Nilton Dos Santos struggled to find which event he would be best suited for.
“I tried a bunch of them to see which one I struggled the least with and chose that (the butterfly),” the McAllen High junior swimmer said. “It took like six months and it was frustrating. I was just learning how to swim competitively.”
Then, in his first competition where he would swim in the 100 fly, “I kind of drowned. I stopped in the middle of the pool,” he said. “I didn’t want to swim anymore.”
His coach at the time had other ideas.
“He made me do it again. I did it six meets in a row and stayed with it,” Dos Santos said.
Dos Santos has the best 100 fly time in the Rio Grande Valley and will look to improve upon it as swimmers from all three McAllen ISD schools will host the 2020 New Year’s Classic Friday and Saturday at the McAllen Rowe natatorium. Diving will be held beginning at 10 a.m. today and swimming will start at 9 a.m. Saturday. Twelve to 14 teams are expected to compete as one of the final tune ups before district meets begin Jan. 24-25.
“He kept going after than and he just blossomed,” Juan Gutierrez, the second-year McHi head coach, said. “We are trying to get him to go all out all the time and he swears he has more left in his tank. We’re excited for that.”
Dos Santos’ time of 52.61 seconds is a little more than 1.5 seconds faster than Sharyland Pioneer’s Trevor Heath, arguably the Valley’s top swimmer. Heath is ranked first in seven different events and second in two events, according to the Rio Grande Valley Swimming Coaching Association’s top 16 individual times per event, dated Dec. 19.
Dos Santos is among the fastest swimmers in several events. He’s sixth in the 50 freestyle, third in the 100 freestyle, second in the 200 free, third in the 500 free, fifth in the 50 back, 13th in the 100 back and fourth in the 200 individual medley.
“He wants to win and he will let people know,” Gutierrez said. “He and Jace (Lyon) will put their goggles on and go to work. There’s never any complaining, they just go do their workout and push themselves and each other.”
Gutierrez said Lyon, the senior team captain, is his best breaststroker and is fourth in the Valley with a time of 1:04.62. Lyon is just a half-second behind McAllen Memorial’s Dayan Rodriguez Vallejo.
Lyon said his interest in swimming started years ago. His dream was to be a Navy Seal.
“I just thought it was cool,” said Lyon, who has been to state three times, the first time for the 200 medley relay and the past two for the 100 breast. “I knew swimming would ship you into shape and make you mentally tough. I liked the Navy and thought if I go in, I may as well be one of the best.”
While the Navy route may not still be his path, he has shown that he’s among the best when it comes to the breast stroke, an event he was randomly placed in — and flourished.
“My freshman year it was a little hard at first; I was always the shortest one and have been. So it was hard for me to be faster in the other strokes. I guess it’s because I have strong legs and that stroke takes strong legs,” Lyon said. “My first coach would put us in random events and he put me in the breast stroke, then told me, “you’re a breaststroker.”
The random events plan is something Gutierrez said he may be doing to see who else he could sneak into a position to reach districts, and beyond. Many teams start tapering, or slowing down, at this time to recuperate for districts, regionals and state.
“This is when I’m sore and tired and by the time districts come, right before regionals, everything slows down so we’re not sore or tired. Then, usually at district and after, we’ll start dropping times,” Lyon said, adding that one of his goals is to break the regional record of 57.4 second that he says has been in the books “for at least 30 years by someone from Brownsville.” Lyon’s best time is 59.4 and, as expected, came last year in the regional meet in Brownsville.
“Pretty much with these two we’re not training for district, but for regional and state,” Gutierrez said. “We start the taper to get their bodies ready to go faster so they can be their fastest at regional and state. Our team goals are to win districts, both for the boys and girls. We’re up to it.”