'Going with my gut': Dublin Coffman state champion Emily Brown expands swimming repertoire
Already in rarified air in Ohio high school swimming with six individual state titles, Emily Brown is treating her senior season differently from the past three.
Whereas the Dublin Coffman phenom dedicated herself almost exclusively to daily freestyle distance work her freshman, sophomore and junior years, Brown now is spending most of her time in the middle-distance line.
Brown still has championships on her mind, but not necessarily a fourth consecutive sweep of the 200- and 500-yard freestyle in Division I.
College and the Olympic trials beckon, not necessarily in that order, and to continue growing, Brown is focusing on and benefiting from swimming relatively unfamiliar events, such as the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley.
“It’s more an opportunity to work on your IM, your strokes,” said Brown, who signed with Tennessee in November. “I am working more on my fly, my IM. I feel like that is helping my other events, too.
“I’ve just been going with it. I listen to my body. I listen to my head. I have been going with my gut, training what I want to train and doing what makes me happy.”
Saying her decision to forgo the 200 and 500 free in the postseason is “not final,” Brown nonetheless has already achieved special status statewide. She swam a state-record 1:45.88 to win the 200 free last February, won the 500 free (4:51.17) and anchored the Shamrocks’ runner-up 400 free relay.
Whitney Myers, a 2003 graduate of Cincinnati Ursuline Academy, is the only swimmer in state history to win eight individual titles. She won the 200 free four times and the 100 fly and 500 free twice each.
Gates Mills Hawken’s Alyssa Kiel won 14 total championships – seven individual and seven on relays – from 2001-05. Competitors are limited to four events in a state meet.
“I think she’s thinking she has proven what she needs to prove,” Coffman coach Mark Birnbrich said of Brown, who has qualified for the Olympic trials in the 200 fly and 200 IM. Those are scheduled for June 15-23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the home of the NFL’s Colts.
Brown still hopes to qualify in the 100 backstroke, 100 fly and 200 back.
“I think it opened her eyes (to the fact) that she is (more than) a freestyler,” Birnbrich said. “She made it in all these other strokes, so I think she wants to consider something different on the way out of here.”
Brown is the fourth member of her family to qualify for the Olympic trials, joining cousins Bryan Bateman Sr., Bryan Bateman Jr., and Dave Kinsella. The three combined for multiple state and national championships, and Bateman Sr. and Kinsella swam at Indiana and Missouri, respectively.
Brown’s career-best times in the 200 fly (1:55.5) and 200 IM (1:56.49) already would rank seventh all-time at Tennessee.
Coffman teammate Katrina Kollin, a junior and two-time state qualifier in the 200 and 500 free who also was on the 400 free relay last winter, said Brown is as dedicated to the team as herself.
“She is always there to help us and get us through a tough practice and a tough meet,” Kollin said. “She’s been there through the hard distance practices. It’s really special to see her having so much care for all of us and wanting everyone else to do well, too. It’s a team effort.”
A reminder of how far Brown has come stands just outside the Dublin Community Recreation Center pool in which Coffman trains. Her name is featured 60 times on the Dublin Community Swim Team record board, with Brown having set her first record on Feb. 15, 2015, by swimming the 25 back in 18.08.
Brown plans to end her high school career with the same feelings of jubilation she enjoyed each of the past three years, no matter the event.
“I just want to have fun, enjoy my senior year and do events I’m excited about,” Brown said.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio swimming champion Emily Brown preps for Olympic trials
