Jackson Polar Bears' season a win-win heading into OHSAA state swimming championships
CANTON − But for copyright infringement, the title of a movie about Jackson High School's last few months in the pool could be "Everything Everywhere All at Once."
Head coach Doug Nist's program is set up for fast action at the state meet and one of those really long postseason banquets.
Heading into Saturday's OHSAA Division I championship swim finals, the 2023-24 Polar Bears have:
Gone undefeated in boys and girls dual meets.
Won the boys and girls Federal League meets.
Won boys and girls sectional championships
Run away with the boys district team title and challenged on the girls side.
Next up is the OHSAA state meet. Swimmers from Jackson, Hoover, Green, Alliance, Marlington, Perry and Lake are among swimmers from around Ohio converging on C.T. Branin Natatorium.
Jackson leads the way for Stark County.
When Nist took over the program five years ago, former coach Matt Ziders, now the school principal, sent him "this colossal spread sheet" of historical data on Polar Bears in the pool.
Relying on Ziders' lists, Nist ascertained Jackson's boys last went undefeated in 2016.
"I skimmed down the girls list and seasons and saw a lot of of one-loss seasons, but never a zero," Nist said. "I was actually kind of shocked they had never gone undefeated.
"That makes it pretty cool to have both teams go undefeated and both win the Federal League and both win the sectional meet."
The boys team has had the effect of a meteor striking the middle of the pool.
Almost all of the school records have been blown off the wall.
The quartet of Luke Vickers, Holden Nist, Daniel Ham and Ezra Herring came out of last year with school records in two of the three relays.
The record they didn't break stuck in the craw. Holden Nist goes so far as to say barely missing the 400 freestyle relay record with a 3:07.81 at the 2023 state meet was "heartbreaking."
The 400 relay record dated to the state meet on Feb. 26, 1994, when Steve Woolbert, Jason Morris, John Stamates and Dan Fries swam a 3:07.17.
Decades passed. A once-in-a-generation group of boys arrived as 2020-21 freshmen. More years passed.
Holden Nist saw 3:07.17 in his nightmares. He saw 3:07.17 every day at practice.
"It just sat there in my mind," he said. "That record board sits right above the lane. You stare at it. It stares back at you. I've thought about it. I've dreamed of it."
Coach Nist, Holden's dad, swam for the Massillon Tiger Sharks and West Virginia Mountaineers in the era of Woolbert and Company.
"He's told us how incredible those guys were," Vickers said.
So are the 2024 Polar Bears, but they still didn't have that record as they warmed up for the last event at the district meet this past Saturday.
The mood already was electric as swimmers herded toward the 400 relay starting blocks at Cleveland State's Busbey Natatorium.
Hours earlier, there had been a glitch in the meet-opening medley relay − Holden Nist's dome cap popped off as he swam the last leg.
"That kind of messed me up," he said. "I've been incredibly blessed with a coach and teammates who were like, 'It's OK, Holden. We still won the event. We're still going to the state meet.'"
The last relay was more than OK. The quartet took down the 3:07.17 with a bug-free 3:05.5.
"I didn't think we would go that fast," Ham said.
"We were just so ready," Vickers said. "To get the record by a second and a half was awesome."
"It was a perfect end to the meet," Herring said.
The Bears will shoot to break their own records at the state meet. They'll hang out at the David YMCA a while longer, preparing for Y nationals in April as members of the Jackson Phantoms, their age-group team since they were little boys.
The top swimmer on the girls team, Nina Shulik, is a junior with time left as a Polar Bear. Teammates Abra Manofski, Alexis Lewis and Anika Ham (Daniel's sister) join Shulik as returnees from last year's state meet.
"This week has been awesome," Shulik said. "We're making sure every little detail is ready for this weekend, and we've had a lot of fun doing it."
The young men who rewrote the record book will go their separate ways.
Ham doesn't yet know where he will go to college. Two things he knows: He wants to be a lawyer; this is it for his competitive swim career.
Vickers is fired up about a future as an Ohio State Buckeye.
"In November, all the guys who are signed or committed to Ohio State hung out for a weekend with the team," he said. "That was really cool. That's going to be my group the next few years."
Herring doesn't plan to swim in college and is deciding on where he will study chemical engineering.
"It's the end of an era," he said. "I'm just trying to make the most of it and have as much fun as possible."
Holden Nist's intentions as to swimming in college?
"Maybe, maybe not," he said.
"I'm not spending any time getting all sad that it's over," he said. "I'm excited because we get to do it one more time.
"Two hours in the pool five days a week, plus lifting, plus meets, is a long time to spend, and that's been years. You build friendships. I hope they're lifelong friendships."
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Jackson High School swimming readies for OHSAA state championships
