By Terry Douglass
terry.douglass@theindependent.com

However, Jensen said that none have come further faster than Davin Jameson.

The Grand Island senior has essentially needed just four years to make the transition from raw talent to accomplished swimmer and will compete Friday in the YMCA National Swimming Championships at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"I don't know that I've ever had anyone make so much progress so fast," Jensen said. "I've certainly had some swimmers that have made huge strides and gone from an afterthought to a state qualifier, but not anyone who has gone from almost being an afterthought to a national-level type swimmer.

"Usually, that takes a lifetime of swimming to get to that point."

What has allowed Jameson to progress so rapidly?

"Davin has just worked his tail off for the most part," Jensen said. "He's also been so coachable for his entire career.

"You give him a drill to do or a correction to make and he'll do it and then check with you to make sure he's doing it right."

Jameson said he really didn't think too seriously about swimming until the summer after his freshman year. It was then that he realized that he might just have some talent.

"I kept improving at about every meet I went to," Jameson said. "It was just kind of cool to see how fast I could get. From that point on, I would just push myself as hard as I could the whole year and see what I could get out of it.

During the high school season, Jameson qualified for state in three events, including the 100-yard breastroke, which he will swim in the YMCA nationals. A sluggish preliminary performance at state doomed Jameson to a seventh-place finish, but his consolation finals time of 1 minute, 2.53 seconds was actually the fourth fastest time of the day.

The mark, which was the fastest in school history with the exception of 2004 Olympian Scott Usher, also qualified Jameson for the YMCA nationals. There, he'll have an opportunity to gain some added exposure.

"Anytime you swim in a national-level meet, it certainly piques the interest of college coaches," Jensen said. "There are usually quite a few at any national meet, watching and looking for prospects."

While Wyoming and North Dakota currently rank as Jameson's top choices for programs to swim for next season, he said his recruitment remains wide open. With a good performance in Florida, he's hopeful additional opportunities will arise.

"Hopefully I can get noticed at this meet," Jameson said. "It's a little nerve-wracking and there's all kinds of stuff to do right now with school and swimming and trying to get into college, but I'm trying to go into this meet relaxed and not get too stressed out."

Training for the high school state meet in late February has made preparing for the YMCA Nationals somewhat more difficult. Swimmers typically train vigorously at the beginning of the program, but lighten or taper their workouts in the days leading up to the most important meets in order to hopefully produce their fastest times.

That process had to be abbreviated for Jameson to prepare for YMCA nationals.

"Basically, we had a month to get him ready," Jensen said. "Davin was still in fairly good shape after the high although you lose a little bit of aerobic capacity toward the end there a little bit because you're not training for as much distance."

Jensen said he and Jameson did a good deal of distance work the first week of training and then worked on power and speed the following weeks. This week, Jameson began the tapering process with some lighter workouts.

"It's kind of hard doing Quicksilver and high school at the same time because first you're training for Quicksilver and you would train the whole year for this one meet, but high school swimming sort of messes up your training schedule," Jameson said. "You build some endurance and speed and then you taper for state and then you've got to do it all over again."