Zapata excels for Valley Prep
Local school’s swim team has just one swimmer
BCUMBERLAND ryan Zapata doesn’t want to disappoint his parents, Edison and Noralba, but he claims he didn’t really enjoy swimming competitively when he started at age seven.
Of course, his mom and dad had suggested it might be good for him, the exercise, team building, camaraderie and such.
The youngster admitted the sport gave him no joy.
“I didn’t like it at first because I wasn’t very good; I didn’t like finishing last all the time,” said Zapata, now a tall, gangly sophomore at Blackstone Valley Prep High School.
“But then I got to know the people (around me). The coaches started really pushing me to get better. I don’t know, but I guess they saw something in me.”
Zapata now wants to thank those folks who believed in him. At this point in time, he appears to be blooming (and then some) before everybody’s eyes.
That much was clear at the R.I. Interscholastic
Boys’ Swimming Championships inside the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatic Center at Brown University on Feb. 29.
Though he doesn’t even have a high school team, Zapata went toe-to-toe (and stroke-tostroke) with some of the best male swimmers in the Ocean State and nearly captured gold in the 100-yard backstroke.
He ended up with a near-PR clocking of 52.63, but placed second behind champion and Cumberland High senior Ian Horstkamp-Vinekar by a scant .54.
Despite little rest, he took 11th in the very next event, the 100 breaststroke, with a respectable time of 1:06.18. (He nevertheless seemed upset afterward, as his PR is 1:04.39).
“I’m kind of bummed; I thought I could have won (the backstroke),” he said seriously at the tail end of school one day last week. “I thought there are some things I could have done better, like my underwaters off the turns. My start was pretty good, but Ian definitely beat me with his underwaters, they were so much faster.”
(For those who don’t know, “underwaters” are simply a quick and steady series of dolphin kicks off a start or flip turn to help accelerate the body through the water. Those with extremely strong kicks may actually “swim” faster during that streamlining than on the surface).
“My parents actually videoed the race, and there was a clear difference between us in the underwaters; his were great, and that’s something I need to get better at,” he noted. “I also thought I could have prepared better mentally for it. I knew the backstroke was going to be a hard race with Ian and (thirdplace McGovern Brown of Lincoln); those guys can fly.
“But I think I put too much pressure on myself. I could have had a more relaxed attitude about it.”
The natural question for Zapata: If you don’t have a school team, or school practices (BVP doesn’t even have a pool), then how did you get so fast?
That’s quite simple: He began swimming for the Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket’s Sharks, started to improve and moved on to the Cumberland Swim Club, then Envious Swimming (then located at Bryant University) before settling on Anglerfish Aquatics. That’s based at Cumberland High’s Bruce Calvert Aquatic Center, which currently serves as his home away from home.
All of those teams are affiliated with USA Swimming, Inc., the national governing body of amateur swimming. Simply put, he trains with a “club” team.
Some club coaches have little interest in the high school version of their sport, deeming club swimming the propellant to Junior or Senior National events, even the Olympic Trials, but Anglerfish owner, president and head coach Jeff Miksis believes the opposite.
“I love the kids swimming high school; when we’re swimming USA (club), you really don’t have team scores per se, or they don’t mean as much,” he indicated while running a recent practice and one of his star pupils (Zapata) training in Lane 1. “In high school, I think, they learn how to use the training they get here, which is a ton of conditioning. They learn how to race (an opponent).
“In high school (meets), the kids have more fire; they’re representing a really closeknit team, and there’s more camaraderie,” he continued. “There’s definitely more of a team approach, especially with the relays.
“What Bryan did at states in the 100 back, it’s a fantastic time for this phase of his training. He knew he wasn’t prepared to do his all-time best (time) because he’s still training so hard, and we talked about that in advance (of the event).”
Miksis, a former outstanding swimmer who twice attended the Olympic Trials and who will be inducted into the R.I. Aquatic
Hall of Fame in May, claimed Zapata should be in more prime condition to race fast.
The reason: He’s beginning to “taper” more, which means Miksis is cutting back on the amount of yardage his kids are training, therefore getting more rest, which in turn should result in greater strength and speed.
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Zapata planned on entering a whopping nine events this past weekend at the New England Age-Group Championships at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, among them the 1,000-yard freestyle, 200 and 400 individual medleys, 100 and 200 backstrokes and breaststrokes, and the 50 and 100 freestyles.
He will do that ALL in the span of three days, but it gets better: Should he earn any top-16 finishes (which he will), he will have to compete in those same events during the evening finals. That means he just may have to swim 18 events in less than 72 hours.
Now that’s an intense workload, but one he’s ready to handle, as he’s trained as much as 6,000-7,000 yards per day six days a week for several months.
“My goal is to break 10:10 in the 1,000, 4:19 in the 400 IM, 2:00 in the 200 IM, 52 in the 100 back, 1:04 in the 100 breast, 459.8 in the 100 free and 23.19 in the 50,” he grinned, looking like it will be as simple as how he stated it.
“I’m not unhappy with how I did at states; my times were pretty good, but I just wish I could have gone a little faster and placed higher,” he said. “Back in mid-January, I dropped 13 seconds in my 400 IM (to a PR clocking of 4:19), and that was at WPI, so I’ve had success there. After the state meet, now I know I can swim faster, especially if I do a better job with my underwaters.”
As for not representing a high school team, Zapata mentioned it might be nice, but it isn’t necessary, not to him. He never thought about going to a different high school with a team, as he started at BVP as a kindergartner, and actually will be a member of the first graduating class to experience all 12 years at the schools (on and off Broad Street).
“That means a lot to me,” he stated with a smile. “It’s not really hard not to be on a team. There are some benefits and downsides to it. You don’t have to worry about getting to practice with your high school team; another is you get to pick the events you want to swim instead of a coach telling you he needs you to swim certain events to help the team score more points.
“You also don’t have to stress out about relays, just focus on your own events,” he added. “On the down side, you’re not as motivated to score points to help your teammates. There’s so much school spirit in high school; at USA meets, there are still people cheering for you, but it doesn’t seem as loud.
“I’ve never been part of a high school team, so maybe that’s why I feel this way, but I think it would be interesting. Then again, who knows? The good news is there’s a high chance of us having one next year.”
According to Athletic Director Ed Laskowski, what Zapata is currently doing will only help that possibility become reality down the road.
On his list of what he wants to achieve over the next month or so then later in life, is swim really fast at a Junior National competition in St. Petersburg, Fla. the week of March 24-28.
“He made the cuts (or he qualified) at the New England Seniors at Brown in mid-December, and by the time the Junior Nationals roll round, he’ll be full tapered by then,” Miksis indicated. “He should be ready to go, and I fully expect him to swim fast there.
“As time goes on, I can easily see Bryan being a D-I collegiate swimmer, and he will get scholarships for his talents. In any four-year span, $750 million go to male and female college athletes, and he’ll be one of them.
“Bryan’s so fun to coach. He’s so focused on his technique and his own progress. He’s a real joy to have, such a hard worker and so devoted to swimming.”
Zapata’s immediate goal is to do well in St. Petersburg, then begin preparations for the spring and summer long-course season. As a BVP junior, he desperately wants to break the state interscholastic 100 backstroke record of 49.74, that held by Luka Spinizola. After that, he’ll work on, he hopes, shattering other state marks.
He also wants to swim for a good college team, and represent it to the best of his ability.
When asked about eventually reaching the Olympics, his eyes lit up.
“I would love to make the Olympic Trials someday; that would be great,” he said. “I have dual citizenship with Colombia, so I don’t what country I would choose to represent, but that’s my ultimate goal – the Olympic Games.”
He hesitated, then sighed, “Still, it’s going to be really hard.”
Photo by Ernest A. Brown