La Center’s Hailey Grotte, the All-Region Swimmer of the Year, is pictured at The Columbian on Monday afternoon, Nov. 19, 2018. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian) Photo Gallery
When Hailey Grotte is met with an obstacle, she knows the only way forward is not to go around, but through.
Grotte, The Columbian’s repeat All-Region girls swimmer of the year, saw her pool time limited this fall due to scheduling conflicts that were out of her control.
To put together a repeat performance at the 2A state swim meet — two second place finishes — Grotte first overcame doubt that she had done everything she could to prepare for the moment.
“You just have to trust your training, which I’ve learned,” said the La Center junior, who swims for a Hockinson-La Center co-op team.
Grotte finished second at state in the 50-yard freestyle for the second season in a row with a time of 24.07 seconds and second in the 100 free in 52.69.
She chalks this fall up to a success. During the offseason Grotte competes with Northwest Blue Crush Aquatic Club and estimates she swims around 7,000 yards on a given week, plus drylands workouts and extra training.
When Hockinson/La Center coach Carolee Osborne-McAfee was hired as Hockinson’s athletic secretary, the school hired Tom Weltchek as swim coach.
Weltchek coaches at Northwest Blue Crush, and was familiar with Grotte and La Center sophomore Bryanna Ungs, although he didn’t coach either of them directly.
Due to overlapping Weltchek’s club commitments, the team cut pool time a half hour each day, he said.
At first, Grotte was admittedly nervous about her chances to compete for first in state. She thought about doubling up and swimming with her club team for two-a-days, but the timing didn’t work out.
“I wasn’t getting what I wanted to get in,” she said. “But in the end you can’t do anything about it. You just had to go with it and trust that the process is going to get you to where you want to be.”
But Weltchek, an American Swimming Coaches Association level five coach — the highest mark of certification — leaned on his coaching expertise and altered the training to accommodate.
He made workouts shorter in length and higher intensity. Swimmers trained in descending sets — slowest to fastest — went from a heart rate level of 130-150 during workouts to 180-200.
“She progressively got faster throughout the season,” Weltchek said of Grotte.
Still, Grotte had nerves in the weeks approaching the state meet at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. That’s natural for any athlete.
Through the preliminaries, Grotte sat at second in the 100 and third in the 50. She was determined not to drop in either. After two close races, she finished second overall.
“I was satisfied with that, because I did that last year and my goal was to not drop any places,” Grotte said. “(My results) were better than last year, which I did not expect.”
Said Weltchek: “It was validating. Thank god it worked for such a great person.”
Grotte hopes to be a part of a growing swimming tradition at La Center. She’s already looking forward to next season. She hopes to place first in state. After that, Grotte hopes to swim in college.
She watched a meet at Oregon State this past fall, where she connected with some college coaches. Just being there set aside all doubts she had about swimming at the next level.
“I was like, ‘this is what I want to do,’ ” Grotte said. “It’s the next level and I want to be a part of it.”
All-Region girls swimming team
Meliah Franklin, Heritage
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