichols swims for the Lady Lancers, head coached by Adam Katz.
At the Division II state swim meet at Canton McKinley's Branin Natatorium, McNichols is a state champion and runner-up in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events, not meters.
As a freshman in 2011, she finished as runner-up in 23.74 seconds during her 50 freestyle race and runner-up again in her 100 freestyle race with a time of 51.54 seconds.
As a sophomore in 2012, McNichols won the 50-year freestyle in 23.41 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle in 51.07 seconds.
Winning a state championship and making an Olympic Trials cut are not comparable, she said.
"Oh, gosh. They're both fantastic," McNichols said. "I think they're both the same. You can't compare them. It's like the same excitement. At the state meet, you've won. But with the Olympic Trials, you can go so much farther."
One difference between the two is that her state championship race was swum in a 25-yard short-course pool, which includes one turn during the 50 freestyle race, and her Olympic Trials cut was swum in a 50-meter long-course pool.
McNichols said she prefers the long-course race, which is swum at the Olympics, because she is better without the turn.
"Getting ready for my Olympic Trials, my focus has definitely been on my start," she said. "I'm practicing my entry and streamline and working on the breakout and first 10 strokes, because, if you don't have those first 10 down, keeping them long and smooth with power, that's the whole race right there."
McNichols, her coach and her family will be traveling the 800 miles from Cleveland to Omaha for her 26-second race, she said.
"I think my whole family is going and also my grandma and grandfather, and then my coach is coming too," she said. "Yeah, so my whole family is going. It's just really exciting."
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