Atwater’s Norton wins frosh-soph freestyle sprints at section swim meet

Members of the Atwater High School swim program manned the front gate at Tokay High School, taking entrance fees and passing out programs.

Next year and beyond, the Falcons could have an even bigger stake in the Sac-Joaquin Section Championships, the springboard to state.

That promise begins with a reformed baseball player – sophomore Connor Norton – who was lured back into the pool by old times.

Norton won the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events at the frosh-soph level Saturday, showcasing an explosive burst in the sport’s ultimate test of speed.

“His acceleration is second to none,” Atwater coach David Svendsen said. “In the middle of the pool, he’s unbelievable. He even left a half-second late and still caught up.”

At the varsity level, Merced’s Mireya Ortega won the consolation heat for the girls’ 100 breaststroke in 1 minute, 5.96 seconds. With that time, Ortega has earned state consideration.

Along with the top three finishers and automatic qualifiers, the California Interscholastic Federation will invite the next 40 fastest swimmers in each event to the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex, the site of the state meet. Swim preliminaries and boys diving finals are Friday. Swimming and girls diving finals are Saturday.

Norton isn’t on that invite list. At least not this year.

Norton closed the 50 freestyle in a flash, recovering from a delayed start to win in 21.95. Among the last off the blocks, he didn’t panic. Instead, Norton said, his confidence early in that race was buoyed by a personal-best swim during Friday’s preliminaries.

“That gave me the confidence to swim my butt off,” he said of his seeding time: 21.7. “When I took a breath, I saw I was behind. It only made me want to try that much harder.”

Norton gained momentum at the turn, rocketing into the final 25 yards with a strong push off the wall. Like a sports car zipping through traffic, he made his way to the front.

“I got off to a bad start,” he said, “but that flip turn was big.”

Norton completed his double with a 48.03 in the 100 freestyle.

His future in aquatics was bright before his foray into high school baseball.

As a freshman on the varsity water polo team, he scored two game-winning goals in Central California Conference play. He was the team’s leading scorer and starting hole-set in the fall.

This spring, he put away the mitt and spikes and slipped into a suit – and it was like he never took it off.

“Growing up, swimming was always my secondary sport,” Norton said from beneath a wide-brim sun hat. “But my times were always pretty good.”

They still are.

Norton teamed with Luke van Warmerdam, Elias Marquez and Dalton Hoofard to form a record-setting relay team that won the 200 medley and 200 freestyle events at the Central California Conference championships and set the meet record for the 100 medley at the NorCal Relays at Johansen High School.

“Connor has a huge future with aquatics,” Svendsen said. “He works incredibly hard, and we are really excited about the next two years. We have some great pieces that play well with him.”

Other notable performances included:

▪ The Buhach Colony girls 400 freestyle relay team finished 12th with a school-record 3:52.01. The relay is comprised of Emma Seifert, Erin McBride, Pamela Solano and Gwynne McBride.

▪ Van Warmerdam won the consolation heat of the frosh-soph 50-yard freestyle (personal-best 22.9) and 100 breaststroke (1:03.14).

“He’s a horse,” Svendsen said of van Warmerdam’s sheer strength.

This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Atwater’s Norton wins frosh-soph freestyle sprints at section swim meet."