CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The swim team at Incarnate Word Academy (IWA) spends most their mornings at the pool on Del Mar College's campus.
Every few minutes you hear, "Ready, hit!" as they begin a new lap.
With just days away from the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) Division 3 State Swim Meet, they're still working to cut down on their time.
“Swimming is, I think, one of the most successful sports on campus. We’ve gone to state every single year, even before my time,” swim team Coach Mic Nelson said.
The Incarnate Word Academy Angels are one of the smaller and younger teams that will be at the state meet. That's never stopped a Nelson-led swim team.
Coach Nelson is in her 36th year coaching and 13th at IWA. She's they've reached the state meet each of her seasons and getting faster every meet has become the standard.
“I expect that we’re going to have even more time drops at state, which for a lot of schools is really hard to do when they constantly improve. But traditionally, here at IWA the kids get faster every single meet that we swim,” she said.
A handful of swimmers have qualified for the meet and all but one that qualified, has reached the state meet in their previous seasons. However, this season they have some extra motivation.
“We are swimming state for Coach Mic who is recently diagnosed with breast cancer and we are dedicating that swim to her,” Victoria Nisimblat, a junior on the team said.
Nelson overcame tragedy earlier her life that led her to creating a new swim program and led to coaching many talented swimmers.
“I started the elementary program because we had a nephew that drowned and died in his backyard poo," Nelson said. "Then our daughter, who was pulled out of a pool on vacation with the grandparents, had to get complete resuscitation. My sister is a nurse, she did it and we were very lucky. She ended up swimming at Boise State University for all four years."
Nelson not only coaches the IWA high school team, but middle school and elementary school. A few of these swimmers have been with Nelson since she created the elementary school program.
Sophomore Jonah Dulin is one of those swimmers who's been with Nelson for a few years.
"I had Jonah Dulin who was honestly one of my slowest middle school swimmers. He's now one of my fastest high school swimmers," Nelson said.
“It’s very awe inspiring to me, like I see new swimmers just coming and I was like that was me," Dulin said. "So, it’s just kind of inspiring how someone can go from slow like I was to being in top four of the team.”
Marcelo Garcia came up through Nelson’s program and is a freshman about to head to his first state meet.
“I've improved a lot. In middle school, I was like the big fish in the little pond," Garcia said. "I was always faster than everybody, I didn’t have much competition. But, once you get to see the other kids from other cities like San Antonio, or the ones here like Calallen and Tuloso-Midway, you really get an eye opener.”
More experienced swimmers, like sophomore Morgan Calk, are using previous state meets to hopefully bring home hardware this time around. Calk thinks he unperformed in his first state meet.
“What I took away from the last year was, I really need to focus on what I do in preparation for the upcoming meet because if I don’t prep right, I'm all off. I’m tired, or I'll throw up, or whatever,” he said.
Waylon Patterson is the lone senior on the team. He only competitively started swimming his freshman year, but he’s showed great progress.
"I've dropped a lot of time, so. Freshman year of high school I could swim the 500 (yard) freestyle 7:20 about. And now, I can do it in about 5:34," Patterson said."
In his last year he’s using past experiences to help his team and leave a mark on the program.
“Just keep pushing," he said. "No mater how bad it is, just keep pushing because everyone else is doing the same struggle you are, but if you can overcome it and they can’t, that’s what puts you on he next level."
Nisimblat is the lone lady representative for IWA at the state meet. She too has competed at the state meet her previous two seasons. She loves the sprinting events and will be taking part in the 50 yard freestyle. She talked about being the only girl training with the boys.
“It’s definitely been challenging, but the boys really do push me so much, so I feel like it makes me better," she said.
Dulin, Calk, Garcia and Patterson will be competing in a few relay events as well as some individual events. To see where each is seeded for their heats, you can find that here.
The TAPPS Division 3 State Swim Meet will take place at the Josh Davis Natatorium in San Antonio on Wednesday.
Divisions 1 and 2 ill compete the Monday and Tuesday respectively.
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