T-birds’ Michaels on track for state titles

Senior hopes to win 500 freestyle, 200 freestyle and relays at 4A state meet

By Tony Dondero

Enterprise reporter

SHORELINE

When Shorewood senior Bryan Michaels steps up to the block he believes he’s trained and worked as hard, probably harder, than anyone he’s up against.

“I don’t really have a pre-race routine,” he said. “When I get up on the block I know I’ve trained for this, this is no different than what I’ve done in practice a thousand times. I mean if you’re thinking about something when you get up on the block you’ve probably done something wrong because you shouldn’t have to think. It should be instinct and training taking over at that point. At least that’s the way I see it.”

In February, the reigning 4A 500-yard freestyle champion goes for back-to-back titles in high school swimming’s longest distance race. He hopes to add a 200 freestyle title as well after finishing second in his first year of high school swimming.

“He’s a stud,” teammate Mackey Hopen said. “It doesn’t matter what event, you put him anywhere he’ll get us points. He’ll probably win the 500 and 200, I bet, and be a key part of the relays.”

Michaels hopes to break the 500 freestyle state record of 4 minutes, 23.06 seconds set by Wes Oliver of Sammamish in 1995. Michaels won in an automatic all-American time of 4:35.20 last year.

“Our state record in the 500 is really, really fast,” he said. “But I think I can take a run at it and at least get close to it. That’s my No. 1 goal individually.”

To achieve that goal, Michaels will have to focus on little things such as his turns and race strategy more than trying to break the time, said Troy Emmons, Michael’s club coach at West Coast Aquatics in Mill Creek.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he was able to do that,” Emmons said. “That’s what we’re going for. Most experts watching him at this point would say probably not, but he’s done some amazing things the last couple years. I wouldn’t rule it out.”

Michaels’ isn’t simply about his marquee events though. For his club team, Michaels swims the 200, 500, 1,000 and mile freestyles as well as the 200 and 400 individual medleys. But during high school meets, Shorewood coach Scott Kelley has given him the chance to swim everything from the 50 freestyle on up.

“Every meet and every race I’m going to go hard. I’m not swimming the 200 and 500 every meet so I’ve got a lot of variety in what I’m swimming,” he said. “I’ve already swam almost every event on the schedule so far this year. It’s always a new challenge and I try to give it all I have at that point in time.”

“The sky is the limit for Michaels whatever he decides to do,” Kelley said. “It’s definitely a motivating factor in practices for the group of guys who swim in the lane with him.”

Michaels trains about 30 hours a week between club practices at West Coast Aquatics and with the high school team. He also does three to five hours of weight training a week focused on his legs and shoulders to give him more strength and explosiveness at the wall and off the block.

Michaels also signed this past fall with Division I University of Utah.

“Olympic Trials is on my goal sheet,” Michaels said. “I want to be at the NCAA Championships for college I want to make finals in NCAAs if I can. I want to take it as far as I can. I’ve been doing it my whole life. I want to see how far I can go with the sport.”

Michaels started swimming at age 7 for Cascade Swim Club and then switched to West Coast Aquatics as a freshman.

He’s average height and build, standing 5-feet, 11 inches and weighing 165 pounds. By contrast, Olympic superstar Michael Phelps is about 6-4, 200. But that doesn’t matter as much in the distance events that are Michaels’ specialty.

“You look at me and I’m pretty normal proportion, I’m racing some of these guys that have been 6-foot, 6-3 since they were 12 years old,” Michaels said. “Eventually work catches up to you. You can beat anybody with hard work. It might take some time but you got to stick with it.”

“He swims events that are suited to his body type. He swims distances that don’t require the same type of power,” said Emmons, who is in his 12th year at West Coat Aquatics. “Mentally he’s one of the toughest kids I’ve ever worked with. He can push himself through some things that are pretty painful.”

“He never misses practice. That commitment is pretty special,” Emmons said. “You put that together and that makes Bryan pretty special.”

Swimmers seem to have more attention this year after coverage of Phelps’ eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in August was the story of the games.

“What he’s done for the sport is amazing,” Michaels said. “He’s a household name now and people are starting to notice swimming more. At school people are asking about the swim team and how we’re doing, who we’re swimming against.

“This is the biggest crowd I’ve seen at a swim meet like this,” he said pointing to the balcony during a meet at Shoreline Pool against Snohomish and Glacier Peak Dec. 11. “People are definitely getting into it more than recent years.

“People don’t realize the kind of work that goes into swimming (but) I think people are starting to figure it out because anybody that wins eight gold medals is obviously putting in work.”

Michaels swam for West Coast Aquatics but did not compete for Shorewood his freshman and sophomore years. He decided to come out his junior year.

Emmons said that decision ultimately was up to Michaels.

“If this is what you want to do it’s really up to you,” Emmons said. “I’m not going to hold the purse strings.

That’s what I do with all my athletes. They make the decisions, I give them input.”

Michaels qualified for the Short Course Nationals in Atlanta on Dec. 4 and swam his best times in the 200 (1:41), 500 (4:33.3) and the mile (16:05). The meet is all ages and includes many of the top swimmers in the country, including some Olympians.

“The longer the distance, the better he is,” Emmons said. “I think it’s two things: one, you have to be very efficient; two, they got to come in with mental attitude to do the training to be successful in that event. At those distances you have to do more training. Looking at the bottom of the pool for three hours is sometimes not the most exciting thing.”

Michaels owns all the team records at West Coast Aquatics for distances 200 yards or longer.

He also is an academic All-American with a 3.6 cumulative grade point average. He takes AP psychology and physics as well as an English class at Shoreline Community College.

Away from the pool he enjoys hunting and fishing and hopes to restore a 1971 Chevy pickup with his dad next summer.