High school swimming: Alex Downing and the Avon girls out to make this a special season

Alex Downing had a phenomenal run to close last season and she has no intention of letting up. The junior led Avon to the state meet where she added three Division I All-Ohio finishes (top 16) to her resume, giving her six for her career. She and the Eagles are hard at work to do even better this season. "Training has been pretty hard definitely compared to last year," Downing said. "We've started doing a lot harder sets. It's been hard but it's been good and just having the whole team there has been really fun. It's been a good environment so far and I'm excited to keep training hard. I think this year could be a very special year." Third-year coach Adam Crabtree agrees. He also knows Downing is a big reason why it could be special. "Alex really anchors our team," he said. "She was an All-American last year in the 100 back and just missed it in the 100 fly. To see the work she puts in to get the most out of her talent is what makes her special. Most swimmers on Alex's level are above 5-8 tall. Alex is 5-2. Like most sports, that height matters in swimming. Alex is so strong underwater and does so well maximizing her efficiency above it. That tireless work ethic not only let's her compete but has pushed her toward the peak of high school swimming." A year ago, Downing finished fourth in the 100 back (55.76) and seventh in the 100 fly (55.88) at state in the section A championship finals at Canton's Branin Natatorium. Both of her performances came on the heels of school-record swims in the 100 back (55.33) and 100 fly (55.51) in the state prelims. Downing's 100 back time in prelims earned her high school All-American honors as she eclipsed the 55.92 standard. She barely missed All-American honors in the 100 fly (55.49 standard) with her state prelim time. Earlier at the state meet, she teamed with Rayna Swope, Bridget Kurtzweil and Eva Molnaar to earn another all-state award as a member of the 200 medley relay which finished third in the section B consolation final and 11th overall in 1:47.63, less than a second off its county record 1:47.61 set at the Bowling Green district meet. The Eagles won their second straight Southwestern Conference title last year, as well, following that up with a county-record second-place district finish. Avon then took 15th at state, the best finish by a Lorain County Division I girls team since Avon Lake finished 11th in 1983. Downing, Kurtzweil, Swope and Molenaar, along with senior Mallory MacKay, are expected to once again to be the mainstays for the team. "We definitely focus on doing drills and working on the strokes," Downing said. "The people who do club swimming know the value and understand the value of harder sets, harder sendoffs and longer distances at practice. Adam is definitely a math kind of person. He knows exactly how much yardage we've covered in a two-hour practice. Mondays we do more of an aerobic-level workout so that's going to be more yards, like around 6,000 for a workout. Wednesday workouts are more sprint-oriented so we'll do less yards, like 3,500 yards." Downing's past two seasons are the best by an Avon girl at state since Beth (Schlessman) Barbian combined for four All-Ohio finishes as an independent at the 1994 and '95 Division I meets. Downing gets another test at the national level when she competes for her club team, Lake Shore Swim Club, at the USA Junior Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina, this weekend. Last year, she competed in the 400 medley and 200 medley relays at nationals along with Katie Susi, Taylor Stockard and Gianna Miller. This time she'll swim the 100 back, 100 fly and 200 back. So what can Downing and the Eagles do for an encore? "During my first two years we had been building towards being relevant in the Northwest district and the state," Crabtree said. "Last year's runner-up performance at districts and top-15 finish at state really put us on the map. This year our goal is to keep climbing. With five returning state qualifiers, more district qualifiers returning than any team and some freshmen who already can contribute deep into tournament season, our expectations of what we can accomplish are pretty high." Crabtree also knows how much work goes into doing the things Avon is doing. "We talk daily on controlling the things we can and worrying about ourselves," he said. "If others want to worry about us too, even better. As a coach I often hear about the great talent on this team. For sure we have some very talented swimmers but chalking it all up to talent trivializes the year-round work so many of these girls do to have this chance at doing something very special." Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.