Special Sets: The Training of Texas Recruit and Carmel High Standout Berit Berglund
Berit Berglund, the top-ranked girls’ high school swimmer in Indiana (19th nationally), swims for Coach Chris Plumb’s Carmel Swim Club—a place of “hard work, support, change and belief.”
What a life! During the last year, Carmel (Ind.) Swim Club’s Berit Berglund has committed to college (Texas), won three more high school state championships, upped her NISCA All-America honors to 12, and represented her country competitively in Germany, Hungary and Hawaii.
Her teams have done pretty well, too. The Carmel High School girls won their 36th consecutive state crown in February. CSC won its first-ever combined Speedo Junior Nationals crown (Berglund finished second in the 100 meter back in 1:00.85), and her fellow national junior team members won Junior Pan Pacs in August.
Individually, Berglund is ranked by Collegeswimming.com (SwimCloud) as the top-ranked swimmer in Indiana (19th nationally). She ranks second in the 16-17 100 meter backstroke (LC) and third in the 100 yard back, a stroke in which she has held AAAA times since she was 13 (12 SCY).
Her high school accolades are off the charts. She has won three straight Indiana 100 back titles, and she finished third once in the 100 free and fourth twice in the 200 free. She has swum on three winning 200 medley and three 400 free relays. Her NISCA relay finishes have never been worse than fourth—with her senior year to go. Her best 100 back SCY time of 51.32 would have placed her 13th at this year’s NCAA D-I Championships.
Both her high school and club teams are coached by Chris Plumb. He says, “Berit is a competitor and loves to race in workouts. Her favorite days are kicking and race days. She loves to push her teammates and to be pushed by them. It is a great group that works hard, and Berit is in the mix every day.
“Her greatest accomplishment in swimming is making the Junior Pan Pacific team. She needed to win the B-final at the Phillips 66 International Team Trials in Greensboro, N.C., and she did—going out in 28.97 and finishing in 1:00.23, 30-hundredths ahead of Beata Nelson.”
Her result tied her with Alex Walsh for No. 15 all-time among 17-18 girls.
Photo Courtesy:
Michael J. Stott is an ASCA Level 5 coach, golf and swimming writer. His critically acclaimed coming-of-age golf novel, “Too Much Loft,” is in its second printing, and is available from store.Bookbaby.com, Amazon, B&N and book distributors worldwide.
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