Convergence of Time and Place
Whineray seeks automatic bid to NCAA Championships
Mike Brohard
Time. Place. Both are important metrics in the life of a swimmer.
Much of their existence will be spent chasing one set of numbers, then the next. Those digits may be found on the face of a stopwatch at practice or in LED upon a scoreboard at a meet. In a momentary glance, they will tell a swimmer everything about where they are in training and what should come next. Those figures, however, never hint to when the next will occur.
Under the right circumstances, time is relegated to bonus status. At a meet, particularly the big ones, the number next to the name – their place – takes precedence. Touching the wall when expected, fighting through the pain and beat everybody they were supposed to and maybe a few who they weren’t.
On the best days, it means a championship. A celebration in the moment but not of one, rather a culmination of all the training in the hopes it will lead to a fantastic finish.
Saturday, February 22 will be a rare occurrence for Tess Whineray. On that day, when the finals of the 200-yard backstroke are held at the Mountain West Championships in Houston, the Colorado State junior will scan the board for both, needing them to say the same thing in unison.
As a team, Colorado State will compete at the CRWC Natatorium beginning Feb. 18, with preliminary sessions in the morning, finals in the evening.
Thanks to a change in NCAA rules this year, those who win conference championships and hit the qualifying standard in the race automatically earn a berth to the NCAA Championships on March 18-21 in Atlanta. The old formula was two sets of standards – ‘A’ and ‘B’ – with ‘A’ standards an automatic whenever they were hit, the rest used to help fill out the heats at the meet.
Time and place. Not one, not the other. Both concurrently.
“It is different, definitely a different mindset going in, especially having the time already,” Whineray said. “I'm less worried about the time and more focused on the place, which sometimes doesn't work. So I'm trying to focus more on the time than on the place, and hopefully by going the time that I want to do, it will get me to the place where I want to be.
“But, yeah, definitely focused on the place, which is a different mindset going in.”
Not that the old system is completely gone. There is now just one standard, which Whineray hit at the Phill Hansel Invitational for the Rams’ midseason meet. It just happens to be the pool where the Mountain West Championships will be competed.
Back in November, she hit the standard in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes, times so good they also made her the school record holder in both events. She posted a 52.48 in the 100 to lead off the 400 medley relay (another school record, 3:37.00) and then won the 200 back in a time of 1:53.36. That time currently ranks 35th in the country, putting her in pretty elite company. Based on projections of entrants for the meet – around 290, or 40-42 per event – she could earn an invitation to compete.
“I would like to think that that's going to be down the road. The thing is, with the AQ being completely an unknown, does that incentivize some people who are maybe at that 1:56, 1:57, just sniffing at threshold to all of a sudden motivate them to drop down to 1:54?” CSU coach Christopher Woodard pondered. “She's sitting in a great situation. She could go. There's the potential to not win the event and still qualify.
“We're much like in another previous season where we have to look and see where she's at. We have to debate; do we go to a last chance meet to try and improve that time? I think the best situation for all, obviously, is to make it and just win it.”
Whineray falls in line with the way her coach thinks. Why put something into question if you can remove all the angst of wondering?
In step with that thinking, her teammates have taken note of her approach.
“I feel like for Tess she just works so hard and that's something I really admire about her. She also really brings everyone up with her, which I think is really important for these meets and even in practice,” classmate Mia Axelman said. “She's, ‘OK, let's go, we're gonna do this and get it done,’ and then she just pushes people to be better.
“She's had a great season and getting the chance to rest and swim fast is gonna be freaking awesome. She also does this thing that I really like where she kind of talks about her goals as if they've already happened and that's something I really like, because it's, yeah, if you're gonna make this happen talk like it's happened.”
It’s a change in mental approach she has taken since working with Ross Barr, the assistant athletic director for student-athlete mental health and performance. It’s as simple as replacing the word “if” with something stronger, more confident.
When she wins. When she goes to the NCAAs. Think and speak the accomplishment into existence. If only it were that simple. If only she was the only person in this position.
The Mountain West has two swimmers who have hit the standard in the event this season, the other being Abby Storm of San Diego State. She did it a day before Whineray did, and while the Kiwi’s time ranks third in Mountain West history, Storm’s 1:53.27 ranks second on the conference list, 32nd nationally.
I know I can go out fast and come home fast, and I think she's the perfect competitor to make me do that because she goes out fast and comes home.Tess Whineray
Storm, a Colorado kid out of Chatfield High School who is also the defending champion in an event an Aztec has won the past three seasons.
“She can go out really fast. She's not afraid to get out in that first hundred and go really fast and then still bring it home, which is something that I've been trying to do for years and years of my life,” Whineray said. “So I want to go out with her, but I also want to swim my own race.
“I'm excited. It's going to be a really good race, but I want to swim it how I know I can but also level up a little bit. I know I can go out fast and come home fast, and I think she's the perfect competitor to make me do that because she goes out fast and comes home.”
Having hit the time prior, and with Storm as a competitor, Whineray isn’t worried about the qualifying standard, which much be done in the championship race. Having done it in the past doesn’t count; a swimmer needs both at that precise moment.
Passing Storm will be the most challenging aspect of the race. Her style will challenge Whineray to go out faster, but she can’t lose her race strategy altogether, either, as it is in tune with her strengths. Two years ago, Whineray was the runner-up to Alex Roberts. Last year, she slid to third, behind both Roberts and Storm.
That history is part of the excitement for Whineray, who spent an entire season looking at times and feeling frustrated. She was still fast, just not quite as fast. She had found herself in the most dreaded of swim cycles – the plateau.
No massive drop off. No improvement either. The training was there. The water felt good. It can lead some swimmers to try to experiment, look for a detour to escape the abyss. Woodard credits Whineray for not seeking a quick fix which doesn’t exist.
“For whatever reason, it can be hard to diagnose exactly what is leading to that, but I know she left in the spring maybe not mentally in the best place that she had been. I think she was struggling with motivation,” Woodard said. “When she came back, that wasn't the case, but she was still building back. To see those drops and then consistently stay in a position in dual meets where she was faster year over year, I think she was really encouraged by that. Oh, I can be tired. I can be suited. I can be unsuited. I'm still going to be in this range.
“I think mainly because she just started, one, really loving it and making it fun for herself, and two, not stepping away from her race strategy at any point. Sometimes when that happens, a swimmer starts to second guess -- I'll go all out. She didn't do that. She stayed the path, and I think that's going to pay dividends.”
In a race she doesn’t actually love. It’s not her favorite event; it just happens to be the one where she’s at her best. The race where, when she’s behind the blocks, she feels sick to her stomach. She knows it’s going to hurt, and she hates it.
But her friends love it because that’s when they see Whineray the fiery racer. Out of the pool, she’s funny and carefree and a joy to be around. Put her behind the blocks, goggles slid down on her face, they see the alter ego.
“She just has this thing we like to call her like humble swag, and she just walks out there like she owns it she jumps in that pool and just from the start to finish is able to execute,” Axelman said. “Just her energy. It's kind of the nonchalant but like, I’ve-got-this sort of energy.
“She works so hard and just continues to show up for the team over and over again but it's not like she's up in your face about it or anything. She's still such a team player and she's just, ‘oh yeah, that's just what I do.’”
Axelman and Whineray’s closest friends on the team know their assignment at the meet, which is to keep her loose up until the time she’s getting into race mode. So does Woodard, who puts full trust into the method Whineray has made habit.
Habits which have led to winning and led her out of her funk. The midseason meet wasn’t a blast out of nowhere because the plateau barrier was shattered prior in a meet at Washington State, then she blew it up in Houston. Since then, tired or not, she’s been solid and consistent.
Take her back to sea level, throw on a tech suit, sprinkle in a taper and add in a decorated challenger, Whinery is feeling nothing but positive about the challenge which awaits, the opportunity presented.
Storm is the favorite, and her time is .09 faster. In swimming, Whineray knows exactly what that differential means.
“Nothing,” Whineray said. “One more kick, a straight arm on the finish, that kind of thing. So it’s anyone’s race, which is exciting. I’m excited. I really hope that I can step up to it and not shrink it down and be, ‘oh, you have it Abby.’ This whole season I've been working on the fight at the end of races.”
She’s won 50 in her career but is missing one from her initial list when she arrived from Aukland, New Zealand. She came here to be a conference champion. She came here intent on qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
On Saturday, both could become reality simultaneously under circumstances which are far from the norm of one or the other.
For once, Whineray steps into a situation of needing to create the right time and place.
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