A team for the ages
KETTERING – Inside the doorway at the South YMCA in Kettering there is a banner that says “Start your Olympic dream with us.” It’s an advertisement for the KEY swim team.
According to their track record, some of the KEY swimmers may be well on their way to the Olympics.
In a national meet this summer, the girls team finished sixth and the boys team was 11th. That gave the KEY team an overall finish of sixth among 148 teams. It’s the best overall finish for the team since they started competing nationally 20 years ago.
“It’s very exciting and rewarding as a coach to see the kids do as well as they did,” said head coach Eric Wentzel, who has been at the helm for three years. “I whoop and holler on the sidelines just like everyone else and actually kind of lost my voice halfway through the meet.
“We haven’t had success as a team like this for quite some time. We had the girls place third (before) but this is the highest we’ve had them place in quite a while.”
It’s a record
Ty Perkins was the lone swimmer to win an event at the meet. The 18-year-old Centerville High School senior won three events (800-meter freestyle, 1500 freestyle and 400 freestyles) and set a national record in the 800 freestyle with a time of 8:25.05.
He also broke team records in each of those events.
Oakwood senior Daniel Schmitz also helped the KEY team make a mark at the national meet. When he finished second in the 800 freestyle in marked the first time in YMCA Nationals history that teammates finished first and second in the same event.
On the women’s side sisters Brittney and Natalie Rohr made the most noise. The sister combo competed in a combined 11 events, finishing no worse than 18th in any of them.
“It’s not too often you get family members that swim well together like that, and they’re blessed to be close enough in age that they can be together for a couple of years now. And they both have been great (for the KEY team),” said Wentzel.
It’s a credit
For Wentzel, success in the pool is nothing new. In high school he competed in the YMCA national meet. He also helped Wright State win an MCC league title in 1997.
But still, he gives the competitive nature of Dayton’s swim team as much credit for the team’s success, as he gives himself for coaching them.
“Swimmers practice six days a week,” said Wentzel. “One of the great things about Dayton swimming is that a lot of the coaches allow their kids to swim with their club teams and their high school. So a lot of these kids will go to one high school practice a week so they know their coaches and their teammates.
“A lot of the coaches want to have their kids to swim with a coach who knows (the athlete) and trains with them year round anyway. And it frees up more time for them to work with the kids that came out for swimming because they thought it would be fun. So it frees up pool space and the coaches.”
He then went on to say, “Swimming in Dayton and southwest Ohio is one of the tops in the nation. You just can’t compete with what we do.”
Contact this writer at hehr.3@wright.edu.
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