Going into the IHSA swimming championships, Wheaton North senior Max St. George admitted he had something more than first place on his mind. He wanted to swim the 100-yard backstroke faster than anyone else in state history.
“Setting the record, that was my goal for the whole season,” he said. “I definitely had a plan to try and get it.”
The plan worked. In the qualifying heat in late February at the state championship meet at New Trier High School, St. George won with a time of 48.07, topping the old mark of 48.21 set by two years ago by Loyola’s Andrew Jovanovic, who now swims at Northwestern.
On Saturday, St. George went on to win the state title, becoming only the third swimmer in school history to win an individual title. In the final, he swam a 48.20, which placed him more than a second ahead of second-place finisher, Daniel Hein of DeKalb.
“I wanted to go a little bit faster. I was hoping for 47 something,” St. George said. “But I came awfully close to that, so overall I was pretty happy.”
In addition to the 100-yard backstroke, St. George finished fifth in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:51.98. He also swam on the Wheaton co-op’s 200-yard medley relay, which finished 8th in 1:34.88, and the 400-yard freestyle relay (22nd in 3:13.95).
“I really like (the relays),” he said. “You train together through the whole year, and you get to something together as a team. That makes it a lot of fun.”
St. George, who will be swimming at Duke University next fall, has found success in the backstroke since he started swimming around age 5.
“That’s always been the stroke I’ve been best at,” he said. “It seems to really suit me.”
While swimming has been his primary sport, he also played baseball through 8th grade when he hurt his elbow pitching. He dropped baseball to concentrate on swimming, but the injury continued to bother him and required surgery. He took two months off, but was able to get back in the pool and find his old form.
“It’s really not bothering me anymore, so that’s the good news,” he said. “But it was tough getting back after not swimming for so long.”
This year, he switched his focus a bit, concentrating on the shorter sprints rather than the endurance events.
“I prefer the sprints,” he said. “I think that’s where I’m going to be moving forward.”
Up next for St. George is the YMCA national championships in Greensboro, N.C., where he’ll swim with his team from the BR Ryall YMCA in Glen Ellyn. Then he’ll return to North Carolina for college.
“I’m very excited to be swimming with [Duke],” St. George said. “I really like the coaches and the team. I got really good vibes about them. They all want to win and improve the team.”
But he will take at least a little bit of time to celebrate his final high school accomplishment.
“I’m very happy (with the record),” he said. “We put in a lot of work, and to go out and actually do it, it just feels great.”
