 TOP SWIMMER: OC high school swimmer of the year -- Tom Shields of Edison. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |
Edison's Shields is top male swimmer
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The CIF champion pushes age-group records and maintains huge goals.
One of Tom Shields' favorite inspirational quotes comes from Theodore Roosevelt:
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
The Edison junior put that philosophy into action during his 2008 swim season.
He boldly set lofty goals, pursued them with gusto and accepted the outcome.
Shields ultimately fell short in his pursuit of two national age-group records but he collected several milestones along the way.
For his achievements, Shields is The Register's male swimmer of the year.
"I was definitely very happy with it," he said of his season.
Shields took aim at national age-group records for 15-16s in the 200-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly.
He won both events in dominating fashion at the CIF Division I finals.
Shields captured the 200 free in 1 minute, 36.52 seconds – about three-tenths of a second off Eric Diehl's 1990 NAG record of 1:36.19.
He later claimed the 100 butterfly in 47.57 – about half-a-second off Michael Cavic's 2001 NAG mark of 47.10.
Shields found deficiencies in both of his races but he wasn't too hard on himself.
"It's not like I screwed up and swam flat," he said at the Division I finals. "I'm happy."
Shields smashed the Division I record in the butterfly. His 47.57 is the top reported time in the nation so far this high school year. The time also places him second on the county all-time list behind Cavic's high school-best 47.13.
In the 200 free, Shields' 1:36.52 is the nation's second fastest reported time and ranks third on the county all-time list to Diehl and Aaron Peirsol.
Shields also continued to excel on relays in 2008. At the Millikan Southern Section Relays, he split a spectacular 43.93 as the anchor of Edison's 400 free relay.
So is Shields going to keep setting challenging goals?
"I figure next year, I'm going to make huge goals again," he said. "Why not?"
(See more of Tom Shields' swimming stats)
Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com
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