VIRGINIA—Rock Ridge senior Gunnar George came into his final swim season with the hopes of finishing at state better than he did the year before.
With a fourth place finish in the 50 freestyle and a third place finish in the 100 butterfly in 2023, the bar was set higher than ever and the standout swimmer would need to find another gear to get things done.
Late in the season, George made the tough decision to take himself out of the butterfly and instead try and compete in the 100 freestyle. That decision paid off as George went to his last state meet and came home with a runner-up finish in the 50 and a third place mark in the 100, capping off his final time competing in the pool.
For his efforts this season, George has been named the 2024 All-Iron Range Boys’ Swimmer of the Year by the Mesabi Tribune and the Grand Rapids Herald-Review.
After tearing the labrum in his shoulder as a sophomore, George’s junior season was a big comeback for a swimmer that turned heads as a freshman. Completely healthy entering his senior year, George wanted to reach new heights and go out with a bang at state.
“All I knew was I wanted to do better than last year,” George said recently at the Rock Ridge High School pool. I wanted to get at least second in one of my events and I was able to do that. I switched up events right at the end of the year and that was kind of taking a big chance. I was feeling confident in that event and swam one of my best races at state. It was a great race.”
After setting a Mesabi East pool record in the 100 freestyle near the end of the season, George said that’s when he decided it was time to drop the butterfly.
“I wasn’t performing as well as I did last year in the fly. It was pretty up and down all year. It felt weird but my 100 freestyle was getting better compared to last season. Once I set that record, I thought now it was time to make the change.”
Anyone who’s trained through an entire swim season knows just how arduous it can be. It’s easy to hit a wall and sometimes the drops in time just aren’t where they need to be. For George, the key to staying on track was having confidence in his work outs.
“It’s a really long season,” the soon-to-be graduate said. “I lift a lot and I lifted all season and I think that helped but the training in the pool is very hard and it takes a lot to get through it. When my times start to plateau towards January, that’s when I know I’m in a pretty good spot before the end of the season.”
With most of the best competition in the state being concentrated around the Twin Cities area, George says he spends a lot of effort comparing times with his potential rivals at state. Competing at big invitationals and putting forth his best swims against the top local competition, George figures he can still compete even if he isn’t surrounded by the metro swimmers year round.
“It’s a lot different not getting to see the guys at state all the time. They swim against each other all the time and then I just show up at state and have to compete. I look at my times a lot and I look at their times too and I’m always comparing.
“It’s always fun racing at those big invitationals. You get a lot of competition that way. Racing against Duluth, they have a lot of fast guys. Guys like Carter Steele from Mesabi East are good too. He’s a really fast dude. Racing against those guys and competing in the big meets are what I look forward to for that reason.”
Making his final appearance at state, George says things didn’t feel too different for him once he got into the pool. Things only started to change after he finished his last race.
“It felt kind of same old, same old in the beginning. I knew what I was doing down there. I knew the warm up lanes. I knew the procedure. The last day ended up being a little more sad because it was the last time for it all. I felt like I had the experience going down there but it’s tough once it’s all done.”
Despite the strong finishes he had, George felt like his times (21.01 in the 50 and 46.48 in the 100) was about as high as he could have gone considering the competition at state. Hutchinson’s Conner Hogan, the winner of both events, posted times of 20.13 and 43.80.
“It feels like that’s probably the best I could have done,” George said. “Those guys in front of me were very fast. They’re tough competition and they swim year round. They go to the camps. They go to Nationals and all that. They’re both committed (to college swimming) but they’re very fast.”
And that, for George, is one of the biggest differences. While he enjoys his time in the pool, it’s not the only thing he does. Competing on the baseball team and participating in plenty of other activities has kept him busy for years. That’s something he wouldn’t change.
“I would go crazy,” George said of the idea of only competing in swimming. “Swimming is hard. Something like baseball takes me out of that. You get burnt out towards the end of the season. The swim practices get longer. They feel longer and they just get harder. Baseball is a way to kind of step away from all that stress in swimming.
With the opening of the Miners National Bank Aquatics Center, the Wolverines finally had a state of the art pool of their own to practice and compete in. George says the new facilities played a large role in his success as a senior.
“It helped tremendously. We all got quality practices. We didn’t have a big team this year so we only had a couple guys in each lane. It made it a lot more fun. It’s a 25-yard, regulation pool so that helps a lot in practice and transfers to meets. The blocks are just like the ones at the U of M so that helps a lot before going to state.”
Along with his own personal drive, one of George’s biggest motivators has been his twin brother Bodi. Both state level swimmers and both competing together on the baseball team, Gunnar says his success wouldn’t be possible without the help of his twin.
“I couldn’t have done any of this without him. We do everything together. The car rides with each other are the best part because we can just sit and talk over things. We swam right next to each other this year in lanes two and three. We’d practice for races and have tough little competitions with each other.
“Baseball is fun with him too. It’s fun to be in the dugout with him talking and then getting out on the field together is awesome.”
Since the swim season ended in March, George hasn’t spent any time in the pool. He’s not ready to leave the water behind, however, as he plans to enlist in the Coast Guard after high school.
“It’s kind of normal to take some time off after swim season and I think I definitely needed that. The Coast Guard, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in college, didn’t know what I wanted to study so I just thought enlisting was my best option to give myself a break.”
George says his own swimming experience definitely played a role in his decision to enlist. While the specifics of his future are up in the air, the idea of becoming a rescue swimmer is something that stands out to him.
“We’ll see how that goes. I’m not entirely sure and it’s not a guaranteed job. There’s a waitlist for the schooling but it’s a cool idea. It’s something I could see myself doing.”
Set to graduate in less than two weeks time, George says he’ll look back fondly on his senior year. Now that it’s nearly over, he says he’s glad he had fun with it.
“I spent a lot of time with my friends and I think I made sure I was having as much fun as I could in my spots. Swimming in this new pool was great and I’m glad it’s something I got to do before graduating.”
With his name up on the Rock Ridge record board for the foreseeable future, George hoped his name could be motivation for up and coming swimmer.s
“I hope they look up at the boards and want to break the records. That’s what I did. My whole career was looking at the boards and wanting to break the Strumbell Records or the Boelk records. I want them to think about that during practice because that’s what helped me.”
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In addition to George, the 2024 All-Iron Range Boys’ Swimming and Diving Team includes: Bodi George, Gabe Aagenes, Luke Hecimovich, AJ Hultman and Tony Nemanich of Rock Ridge; Cole Layman, Carter Steele, Connor Feldt, Zade Baker, Alex Leete and Aiden Johnson of Mesabi East; Wylie Stenson, John Lund, Alex Hanegmon, Christian Massich and Tyler Fosso of Hibbing and Isaac Palecek, Zak Vidmar, William Skaudis, Matt Phillips, Joe Loney, Nik Casper, Leif Wyland, Kasey Cowan and David Aultman of Grand Rapids.
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