Multitalented Kanute focused on last swimming postseason

There is a three-ringed aspect to Ben Kanute’s sporting life, but the Marmion senior wouldn’t want it any other way. And he never lets it become an out-of-control circus either in this life where he ringmasters everything very well indeed.

Kanute is in the final two weeks of his last boys swim season. He competes on Saturday in the Neuqua Valley sectional with aspirations of qualifying for the state meet — something he has done in at least one event every year he has been in high school.

But when swim season ends, Kanute heads into his busiest time. An aspiring triathlete, running and cycling enter the mixture. And if running sounds familiar, that’s because Kanute was the top finisher in Marmion’s state cross country team that finished third in the Class 2A meet in November.

Picking a favorite of the three is impossible, however.

“I think it changes from time to time,” Kanute said. “In the fall, it’s running. Right now, with the sectional and state coming up, it’s all about swimming. I like them all the same. I look forward to doing each one and I push myself differently in every one too.”

As he said, swimming is in pole position at the moment, and it’s been quite a season already for Kanute. Two weeks ago, the distance swimmer was named the Senior Swimmer of the Year in the Metro Catholic Conference meet after finishing second in the 200-yard freestyle, winning the 500 freestyle and helping both Cadets freestyle relays to strong finishes.

“That was really cool,” Kanute said. “There are a lot of really good swimmers in the conference and great schools like Loyola, St. Ignatius and Fenwick. I’ve seen some Marmion swimmers get that award and I thought it was cool that I could sort of bring that home to the Marmion swim team.”

But that’s in the past now, and state meet qualification is the top priority.

“I’m going to quote Bill,” Kanute said of longtime Marmion coach Bill Schalz. “He says that swimming at the state meet is a three-step process. The first is to qualify for state at the sectional meet. I want to go into that meet and put up some good times and see my teammates put up some good times. Then I want to get to state and have come “circle” seedings and try to make at least the Top 12 and hopefully see some Top 6 finishes on Saturday.”

Swimmers still compete most of the year in the water. Geneva resident Kanute is a member of the St. Charles Swim Club and was once a Geneva River Rat. But he keeps his focus on all his many sports once swimming ends. Schalz said that while he’s not in the water as much as some swimmers, his fitness has never been a problem.

“The one thing about Ben is that he’s never out of shape,” Schalz said. “He’s always training for some event. And because he’s always in shape, even though he hasn’t been swimming as much, he can come in and get right into it.”

The other byproduct to all this training is that Kanute’s swimming technique is as strong as anyone on the Marmion team.

“When you’re fit, it’s easier to have good technique,” Schalz said. “There are certain techniques where, if you don’t have strength, it’s very difficult. But he’s willing to make changes and fix strokes when you suggest things, which isn’t very often.”

In fact, Schalz said Kanute is very much the kind of leader this Cadets team needs. The squad Marmion takes to Neuqua Valley on Saturday is on the youthful side. But if any athlete gets nervous during the day, all he needs to do is look at Kanute and see how he’s going about his business to find a calming influence.

“He comes in every day, works hard and shows everyone that he works hard,” Schalz said. “He’s there to get better and he’s there to help his teammates get better. He has a ‘shut up and swim’ attitude.”

In describing his own leadership style, Kanute admits he’s very unlikely to get into someone’s face and start yelling.

“If you do the right thing, other people are going to follow you,” Kanute said. “And other people will look at you better. I’ve never felt right yelling at somebody when something they’re doing is something you might have done in the past.”

Still, the “shut up and swim” mentality runs deeply for Kanute, who applies the same attitude toward running and biking as well.

“I’ve always liked to get in the pool and to start the workout,” Kanute said. “I like to push myself and I like to get into the workouts. They’re not always easy to do but I try to have fun with them.”

There was a time this year when even Kanute needed to take a little time away from athletics. This school year, Schalz said, a couple of well-liked priests at Marmion passed away. Then in January, school senior Ben Wilkinson passed away suddenly. Everyone at the school has had to find ways to deal with these situations, and Kanute was no different.

“For awhile, it was kind of hard to keep doing everything,” Kanute said. “It was like ‘I don’t want to be here right now.’ But it’s also good to get back into the normal rhythm of things. Those people are still here with us and I know they’d want me to keep moving on with my life and to get back to doing what I love to do. There were a couple of days where I just went with classmates. But there weren’t many classes missed. Marmion and (Schalz) too – they were really good about the whole process as we went through it.”

As teams throttle back the heavy workloads in preparation for the state meet, Kanute said the smiles begin returning to swimmers’ faces. The process is called tapering and as the energy returns, times drop like stones heading to the bottom of a swimming pool.

“I think this is the most fun part of the season,” he said. “We’re halfway through taper now. You’re starting to get more energy. You know these are bigger meets, and you know more people are going to come out.”

Everything culminates at the state meet Feb. 25-26 at New Trier. It will be crowded and hot and noisy on deck with people packed into the seating area above the pool. But that’s exactly the scene Kanute hopes he’ll find.

“I always tell people that if they want to go see a swim meet, to come to the state meet,” Kanute said. “They jam people into the pool and the energy is amazing. You’re there on-deck and you kind of think back on the Christmas Break practices and all the hard practices you did to be there. They were hard and you hurt, but you’ve gotten to the state meet and you’re on the pool deck and you’re watching people swim fast and you want to swim fast. It all comes together.”

When the state meet ends, Kanute heads back to his triathlons. He said he intends to major in exercise physiology in college and is looking for a community in which he will be able to train for triathlons. That means he’ll be juggling many things at once in the years to come. And that shouldn’t be a problem at all for one of the area’s prime athletic multi-taskers.