Down to the details, Elk Grove's Williams preps for state meet

For Elk Grove's Colin Williams, the details matter.

After excelling in last weekend's sectional meet at Glenbrook North, Williams arrived for an afternoon practice at his home pool in advance of this weekend's state meet preliminaries.

As he strolled into the pool office, coach Keith Kura was about to tell him where he'd be seeded in his top event, the 100-yard butterfly, for the last high school swimming meet of his career, at New Trier.

Turns out his senior standout had already thoroughly researched the topic online.

"He looks at me and goes, 'Second, right?' " said Kura. "I'm like, 'Yep - second.' I should have know he'd know."

That's right - Williams' qualifying effort of 49.91, a lifetime best for him, was the second-fastest qualifying performance in Illinois.

Williams also will race in the state meet for the second straight year in the 200 freestyle. He's said all season that he'd hoped to reach the finals in both races, and now he's positioned well to do exactly that.

It helps that Williams now has a frame of reference for the intense experience that awaits him.

Last year, in his first trip to the state meet, the detail-oriented William somehow overlooked a pretty important one. In his first race of the meet, the 200 free, Williams forgot to tie his suit.

Yes, it stayed on, and the event still went reasonably well - but it clearly was out character for him.

"We've talked about that," said Kura. "Colin was an experienced swimmer even before last year's state meet, but there's really no way to completely prepare somebody for our high school state meet. I know it will help that he's been through it once before."

And Williams got a pretty full taste of the state meet experience, including competing in both sessions days last year. He grabbed the 12th and final qualifying spot in the 100 fly, then improved by one place in the Saturday finals session to finish 11th.

The main difference between last year and this is that Williams has reserved his full taper for the state meet, whereas last season he was trying to extend the peak operating levels he'd reached the previous weekend.

All of that should help Williams close in on his goals this time around.

Unlike some athletes who need sustained reinforcement to be convinced they're good enough, Williams seems to have a bulletproof, built-in confidence.

"Sometimes he tells me what he's thinking in terms of the the times he wants to do, and it seems like maybe it's a little too much to expect," said Kura. "But I'm at the point where I don't think there's anything he could do that would really surprise me."

A good example of the surprise factor came during Elk Grove's dual meet at Buffalo Grove in January.

Williams, who has basically rewritten the team record board at Elk Grove, wanted to give the 100 backstroke a try in BG's fast new pool. Kura entered him in the event and was thinking he might see a time around 55 seconds.

A motivated Williams touched in 53.58, thereby getting another team record in what is far from his strongest event.

"There are a lot of different ways to enjoy the sport," said Kura. "For Colin, he's all about the result. Getting his name on the record board, that's where the fun is for him.

"He knew at the sectional meet, we had one last try at lowering our team records (in the freestyle relays)," said Kura. "And you could see that it mattered - not only to him, but for everyone on the relay."

That competitive drive, coupled with a receptive attitude toward learning some of the finer nuances of the sport, has Williams poised for a big finish to his high school career. Getting into a championship heat of the fly alongside the likes of Matt Harrington (Libertyville), Doug Hein (DeKalb) and Franco Reyes (Hinsdale Central) won't be easy. But Williams has taken every step to prepare for that possibility.

"I think with Colin, the main thing is he's been more willing to get a little bit outside his comfort zone this year," said Kura. "And then it's a real willingness to look at a lot of the technical things, and then refine them."

One such area is Williams' underwaters on his butterfly - the submerged portion of the race immediately after the start and turns.

In butterfly underwaters, the arms stay locked in a streamline in front of the body while a furious dolphin kick propels the swimmer.

Against lesser competition, Williams' longish underwater is an advantage because it's faster than most people can swim atop the surface. But against elite swimmers, the point at which a swimmer breaks back to the surface and resumes swimming becomes critical. A too-long underwater can actually be a detriment.

"There's a point in there, and we've been working on this, where you actually lose a little momentum underwater," Kura said. "We could see last year, watching Steven Tan (who won the event) - finding that balance is important."

As Kura watched Williams perform a set of 50 butterflies in practice, he marveled over the consistency he was seeing.

Assistant coach Terry Lyons was keeping track of Williams' time on each rep and couldn't believe what the stopwatch was telling him. On three consecutive efforts, Williams' time had been precisely 26.00 seconds.

"It's an anomaly," said Lyons, "right?"

Kura didn't seem so sure.

"The thing about Colin, and I've never seen this in another swimmer, is he's somehow able to get faster in a set when he's supposed to be getting tired - without putting any more effort into it," Kura said.

It will take a full effort from Williams this weekend. It seems unlikely that the best boys swimmer in Elk Grove's history will overlook this detail.

"I'll definitely be ready," Williams said after winning the 100 fly at Glenbrook North. "In the 200, I'd have liked to be a little faster, but I feel like I'm pretty close to where I want to be."