Put it on the wall: Lincoln-Sudbury swimmer Thomas Eppich set one record and he wants more
SUDBURY - The Lincoln-Sudbury swim team gathered around coach Julie Nocka before the season’s first practice. She pointed at the white board hanging on the Atkinson Pool wall near the diving board. A blue border encircles the school records, a list of events and the fastest to ever swim them.
"They look up at that. They're all like 'wow.' If you're not thinking about it, you won't ever do them," Nocka said. "That's got to be the pie in the sky. Anything from here to there is what we do as a team."
Thomas Eppich didn't go "wow" as a freshman. He completed a 500 for the first time during tryouts then shortly after told Nocka it would be great if he could break the record and asked what he needed to do. It stood since Rob McMorrow completed the event in 4 minutes, 46.36 seconds.
"I thought he was nuts," Nocka said. "He was just a little guy."
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The little guy found his lane and kept swimming. Eppich tried soccer, baseball and lacrosse, among others, before jumping in the water at the Longfellow Health Club around age six.
"It was really a sport that stuck with me," Eppich said. "I've been told I have a swimmer build."
Anatomy of a record-breaker
The swimmer also built. He honed his stroke techniques with the North Shore Swim Club around L-S practices and outside of the high school season.
"You never know whether it's going to pan out. They have no idea what the work is. With every year there was a certain amount of frustration because it wasn't happening as fast as he thought," Nocka said. "He kept adding every year. It took him four years."
Eppich added strength training to his regimen over the summer and saw his club times plummet. He aimed at not only McMorrow's 500 record but the 1:55.36 200 individual medley Alex Cuhna clocked in 1993, the second oldest.
"I wanted to go for the (500) because it's been up there for so long and no one' s broken it. I thought I might have a chance," Eppich said. "The (200) IM, I just started swimming it this year and thought, I'm pretty close, I'll see what I can do."
All falls down
He smashed the 500 record at the North sectional championships in a 4:40.51 and approached the IM standard with a 1:57.33. The Dual County record for the 500 also fell.
"I didn't know people could hold that fast of pace for that long. Thomas was always in the pool, trying really hard. At meets, he was destroying the other teams," L-S junior Graham Skelly said. "He's been so dominant in the 500. To be on the team with him right now, seeing him dominate swimming in all these different ways is just amazing."
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Eppich faced stiff competition in both events for the first time all year at Sunday's Division 1 state championships. He took third in both the 500 (4:43.86) and the IM (1:56.73).
"In the IM I'm trying to go out fast and make it back fast because I know I'm not the strongest in those middle strokes," said Eppich, who will swim at the Rochester Institute of Technology next year. "In the 500, I try to go out fast and hold my pace."
Even heading back to L-S with state medals, Eppich's name is destined for the Atkinson Pool board. His legacy covers more than one line of text, though.
"He's always there for you. He's supportive. When I'm behind the blocks that walk by and give me a nice little pat on the back and give me a time to beat. In the practice, he's working hard. He's getting others to work hard. He's trying to motivate others to do the yards and to make the team better," Skelly said. "He's always been a mentor for me. It pushes me to be better."
Even when everyone he swam with has graduated, Eppich's name and time will be there on the wall for future Warriors to chase.
Contact Kyle Grabowski at kgrabowski@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kylegrbwsk.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Lincoln-Sudbury swimmer Thomas Eppich chasing more school records
