Reed joins Phelps, Coughlin at prestigious Santa Clara meet
Imagine taking the field with Derek Jeter. Or playing in the same tournament as Phil Mickelson.
A pipe dream?
Now imagine competing alongside those world-class athletes just weeks after completing your first year of high school. That’s what Shelli Reed did at the Santa Clara International grand prix swim meet Saturday.
With U.S. Olympic heroes Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin two of the many elite swimmers in attendance, Reed had the rare opportunity to swim in the same meet and even the same event as some of the sport’s biggest names.
“It was amazing,” said Reed, the star of the San Benito High girls’ team who competed in the 200-meter freestyle and 100 backstroke in Santa Clara. “It was an honor just to be in the same pool as they were.”
But this wasn’t a star-struck day for Reed. Though one of the youngest swimmers in the field, Reed, 14, set out to prove she belonged with the Olympic and collegiate standouts.
After earning All American Consideration in the backstroke at the Central Coast Section Championships in early May, Reed posted two of her best swims on Saturday. She knocked more than two seconds off her previous best time in the 200 freestyle – improving from 2: 18.87 to 2:16.84 – even though she described her effort as “choppy.”
“It’s huge,” San Benito Aquatics co-head coach Cathy Larson said. “Usually, a swimmer is lucky to take off a 100th or a 10th (of a second), so to take off two seconds at this level is really good.”
Reed later enjoyed an even better race in the 100 backstroke despite, or, in some ways, because she was disqualified.
How’s that? Well, Reed and the SBA coaching staff had been working on eliminating the swimmer’s tendency to surface too quickly at the start of the race. Challenged by her coaches to exceed the 15-meter underwater limit precisely to break that habit, Reed did just that, earning a DQ and being pleased to do so.
“I’m actually proud of being disqualified for that,” said Reed, whose time of 1:10.83 would have topped her personal best of 1: 11.19. “I’ve always been scared of going too far, so I’d always come up too early.”
Larson was thrilled with Reed’s backstroke race, saying, “She had the best swim of her life. She swam a beautiful race.”
Coughlin, a five-time Olympic medalist, won the 100 backstroke, nearly beating her own world record of 59.57. She ultimately finished in 1: 00.18.
While giving her events their full attention, Reed also made sure to take in the unique surroundings.
“At times, you need to let go and have fun, appreciate what you have and how far you’ve gotten,” she said.
While at the Santa Clara meet, Reed and fellow ‘Baler swimmer Lacey Larson met with University of California – Berkeley head women’s swimming coach Teri McKeever. The swimmers took the opportunity to ask McKeever about the path to a collegiate future, as Reed put it, “what it takes to get into a college like Berkeley or Stanford – a big school like that. How much dedication it takes.”
Asked what she took from speaking with McKeever, Reed said, “It’s a lot of hard work. What you eat, what you do … everything. It’s not just what happens in the pool.”
Larson, the SBA coach, said the conversation helped further her program’s goal of encouraging a future for her athletes in the sport.
“We look to give kids a lifelong swim career and the chance to swim in college,” Larson said. “We want kids to love to swim for the whole long haul.”
Reed and her SBA teammates return to the pool with a Coast Valley Aquatics League tri-meet at Monterey on July 7.
