ONTARIO — Brie Trumpower is swimming with a chip on her shoulder.
Ontario’s freestyle ace has unfinished business.
A sophomore, Trumpower qualified for this week’s Division II district meet at Bowling Green State University in two individual events and as a member of a pair of relay teams.
She owns the northwest district’s fourth fastest qualifying time in the 100 yard freestyle (54.50 seconds) and the sixth best time in the 50 free (24.90). Meanwhile, Ontario’s 200 freestyle relay team is seeded sixth (1:44.18) and the 400 free relay team is seeded fourth (3:52.66).
That Trumpower is in prime position to qualify for the state meet comes as no surprise. She placed eighth at state in the 100 freestyle and 15th in the 200 freestyle as a freshman, while swimming legs on the 200 free relay team that placed fifth and the 400 free relay team that was 12th.
When she’s not making waves, Trumpower is one of the top distance runners in north central Ohio. She was a member of Ontario’s state-qualifying cross country team as a freshman, but had her sophomore season cut short.
With Trumpower leading the charge, Ontario was primed for a return to the state cross country meet last fall. It wasn’t to be, however, as Trumpower was forced to sit out the Galion district meet because of COVID-19 contact tracing protocols.
Ontario finished fifth in the final team standings at Galion with a team score of 102. Galion grabbed the fourth and final regional-qualifying spot with a team score of 100.
Had Trumpower been able to run at Galion, Ontario almost certainly would have qualified for the Tiffin regional meet as a team and would have been a strong candidate to earn a team qualifying spot to the state meet.
A pair of Ontario runners, Ellie Maurer and Ariah Reuer, qualified for state individually but Trumpower and the rest of the Warriors were left home.
“It was really disappointing. I was really sad I didn’t get to have closure to my season,” Trumpower said between events during Saturday’s sectional swim meet at Malabar. “I felt like my teammates really counted on me and it was really hard not to be there for them.
“We all pulled together in the end and I’m so proud of Ellie and Ariah.”
As disappointing as the conclusion of the cross country season was, Trumpower learned a valuable lesson.
“You can’t take anything for granted,” Trumpower said. “I’ve got to keep my eyes forward. It did light a fire for me to do better in swimming.”
If all goes well in the coming weeks, Trumpower could again find herself on the podium at Canton’s C.T. Branin Natatorium, site of the state meet. Trumpower and several of her teammates competed in the sectional meet before beginning their tapering cycles.
“I think it’s going pretty well considering we haven’t rested at all for any of our meets,” Trumpower said. “It’s been straight go and we haven’t gotten to go into any of our meets when we take a few days easy.
“I’m excited to see what we can really do when we’re all tapered.”
So is Ontario coach Deb Henry.
“The kids that we expected to get out (of sectional) are the ones who didn’t taper,” Henry said. “Those kids did what we expected them to. They had good swims and nobody fell apart.”
Henry is especially excited to see what lies in store for Trumpower.
“Obviously, she was disappointed when she couldn’t finish the cross country season,” Henry said. “Honestly, though, I don’t think it took that happening to motivate her. She is highly motivated and she is able to move on.”
Of course, the health crisis has shown no signs of slowing down. Winter sports teams across the region have had their seasons turned upside down because of quarantine.
“Our assistant principal came in the other day and as soon as he walked in, the kids just stopped and they had a look of panic on their eyes,” Henry said. “He just had a question about maintaining the pool and I told the kids, ‘Nobody is getting traced.’ Usually if one of the principals comes down to the pool, somebody is getting yanked out of practice.
“Within our swimming community, we’ve been very lucky. All we can do is hold our breath and keep our fingers crossed.”
