Arlington Hts.-based swim club to train at Olympic Training Center
Sam Wilcher of Arlington Heights still holds the record in the 200-meter butterfly at Purdue University. He has qualified for the Olympic trials twice, in 2008 and 2012, and he hopes to return in 2016.
But as accomplished as Wilcher is, even he has not seen Team USA's flagship facility, the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Until now.
Wilcher is one of 30 swimmers from the Alligator Aquatics swim club, based in Arlington Heights, to leave Wednesday, May 20, for a training trip at the renowned facility.
"We applied for this a year ago, and we're lucky to get in," says Mary Ruffin, head coach of the Alligators. "Next year at this time, it will be filled with Olympians training for the Summer Games."
Who knows? A few of them could come from the Alligators. The group headed to Colorado includes nationally ranked swimmers, including three with times that meet the standard for the Olympic trials.
Overall, the club includes more than 140 swimmers - including 60 high school members - who come from Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Deer Park, Inverness, Palatine, Prospect Heights and Wheeling.
"We wanted to get them out of their routine and to see the pinnacle of our sport," Ruffin says. "You don't realize how good you are until you train with the best."
One of those hoping to qualify for the trials is 15-year-old Michael Balcerak of Arlington Heights. He broke a school record at St. Viator High School during his first swim meet last winter, and he went on to be the only freshman to make the state finals in the 200-yard freestyle.
"He went to nationals one week later and swam even faster," Ruffin says. "He just keeps getting faster. He'll have Olympic trial times, for sure."
Balcerak knows the training will be difficult, as the swimmers work to adjust to the higher elevations and thinner air conditions. But he expects to find inspiration there just the same.
"I want to go further in swimming," Balcerak says, "and this can take me there."
One of his teammates on the Alligators, Michael Petro, joined him at the state meet. The Hersey High School freshman also broke school records this year, and last year was a member of the Illinois Select Team that traveled to the Olympic Training Center.
"It's definitely more strenuous, with the breathing and all," Petro said, "but when you get back, you feel a lot smoother in the water after working so hard. It makes you feel faster - and you want to get better."
Wilcher worked in Indiana after graduating from Purdue, but he has returned to his roots and begun coaching the younger Alligators - and training at night with the team's so-called "extreme" swimmers.
They train six nights a week, including swim sets in the water and dry land workouts on the track, both at St. Viator High School, during the fall, winter and spring months.
Many of these dedicated swimmers also work out two mornings a week before school, just to stay in shape.
While Wilcher looks forward to seeing where one of his main competitors trains - Michael Phelps, who swims the same events as him, the 100- and 200-meter butterfly - he also wants to show the younger swimmers what swimming is like outside of the Northern Illinois conference, where they compete.
"It's just a different atmosphere. This facility was built to train the highest level swimmers, the elite," Wilcher says. "We've been fundraising for this trip, and see it as team-building, as well.
"Hopefully, they'll learn something about life - and not just about swimming," he adds. "It's character-building to go through this type of regimen, and through that you find success."