ROCKTON — Hononegah head girls swimming coach Brian McGuire says Lydia Nordgren has always been a great teammate and a hard-worker on his conference-contending teams.
She definitely kicked it up a notch or two her senior year, though.
“Between her junior and senior year we had a nice sit down and we discussed her goals,” McGuire said. “Up to that point she had done everything we’d asked her to do and she had been a great teammate. We asked her what she wanted to accomplish as a senior and she said she wanted to be a state qualifier. I mapped out what she needed to do and by the end of the season she’d had a fantastic season and was swimming at state.
“She went from a 1:05 100-yard butterfly swimmer to a 57-second flyer.”
Even that goal was team-oriented.
“Gracie Colvin swam the butterfly for us my junior year and she was awesome,” Nordgren said. “She really had an influence on my mind-set about swimming. She taught me that you have to come to practice every day and put the work in all the time.
“When she (graduated) we were like, we need a flier. So I made her train me to be a 100 flier. I guess it worked.”
Nordgren not only captured a NIC-10 championship, she met her goal of swimming at state as an individual in the 100-yard butterfly by winning the event in 57.93 seconds at the sectional meet. She also qualified for state as a member of both the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.
The Indians finished second in the sectional this year after winning the first title in program history her junior year. Hononegah also won conference titles her freshman and sophomore years.
A new challenge awaits her at Beloit College, where she will join an up-and-coming swimming and diving program under Andrew Lind. Wednesday was her official signing day at Hononegah.
“Lydia left a legacy here of being a quality swimmer and student and also being the friend kids can go to when they have problems,” McGuire said. “I’m super proud of her. She is a very fundamentally sound swimmer and that bodes well for her college career. She has a great attitude and she’s a wonderful person and with the proper training she’s going to do some great things at Beloit.”
An outstanding student at Hononegah, Nordgren said she was drawn to Beloit first by its science department.
“I love science,” she said. “I’m sort of torn between medical science and environmental science and both of their programs at Beloit are very good. I also worked (at the college) over the summer and I got very connected with the coach there. It’s funny. I never thought I’d want to go to a college that close. I used to joke about it, but by the end of summer I was telling him that I think I really want to go here.
“Now I’m really excited. It’s going to be fun.”
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