GTAC swimmers scorch U.S. mark for 10-year-olds

Catherine Kight, left, of Ottawa Hills, Katie Kreger of Lambertville, Brea Fields of Ottawa Hills, and Kelly Metzger of Sylvania with coach Chris Pierson, their mentor since September. Enlarge

It had been more than 21 years since any swimmer from the Greater Toledo Aquatic Club broke a national record until four 10 year-old girls swam the race of their lives last weekend.

Brea Fields and Catherine Kight, both of Ottawa Hills, Katie Kreger of Lambertville, and Kelly Metzger of Sylvania set a new U.S. long course mark in the 200 freestyle relay at the Peppe-Bruce Memorial Invitational meet at Ohio State University on July 2. Their time of 2:06.02 shattered the state record in the event by almost four seconds and surpassed the national record of 2:06.46 set in 2005 by a team from Houston.

“I have to say I’m kind of shocked,” GTAC coach Chris Pierson said. “[National records] are so rare and hard to get, I never thought we’d get one.”

The record-breaking quartet didn’t even come together until last September, when Fields and Metzger opted to start swimming again after taking last summer off.

Pierson has been coaching Kight and Kreger for two years and first got an inkling that this group could be pretty special at the winter state meet in March when they were just a second off the Ohio record.

Pierson was also awarded coach of the year at the meet and realized with a spring of hard work, his team could at the very least set a new state mark and maybe even come close to the national record.

“I went online and looked up the state records and thought if we’re only a second off in the winter, we should crush it in the summer,” said Pierson, a 2000 graduate of St. John’s Jesuit.

“Then I wondered what the national record was and saw we were three seconds off. That’s kind of a lot, but I thought it was doable.”

To make a run at the record, the four girls, plus alternate Regan Bohm of South Toledo, started their summer training earlier than normal.

“When everybody else was on spring break, we started training,” Pierson said.

“Normally in the spring we just focus on drills and techniques.”

The first meet of the summer season in May was actually a fairly underwhelming performance for the group, but Pierson didn’t let any of the swimmers know what their times were because he didn’t want them to be discouraged.

The next few meets led to more mediocre outings, and at their best, the quartet was still more than eight seconds off the national record.

“Then two weekends ago at a meet in Cincinnati, we were just trying to get close to the state record,” Pierson said. “They ended up swimming incredibly and broke the state record by three and a half seconds.

They were five seconds off the state record even coming into this meet. It was just unreal.”

Initially caught up in the exhilaration of his swimmers breaking the state record, Pierson eventually realized that the girls were just 0.24-second from the national record.

Renewed in their mission to reach their goal, Pierson and his team traveled to Columbus last weekend as a late entry in the Peppe-Bruce meet. This after Kreger was almost scratched from competing after being sick last week with a 103 degree fever.

“We swam in the 50 free to get used to the pool,” Pierson said.

“Then we did the 400 relay, and we got it.”

This weekend at the Western Great Lakes Open in Brown Deer, Wis., the quartet will try to better their record in the 400 relay in what will be the final time they’ll have a chance to swim together in their current age group. Kight turns 11 next week, which will close a chapter on a remarkable run.

“We’re trying to go this weekend and improve, because this will be the last shot,” Pierson said.

Contact Zach Silka at: zsilka@theblade.com or 419-724-6084.