Dundee's Bylow named Monroe County Region Swimmer of the Year
Drew Bylow started swimming to beat the heat.
Then he discovered it was fun to beat the competition.
“I was about six years old and my family lived in El Paso, Texas,” he recalled. “In the middle of the summer, it was super warm and me, my mom and sisters were swimming all the time.”
When the family moved to Michigan, his mother got the three kids involved in a swimming club. That’s when he found a new reason to love the pool.
“I just liked winning,” he said. “My work ethic made me better than a lot of the other kids. There is a joy for me in a hard practice.”
The joy of hard work led to more joy of winning.
And it helped Bylow become the Monroe County Region Boys Swimmer of the Year in voting by The Monroe News sports staff.
He was selected for the honor after setting school records in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard freestyle in placing eighth and ninth, respectively, in those two events at the Division 3 state finals.
“He’s an athletic kid,” Dundee coach Sarah Eubanks said. “He’s not a kid who swims all-year round, but he is very talented, very smart and very humble.
“He is pretty good at just about everything he does. He qualified for state in every event but the breaststroke.”
Bylow attends St. Mary Catholic Central, but that school doesn’t offer boys swimming.
Bylow swam his first two seasons with Allen Park Cabrini as part of a co-op program, then SMCC struck a deal with Dundee before last season to send some of its boys there.
“That was really good,” Bylow said. “Cabrini was really far. It was a hard commute. Dundee is much closer, plus they have a really good team and great coaches.
“I 100-percent loved my coaches and teammates.”
More: Bylow named Most Valuable at County Championships
Dundee loved having Bylow and the three classmates that he drove to practice each day.
Bylow broke the school record that he set last year in the backstroke with a :52.67 clocking, then capped his senior year by breaking the school standard in the 200 while taking ninth place in the state finals.
He bested the record set by Bryon Tansel in 2003 with a time of 1:44.68.
“It was great to win Swimming of the Meet at the Monroe County Championships and the SMISL (Southeast Michigan Independent Swimming League) meet, but I was most proud of the record in the 200 freestyle,” he said. “I did it at state with my family watching. That was very exciting.”
It’s a testament to Bylow’s leadership skills that he was captain of Dundee’s swimming team this season and recently was named captain of SMCC’s baseball team.
“I got all my talent from God,” he said.
Bylow’s closet is stuffed with shirts from SMCC, Dundee and Cabrini.
“I have a lot of different colors,” he said. “Swimming is definitely my No. 1 sport, but I might enjoy baseball more. I enjoy getting on the field with my friends.”
The son of Gretchen and Jason Bylow of Monroe plans to accept a Navy ROTC scholarship and enroll at Norwich University in Vermont next year.
“It’s a Division 3 level university,” he said. “I am really looking forward to joining the team.”
The Navy could become a career for Bylow.
“My dad was a captain in the Air Force,” he said. “I’ve always liked the military. That motivated me in planning my future.”
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Boys Swimmer of the Year: Bylow beats competition in the pool
