At the end of last month, the Edmond Memorial swim team competed at the state meet. Senior Max Myers was able to beat the school record in the 100 free, coming in first place with a time of 44.55 seconds. 

Myers has swum for Memorial for four years and wanted to use his senior year to make a lasting impression.

“I really wanted to use this year to break a few school records. I was mostly focused on the 50 free record after just missing it at state junior year,” Myers said. “One of my other goals for the meets was to get a new best 100 freestyle time. I hit 44.59 at a meet in December and I was ecstatic to be just under it (44.55) considering how little practice time we had leading up to the meet.”

Edmond Memorial Swim Coach Zack Kraeger helped him make sure he could achieve his goals.

“We prepared Max for the state meet by giving him adequate time for rest and recovery. Max has an intense training regime of practice and weight training, so his muscles needed time to recover before the big meet,” Kraeger said.

Right before the meet, Edmond experienced a snowstorm that ended up delaying Myers’ training schedule. 

“Between morning and afternoons, I normally practice eight or nine times a week. However, with the recent snowstorm, we were out of the pool for a while and only had about four practices leading up to the state meet. I took every opportunity I had to focus on my 100 free and 50 free race pace and luckily was able to pull out new bests,” Myers said.

Myers has a couple leadership positions such as being on the student council and being the captain for the Swim team for the last three years.

“Max brings so much to the team! He is one of the senior captains, so he is a great leader and mentor to the other swimmers on the team” Kraeger said.

Fellow teammate, senior Sam Hart has been swimming with Myers for years. Hart had been watching Myers all season and thought that he was prepared to break the record.

“I had already seen Max break his own record two times this season and so when I watched his race, I was paying attention to his splits to see if he was in position to do it again and he was,” Hart said. “I thought it was a great swim and probably the best way he could hope to leave off his high school career.”

Swimming has helped Myers to learn many hard lessons that can help in other parts of his life.

“Swim has taught me that hard work does pay off. Nothing happens overnight, success comes from dedication,” Myers said.

Myers is continuing swimming after high school and already has a new goal in mind. 

“Next year, I’ll be swimming at Notre Dame, I have my mindset on qualifying for the ACC Conference meet. I want to continue to improve and contribute to the team,” Myers said.

Contact Adeline Gruen at [email protected]