JF boys relays loaded with underclassmen

The four members of Jefferson Forest’s boys 200-yard medley and 400 freestyle relay team — Caleb Williams, Joe Euhus, Carter Watson and Chad Nowakowski — bring similar mindsets to the dock for the first and last events in every high school swim meet.

“We’re all really close, personality-wise,” Nowakowski said. “We all like to work hard and love the sport of swimming. We try to do our best every meet and we have the same goals.”

For today’s Group AA state competition at Virginia’s Fitness and Aquatics Center, they are fully focused on qualifying for Saturday’s championship finals with top-eight preliminary finishes.

“We’re going into the 400 relay seeded really high (fifth in 3 minutes, 27.27 seconds),” Williams said. “We’re going to try to pull off a top-three finish. We all have goals of getting back for the finals in our individual events.”

Watson, a sophomore seeded third in the 200 freestyle (1:46.25) and sixth in the 100 free (48.39), is the Cavaliers’ most exceptional swimmer and best motivator.

“Carter’s really the one who gets us going,” Williams said.

Williams, a freshman, has a great work ethic in the pool and a knack for keeping his teammates loose before a big race.

“He works extremely hard and he’s always got a funny little comment to push us on or lighten the mood during practice,” Nowakowski said. “He’s really quiet most of the time, but he says one or two things that are really hilarious.”

Forest first-year coach Elisa Morton said Williams is constantly striving to improve his times and technique.

“He works really hard and he stays focused through the whole practice,” she said. “He has a very easy-going personality (but) he’s a strong competitor and a bit of a perfectionist. He’s always working on little things like his turns and starts to give him a bit of a competitive edge.”

Individually, Williams is seeded eighth in the 500 free (4:54.60) and 13th in the 100 backstroke for his first high school state meet.

“I’m not going to get close to first in either one,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of fast people.”

But the young and well-rested Cavaliers — their coaches have tapered their workouts this week and they stayed at a hotel in Charlottesville on Thursday night — could turn some heads this weekend, and in the next few years.

Forest’s boys, which followed their Seminole District championship with a Region III title last Saturday at JMU, just as Brookville’s girls team did, will be represented by eight boys at UVa, all underclassmen.

“Most of the team this year is young,” said Morton, who also qualified seven girls. “The oldest is Emily (Black), who’s a junior.”

Williams, who lives near Big Island, started swimming competitively with Lynchburg YMCA seven years ago, at the age of 7. He estimates he spends 20 hours per week in the pool, before and after school.

“My life is just swimming, school, eating and sleeping,” he said, and commuting between his home near Big Island and the pool or school. “It’s a good schedule to keep on. The only break we have is in August, for two weeks, plus one or two days around Christmas.”

He was also an avid baseball player until last year, when he decided he could go farther in swimming.

“I’m thinking about swimming in college,” Williams said.

Morton said, in this day and age, college-bound swimmers don’t have much choice but to specialize in the sport and swim year-round.

“If you want to compete at the highest level (you have to),” she said. “There are only so many hours in a day.”

Nowakowski, a sophomore, said the Cavaliers have learned from the example set by Justin and Travis Stauder, who graduated from JF in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

“From watching Travis and Justin, we see how we want to lead the team and motivate other swimmers to achieve their goals like we have as swimmers,” he said.

Williams already has qualified in four events for the 13-14 division of the YMCA Spring national meet in April in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — the 500 free, 100 and 200 back and 400 IM.

His big-meet experience with the Lynchburg YMCA team should prepare him well and settle any nerves stirred up by competing against the state’s best high school swimmers this weekend.