Columbus East’s Dathan Wolf competes in the 100-yard freestyle during the boys swimming sectional Saturday at Columbus North High School. Tommy Walker | For The Republic
The Republic file photo
After 18 of the state’s 20 boys swimming sectionals were completed on Saturday, Columbus East senior Dathan Wolf sat in the final callback spot to the state finals in the 100-yard backstroke.
That meant that for Wolf to make it, neither of the second-place times from the Lake Central or Warsaw Sectionals, which had been delayed to Monday because of weather, could be faster than the 53.44-second clocking Wolf put up in Saturday’s Columbus North Sectional final.
“I knew there were two sectionals left to swim, and me and my dad sat down and made a spreadsheet to see where I was at timewise and callback-wise,” Wolf said. “I just snuck in there as the last call-in.”
Although he watched the Lake Central and Warsaw meets on meet mobile and saw that the runner-up times weren’t faster than his, Wolf still wasn’t sure he had qualified until he saw the official postings on the IHSAA web site.
“I was still nervous because I thought I had miscounted and I had just gotten knocked out,” Wolf said. “If it was last year, it would have felt different, but being there before, I’m still happy with it, but I wasn’t as excited as I was last year to make it for the first time.”
Dathan Wolf
Last year, Wolf was part of the Olympians’ 200 medley relay team that finished 26th at state.
“Dathan has worked really hard this year, and his goal was to get to state in an individual event,” East coach Doug Trueblood said. “He got in as a relay member last year. He put a lot of effort in and a lot of work. He hasn’t been swimming for a long time, and he made it. It’s awesome.”
Wolf, whose main sport until this year had been soccer and didn’t start swimming competitively until he was a sophomore, broke the school record in the 100 backstroke with a 56.06 in winning this year’s Hoosier Hills Conference meet. He shattered that with a 53.79 in the North Sectional prelims, then broke it again with the 53.44 in the finals.
“His training has been good,” East coach Doug Trueblood said. “He has put the right effort in. He’s focused on the things that I’ve asked him to. In the offseason, he was working with Club Olympia, and I think that has really helped him quite a bit. Keeping these kids in the water is key to get to state competition. To get there, we have to be in the water.”
The 53.44 puts Wolf as the 29th seed out of the 32 competitors in today’s prelims in the 100 backstroke. The top eight make Saturday’s championship final, and 9-through-16 make the consolation final.
The 16th seed is at 52.18.
“I think if I can just try to move up, to move from 29th to 22nd or 21st range, just any kind of move up would be nice,” Wolf said. “I need a good last race. My last race at sectional (in the 400 freestyle relay) wasn’t the greatest. I lost my goggles, and I added a couple tenths of a second to my 100 free. It’s good to get one more shot to go out on the right foot.”
Wolf committed prior to the season to continue his swimming career at Valparaiso.
“The (East) program is going in the right direction,” Trueblood said. “He’s certainly going in the right direction, and I think it’s going to be really great to see what he does not just this weekend, but as he goes to Valpo and moves forward. He’s just going to keep getting faster.”
