One would think that maintaining team proximity at the 2023 Winter Ontario Youth-Junior Championships earlier this month in Etobicoke would be a breeze for a Nickel City Aquatics crew that featured two swimmers (James Mongeon, Shane Clapham) and a coach (Linda Tenhunen).
One would be wrong.
"There was just a ton of swimmers there," noted Mongeon, making his first appearance at the high level competition. "It was tough getting into the bleachers and finding a place to sit, let alone sitting with my team."
Still, there are some definite perks that come with attending a competition which assembles this kind of top-end field, especially for a 14 year-old with basically three years of swim experience with NCA and truthfully only about a year and a half of really focused effort on completely maximizing his potential.
"There were some really fast swimmers there that are the same age as me and it kind of made me want to be better, to go to practice and try a little harder," said Mongeon. The grade nine student at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary has every reason to be motivated.
After posting a personal best time of 2:35.26 in the 200m butterfly to qualify as the 8th seed in the final, Mongeon cranked it up a notch, lowering his race clocking to 2:32.02 in the final, good for fifth place.
In the 100m distance, he posted more than solid results as well: 1:05.73 in preliminary (4th); 1:05.13 in the final (5th). It's all very encouraging for a young man who had never even swam a 200 metre butterfly distance in a 50m pool prior to this event.
"I find it's more endurance required because you don't get to push off the wall (as often) and that's always a bit of a rest," noted Mongeon. Needless to say, the results have spurred the enthusiasm of an athlete who suggested that there is absolutely no magic formula that accounts for his improvement in recent years.
"For me, it's all conditioning," he suggested. "As my old coaches would tell me, attendance is key - and it really is. If you go to every practice and you really try and nail down the techique, the endurance will come with it."
Making the standard within two months or so of committing even more to the workout sessions that often see the NCA contingent taking to the water just slightly before 6:00 a.m., Mongeon admitted that the training requirements are far easier to deal with once you have simply made your way to the practice venue (Gatchell Pool).
"The morning practices are actually a bit faster than the afternoon ones," Mongeon opined. "Everybody is kind of stiff when you first get in the pool, but we have warm-up and then get going."
Joining him and a handful of other senior swimmers at these workouts is Shane Clapham, an NCA veteran who persevered through the challenge that is/was Covid-19. Competing in an even tougher division (age 16-18), Clapham also bettered his all-time best long-course times in a pair of events, lwering his PBs to 2:41.15 in the 200m breaststroke (9th) and 1:13.47 in the 100m breaststroke (11th).
