Lake Park's Honsa chases repeat 500 title - and history
Bryant Honsa could improve on his best time of 4:28.95 in the 500-yard freestyle at the boys swimming state meet while trying to defend his title in that race.
He might even break Brian Gunn's state record of 4:25.54, one of the older marks on the books, from 1989.
Honsa might do all this - and still finish fourth. Maybe even fifth.
That's because the Lake Park senior Honsa just happens to be part of epic group of long-distance freestylers working in Illinois this winter.
One of Honsa's peers, senior Burke Sims of Downers Grove North, turned in a 4:27 effort just before the high school season started. Lake Forest's Mitch Stoehr and Glenbrook South's Ben Hengels, who both figure to repeat as finalists, have delivered times which suggest they're capable of topping Honsa as well.
"We were talking about all the competition he's going to have, and I told him, 'State is going to be great,' " said Lake Park coach Dan Witteveen. "He kind of looks at me funny and says, 'What do you mean, coach?' So I just explained it's going to be great to see all these guys race. It's just an extraordinary bunch of swimmers."
Honsa acknowledges breaking the state record as a main goal but is equally concerned about his final placement.
"I'm pretty worried about both, actually," he said with a chuckle. "I'd love to win again, but you look around, and man ... all I really know is it's going to be a good race."
Honsa is unique in that in addition to excelling at long distances, he's shown excellent freestyle sprint speed as well as ability in the other strokes, especially butterfly. His 50 freestyle best is 21.8 and his 100 fly best is 52.3, both times which hint that he could probably final in those events if he chose to swim them at the state meet.
Instead, it seems likely he'll return to the same individual events as last year, the 200 and 500 freestyles. Though the competition will be fierce, Honsa says he will be ready. Witteveen has a simple explanation for Honsa's success.
"I've never had somebody like him - he just seems to love swimming more and more each year," Witteveen said. "I think his attitude about swimming allows him to train at a little bit higher level."
That's helpful, because in high school season, Honsa's training opportunities are somewhat limited. Since Lake Park doesn't have its own pool, the team commutes by bus to College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn for practices, and the Lancers are limited to only afternoon water workouts (with dryland training in the mornings).
Witteveen thinks that bodes well for Indiana University, which will have Honsa's services starting next fall.
"I just think the best is yet to come for him," Witteveen said. "You can just see, he's got some developing left."
It also helps that Honsa's club coach, Bob Strube of Wheaton Swim Club, has a strong relationship with Witteveen. Though frequently club and school coaches are at odds over their elite level swimmers, that's not the case with Honsa.
Honsa says it also helps that Wheaton Swim Club, which also trains at COD, features some of the area's top competitors, such as Naperville Central's Chris DePew and Bartlett's Josh Hasenberg. In that sense Honsa says the state meet will be a great chance to meet up with a bunch of old friends.
Honsa has intentionally competed in the 500 sparingly this year. His 4:42 from early in the season figures to drop sharply when he swims the race again this weekend for the first time in almost two months. And then it's on to sectionals and state at New Trier on the last weekend of the month.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "There's a lot of work in swimming, but it's worth it. State meet will be fun for me - seeing good friends and racing hard."
And just maybe winning the fastest 500 freestyle heat in state history.