JON R. LAFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Carlos Graybill lifts his slender frame out of the Bannworth Natatorium pool. He’s just completed a heat in the 200-yard freestyle as part of the Mission Swim Meet. It’s the final competition before this week’s district championships.
A girl with frizzy hair pulled into a lose pony tail informs Graybill of his time as water falls off his swim cap.
2 minutes, 5.69 seconds.
Graybill is visibly flustered. He purses his lips for a moment before walking back to Sharyland High’s designated area of the natatorium.
“I didn’t have it today,” Graybill said. “I just wasn’t feeling it.”
Disappointed words despite a fifth-place finish in an event with 35 other swimmers. For Graybill though, the outcome serves as a microcosm for what he describes as a difficult year. Where he entered his senior season looking to beat his personal records, Graybill has seen the stopwatch remain stagnant.
The 17-year-old native of Bolivia sensed his performance in the 200 freestyle wouldn’t meet his rigorous standards before it even began.
“When you get on up the (diving block) and everything just quiets down a little bit, that’s when you know you’re feeling it,” he said. “You can hear your thoughts. Today, I heard everyone else’s voices. It was kind of annoying.”
Though harmlessly flustered, Graybill is friendly and likable. He says his biggest goal for his final year is to simply “relax, have fun and enjoy the moment.” It’s the creed of a confident swimmer who advanced to regionals a year ago, and who knows what it takes to make a return visit.
“I call him my sunshine,” Sharyland swim coach Tina Jensen said. “He’s always making other kids on the team laugh, cheering them on and pushing everyone to make them better.”
Graybill flexes his muscle later in the afternoon, taking first in the 100 backstroke relay with a time of 1:03.28, more than four seconds better than the runner-up.
Graybill and his family moved to the United States in 2005 after his father accepted a position in the oil and gas industry, and settled in the Dallas area. His first impression of Texas sounds like a bad punchline.
“Big,” he said. “Everything was just big.”
He tried his hand at football but suffered an Achilles injury. The doctor prescribed swimming as a means of therapy.
“I didn’t think I would like it as much as I do,” Graybill said. “People don’t realize how hard (swimming) is, and it’s all on you. You’re the only one who can make yourself better.”
But Graybill, who has started varsity at Sharyland since his freshman year, has loftier goals than making regionals and already envisions a life beyond the pool.
“I want to study nuclear engineering,” he said. “I want to make a difference. Oil is about to run out, what are we going to do afterwards? For a greener world, I feel like nuclear energy is the right choice for it. There’s a lot of possibilities.”
Graybill has already been accepted to Texas A&M, but hopes to be admitted into the University of Michigan. After hop-scotching about South America with his family as a child, he says he “knows how to make a new start.”
In addition to wrapping up his senior year at Sharyland, Graybill is also enrolled in engineering classes at South Texas College, and will obtain his high school diploma along with an associate degree.
“It’ll be hard to let swimming go,” Graybill said. “I know I’m going to miss it a lot.”
Until he exits the pool a final time, he remains focused and alone with his thoughts on the diving board.