43
Trebilcocks busy in the pool
By JOE SCALZO
CANFIELD
Photo
Canfield swimmers Garrett Trebilcock and his younger brother Gavin at Salem Community Center in January of 2009.
When Gavin Trebilcock qualified for the U.S. Junior National swim meet last summer — joining his brother in the process — his parents were so surprised they hadn’t even reserved a hotel room for him in Seattle.
So he took someone’s bed, someone else slept on a cot and his mom stayed home.
“No one really saw it coming,” Gavin said.
That’s not the case this summer.
The Trebilcock brothers will compete in nine events — five for Garrett, four for Gavin — in the 18-and-under meet, which runs from Aug. 9-13 in Irvine, Calif.
The brothers will first compete in the Central Zone meet at Purdue University from Wednesday through Saturday. In between, Garrett will compete at the U.S. Senior Nationals, also in Irvine, which features the country’s best swimmers. Garrett is the first area swimmer to qualify for the national meet since Boardman’s Tyler O’Halloran, who went on to a terrific career at the University of Texas.
The brothers qualified for the meets by meeting specific times required by USA Swimming.
“I’m just happy to compete and see all the fast swimmers at nationals,” said Garrett, a recent Canfield High graduate who will swim at Ohio State this fall. “It’s more of a tune-up [for junior nationals]; I’m not thinking about doing anything special.
“At the nationals, you see people like Michael Phelps. That grade of people. And you see some of the best college kids and some U.S. Olympic team members might be there. Just to experience that is amazing.”
Garrett was a Division II state champion in the 200-yard individual medley in 2009 but had a disappointing meet (by his standards) as a senior competing in Division I. He finished in the top four in three events but fell short of his lofty expectations.
“I was kind of mad about how my high school season ended and I’m hoping maybe I can at least better my times from last year’s [junior national] meet,” said Garrett. “If I can do that, I’ll feel pretty good going into college.”
At the junior national meet, Garrett will compete in the 200 IM, 200 butterfly, 100 fly, 100 back and 100 free.
His goal is to make it to an “A” final, meaning he’s one of the eight fastest in the event. Last summer, he qualified for a “C” final, meaning he was in the 17-24 range after the morning preliminaries.
“It was a really awesome experience last year coming back that night to compete against the best kids in the nation under 18,” said Garrett, who will compete in the 200 IM, 100 back and 100 fly at the senior nationals.
“It was really inspiring and hopefully the same thing can happen this year.”
Gavin will compete in the 100 breaststroke, 200 breast, 50 free and 100 free. He met qualifying times in the first two events, allowing him to compete in two bonus events. He nearly qualified in the latter two events anyway.
“Summer is a lot more fun for me, swimming-wise,” said Gavin, who earned All-Ohio in two events at the state swim meet. “It feels a little more laid-back, like you don’t have the school pressure on you and you have all day to get ready for swimming.”
Garrett earned his senior qualifying times at last year’s junior meet.
If all goes well, Gavin will do the same this year.
“That’s what I’m hoping for this year,” he said.