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Now a senior, Trebilcock has unfinished business
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Canfield High School senior Gavin Trebilock practices at the Beeghly Center at YSU.
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Canfield High School senior swimmer Gavin Trebilock
Sectional swimming meet
When: Division I diving today. Due to the small number of competitors, Division II divers will advance automatically to the district meet. Swimming is Friday and Saturday.
DIVISION I
Where: Ocasek Natatorium, University of Akron.
Area schools competing: Austintown Fitch, Boardman, Canfield, Warren Harding
Where: Case Western Reserve University
Area school: Howland
District qualifiers: Top 16 divers from combined North and South sectionals advance to next week’s district at Cleveland State. In swimming, the top two in each event automatically qualify, with 42 at-large individual girls qualifiers and 16 at-large girls relay qualifiers. For boys, it’s 32 at-large qualifiers and 12 at-large relays.
DIVISION II
Where: Ocasek Natatorium, University of Akron.
Area schools: Cardinal Mooney, Columbiana, Hubbard, Poland, Salem, Ursuline, Western Reserve, Youngstown Christian
Where: Hawken School, Gates Mills
Area schools: Lakeview, Maplewood, McDonald
District qualifiers: In swimming, the top two in each event automatically qualify, with 26 at-large individual boys qualifiers and 16 at-large relay boys qualifiers. For girls, it’s 24 at-large individuals and 14 at-large relays.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Just past 6 p.m. on Tuesday night, Canfield senior Gavin Trebilcock was getting ready for that night’s swimming practice at YSU’s Beeghly Center pool, which is roughly 21 miles from the Salem Community Center where the rest of his teammates practice.
It’s a new arrangement for Trebilcock, who practiced at SCC his first three years of high school — and got sick during all three. Trebilock trains at YSU in the offseason and has never gotten sick at Beeghly.
So, his doctor gave him two options:
Run a bunch of tests to figure out why he gets sick at SCC and not YSU.
Save some time and money and just swim at YSU.
He chose the second option, meeting with his club team coach, Greg McAtee, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 each night to train next to middle school swimmers more interested in, say, Justin Bieber than getting ready for the Division I state meet.
“It stinks not to be able to see my team, but it’s awesome to be healthy, too,” he said.
Despite the disconnect — a far cry from previous years, when he even spent most of his free time with his teammates — Trebilcock said it’s been one of the most enjoyable years of his career. Previously, he’d preferred the weight room to the pool. Now it’s the opposite.
“It’s kind of surprising,” he said. “Usually for your senior year, you kind of want to go out and do what you want to do. But I’ve actually enjoyed the swimming aspect and the practices.”
Trebilcock plans to join his older brother, Garrett, on Ohio State’s nationally-ranked swim team next year. But after swimming in two top-four relays at last year’s state meet, he has some unfinished business this postseason, which begins Friday with the Division I sectional meet.
“I had two options — quit and say last year was my best year or come back and try to go faster,” said Trebilcock.
Although the two brothers are similar in talent, they don’t always share the same outlook. Garrett was the one who spent snow days looking for a place to swim, while Gavin still isn’t sure whether he chose to swim or swimming chose him.
“Sometimes I think, ‘How did I even get stuck in this?’” he said. “But we’ve always done this sport. I stunk at basketball and I stunk at football.
“But in swimming, anyone can be potentially great. They do choose taller guys, but it really depends on how hard you work.”
That type of honesty sometimes stuns his parents and teachers — “They’ll be like, ‘Did you really say that?’” he said, laughing — but regardless of how he’s feeling about the sport on a particular day, he still puts in the work.
And now, with just a few weeks left in his high school career, he’ll see if that work has paid off. He’ll swim four events this weekend — the 200-yard individual medley, the 100 breaststroke, the 200 medley relay and either the 200 or 400 free relay — and is hoping to set meet records in both individual events.
Two weeks later, he’ll look to finish strong at the state meet in Canton.
Then it’s time for college. And he can’t wait.
“My brother was always the one who, in his eighth grade year, he wanted to live it up because it was his last year of middle school,” Trebilcock said. “My outlook was always, ‘Middle school was awesome but high school is going to be more awesome and I’m excited.’ That’s the way I feel about college.
“Not to say I didn’t love high school, but am I excited for college? Oh yeah.”