Hellenthal ends season at state qualifier
13-year-old eighth grader is youngest in meet, places eighth, 11th in best events
(Thomas Hellethal pictures courtesy of John Hodgson.)
Coach John Hodgson turns in this report from Cooperstown’s final swim meet of the year, at Nottingham High School on Friday, Feb. 18.
At the age of 13, Thomas Helenthal was the youngest competitor at the state qualifier swim meet on Friday night, in one final attempt to qualify for states. In a heroic display of freestyle and backstroke, Hellenthal placed 11th and eighth in his best events, setting the pool ablaze with his strength, skill and determination.
Please allow me to share the magnitude of this accomplishment, and let’s break down how Thomas got to qualifiers, one of the highest levels of swimming competition. It all starts with a great regular season. Swimming from November to January, Thomas was posting fast times in his events. During this season, if you swim faster than a predetermined cut-time, you are invited to swim at sectionals.
I can’t stress this enough, getting to sectionals is extremely challenging. At this “all star” meet, 31 swim teams brought their best athletes to swim individual events and relay, and the top 24 swimmers in each event were invited to move on to state qualifiers. At Wednesday night’s sectionals, Thomas took first place in the 500 freestyle and first place in the 100 backstroke, in the Class C division, earning an invite to state qualifiers.
To make it to states, the finals, swimmers must get times below an even faster cut-time or come in first in their events at state qualifiers. Although this eighth grader did not make it to states this year, Thomas Hellenthal competed fiercely, forcing athletes, coaches and fans to take note of this young phenom. Here’s your recap.
Event 8: 500 yard freestyle. Thomas was seeded 10th out of 24 and was among monsters. His goal was to swim each 50 yard split at 32 seconds, eying a finishing time around 5:20. After 20 grueling lengths and more than minutes of intense freestyle, Thomas finished with a 5:24.34, landing him in 11th place overall.
Event 10: 100 yard backstroke. Seeded eighth, Thomas Hellenthal was ready to take on the world. In a flurry of arms, legs, splashing and crashing, Hellenthal was able to complete the challenge in less than a minute, finishing with a time of 59.85, earning a trip to the podium.
Congratulations on your eighth place finish!
An incredible season for young Thomas and Cooperstown, we are extremely proud of all you’ve worked for this year.
This concludes the 2021/2022 swim season, big shout out to Greg Klein for allowing me to share our team’s accomplishments. I look forward to recapping next season’s meets. I had a blast working with the varsity swim programs, big shout out to my mentors Coach Frank Miosek, Coach Lucas Spencer, Coach Matt Spencer and Coach Matt Grady who taught me what coaching is all about.
Enjoy the off-season, see you in September.
Let’s go Cooperstown!
