District 1 swimming: Though essentially alone, Marple Newtown’s Thomas wins a silver
PHILADELPHIA — When Williams Thomas saw that his seed time would land him in only the second-fastest heat of the 100 breaststroke at the District 1 Swimming and Diving Championships, he knew he’d have to race himself.
If the Marple Newtown senior wanted to fulfill his goals of getting on the podium and qualifying for states, he’d have to do it without the benefit of pace-setters and leave his competition behind. It all fell into place even better than Thomas anticipated.
Thomas blitzed his heat, then watched as only one swimmer in the final heat touched in a time faster than his, earning a silver medal at La Salle University’s Kirk Natatorium.
Being a spectator for the final heat paid off, even if it was uncomfortable.
“It’s nerve-racking because you know if a certain number of them beat you, you’re not going to place well,” Thomas said. “But my time held up, so it worked out well. … You just kind of pray and you want them to do good, obviously, but you hope that what you did is good enough to stand up to them.”
Thomas won his heat, the sixth of seven, by a comfortable margin in 57.61 seconds, dropping 1.69 ticks off his entry time. That left Thomas to wait and hope.
In the final heat, Pennridge’s Joseph Hong broke away from the field early and won in 56.99 seconds. But when the crowd behind him touched, no one was quicker than Thomas. The second-fastest of the final heat was Garnet Valley’s Aidan Zipf, who fell .01 behind Thomas to garner the bronze medal.
“Me and him (Zipf) are always dead next to each other, and this is the first time I’ve ever beaten him,” Thomas said. “So he’s probably going to come back even harder at states, and so I’ve got to be ready for him.”
States looks likely, with 59.20 required for the last at-large berth last year. Thomas just missed that, going 59.81 at districts as a junior to finish 17th.
This year, he’s in good shape for his first states swim. Both Zipf (57.62) and Ridley’s Alex Boeckx, who finished sixth in 57.91 from the final heat, look likely to return to states in the event.
Part of Thomas’ states approach this year was to be less emotionally invested in it, focusing only on what he could control in the pool.
“It’s a big relief because last year I missed it by a half a second,” he said. “And this year, not that I wasn’t nervous, but I was kind of like, do whatever happens and be happy with what happens and play it where it lies.”
