Why stick with a grueling sport? Swimming the butterfly ‘makes me feel like a mermaid’

Swimming can be a harsh sport.

Competitors talk about staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool for hours and miles on end during training.

Curtis High School sophomore Leigh Lopez-Silvers is hardly an outlier. She swims a variety of events, and shores up two record-setting Vikings relay teams. She followed her sister Willow, a former Class 4A state champion in the 100-yard freestyle now swimming for NCAA Division I Iona College, into the sport.

No one was surprised when she set a Curtis school record in the 100 butterfly this season at 57.15 seconds, but her motivation for choosing the event counters the sport’s grind-it-out image.

“It may sound funny, but I like butterfly because it makes me feel like a mermaid,” said Lopez-Silvers of a stroke where a swimmer’s legs stay together in a dolphin kick. “My club coach (Alex Reed at University Pace Aquatic Club) worked with me on it. I enjoyed it and started getting good at it.

“Swimming fast is fun.”

Lopez-Silvers isn’t the only Viking enjoying the 2018 season, in which Curtis claimed the 4A SPSL dual meet title with a perfect 7-0 record. The league meet, the last before the 4A West Central District meet, in which swimmers must choose the events they’ll vie for state honors in, is Saturday at Rogers in Puyallup.

“A lot of our girls are getting older and stronger in the water,” second-year coach Aaron Hughes said. “We work to get each one out of their comfort zone and peaking through their perceived limits.”

Lopez-Silvers feels like her season is just beginning after both a shoulder injury and ear infection limited her pool time.

“I’m going to be well-prepared by the time we get to state,” she said.

She’ll swim the 200 medley relay and the 100 fly in postseason, with one more individual event and one more relay to be determined by Hughes after this weekend’s league meet.

“Leigh’s a really goofy human being,” Hughes said. “She has a true and deep love of swimming.”

While Lopez-Silvers has recorded state qualifying marks in four events, junior Molly Hickey tops her with five such times in every freestyle event and the 200 individual medley. Hickey set three school records this season, in the 50 free (23.92), the 200 free (1:54.06) and the 500 free (5:09.5).

“She’s just learning how talented and powerful she can be,” Hughes said. “It’s exciting to watch her try new things. She wasn’t as strong in the 200 or 500 in the past, only swam them a few times. We’re really looking forward to seeing her progress.”

As with Lopez-Silvers, Hickey’s list of events for districts won’t be finalized until after the coming weekend.

“We have to place our individual swimmers where they will do the most for the team,” Hughes said.

A year ago, the Vikings won the district meet and were 10th as a team at state.

“So far this season, he’s put me in every event he could,” Hickey said. “He’s really been encouraging.”

It’s rare for a swimmer to have both the speed to be a record-setter in the 50 free and the endurance to excel in the 500. Hickey manages her versatility by not spending a lot of time on the subject.

“I really don’t think about it,” she said. “I just get in the pool and do it.”

Another thing she’s done is team with juniors Emily van Zonneveld and Gabriella Lawrence — who both have state qualifying times in the 100 breast stroke — and Lopez-Silvers to give Curtis stellar relay teams, something Hickey says is a different experience than competing as an individual.

“With an individual event, it’s about your own performance. You beat yourself up more if you don’t do well,” she said. “With a relay you’ve got teammates to lean on. They cheer you on. If you mess up, you’ve still got their support.”

The Vikings have other up-and-coming stars such as frosh Erin Forrest, who has a state qualifying mark in the 500 free, and Gabi Bellin as well as Swedish exchange student Andrea Palm, a freestyler and 200 individual medley competitor.

With 75 swimmers in a no-cut program, the Vikings standouts appreciate their teammates regardless of skill level.

“With so many different people, you get lots of different points of view from all the girls,” Lopez-Silvers said. “And we’re all out there dying together during practice.”

Hickey credits both Hughes and athletic director Suzanne Vick with raising the profile of girls swimming at Curtis. She appreciates her large number of teammates most during competition.

“It’s chaos,” she said. “You’ve got everybody behind your lane screaming, yelling. You feel loved and supported.”

This story was originally published October 17, 2018 at 10:28 AM.