Getting her feet wet

When an email from Indiana Swimming appeared in her inbox in June, Marcie Vormohr nearly passed by it without even looking. But she opened it, wanting only to check how far away her daughter’s times were from the national qualifying standard.
She saw the time for the 100-yard backstroke — 56.49 seconds — and it stopped her in her tracks.
That number seemed familiar.
It was.
It matched exactly the time Anne Vormohr posted at the Indiana Age Group State Championships. She had earned a national berth.
“I was surprised, but I was happy,” said Anne, who was vacationing in Florida with her cousins when her mom called to pass along the news. “I had no clue (I was even close).”
“I just wanted to see how far off she was. And I just kept looking at it and looking at it,” added Marcie, who also coaches her daughter, noting that she called Indiana Swimming to confirm the times. “We had no idea. It was just kind of a real big surprise.”
Anne will compete in the 100 backstroke at the USA Swimming Winter National Championships, which run from Nov. 29 through Dec. 1 at Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin, Texas.
Since learning of her national berth, Anne has kicked her training up to a new level.
She’s in the pool every day. And for the past three months she and her mom have been at the pool at 5 a.m. a couple of days a week in order to get in workouts.
Anne’s been swimming repetitions of the 200-yard backstroke eight times per workout. That’s nearly a mile of backstroke before most people have hit the snooze button for the first time.
“The practices were always hard, but it was always freestyle … eight 200s freestyle,” Anne said. “And I always thought that was a ton. I thought that was killer.
“(Now) my whole practice is based around backstroke. It’s just different. It’s harder.”
It’s a lot of work for what will amount to one race in Texas that will last less than a minute. But having her family and teammates with her make it enjoyable.
In addition to Marcie, Anne’s aunt, Missy Bader, is also a coach for the Jay County Winter Swim Team. Her brother, Sok, and cousins, Sophie, Alex, Eliza and Mara Bader all swim as well.
Anne said the team as a whole just seems different than some of the others Jay County competes against through the course of the year.
“We have such close relationships. All of my swim friends — I call them my swim friends — are just so much fun,” she said, specifically noting that teammates James Keen and Josh Lykins can always make her laugh. “We go to swim meets and all the other teams are jealous because we laugh so much. … It’s just so fun.”
And while swimming is a family tradition — “I feel like I’ve always been in the pool,” Anne said — the backstroke is not.
Marcie and all of her siblings focused on the breaststroke. Anne’s sister, Cori, who is a senior on the swim team at Ball State University, is also a breaststroke specialist. So was her brother, Joseph.
“I really have no clue,” said Anne of why she’s gravitated toward the backstroke. “I think maybe it’s because no one else did it. I just wanted to try it, and I tried really hard.
“Sophie has always been a butterflyer, and I never liked racing Sophie. I like to do my own thing.”
Now she will be doing something no one from Jay County has ever done.
Anne has been in her share of big meets, having competed at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis at the age group state championships every year. This summer was at the Midwest Zone Championships in Kansas, but she’s never competed on the national level.
The USA Winter Nationals rank near the top of the ladder when it comes to swimming, trailing only the Olympic Trials and the Summer Nationals.
“It’s awesome that’s she’s qualified and she’s going,” said Lynn Kinstler of Indiana Swimming, noting that there were about 50 athletes from the entire state who qualified for the meet. “This is a great introductory meet for Anne to go to. She can get some jitters out and get some experience. It’s fun to see new kids break into that national level.”
In just three career meets thus far at the high school level, Anne has already made a major impact for JCHS.
Vormohr broke a school record in the first meet of her career as she helped lead the Patriots to the championship at the Norwell Invitational on Nov. 12. She shattered the previous 100 backstroke record of 1 minute, 2.38 seconds held by Abby Arnold for more than a decade, dominating the event with a time of 59.52.
She has helped Jay County to a 3-0 start in dual meets with blowout wins over Muncie Southside, Elwood and Adams Central.
“She’s got amazing natural talent with all of her strokes, specifically her backstroke,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik. “How she’s swimming now and how she’s swum in the past, as far as swimmers in the area she’s right up there with the elite. …
“She’s a perfectionist when it comes to working out. She’s extremely coach-able. She does all that you ask. … She’s just got an amazing feel for the water.”
Anne also had her share of success on the club swimming circuit, even before earning she earned her national berth.
She earned her first Indiana Age Group State Championship in 2008, taking the 10-and-younger girls 50 backstroke title by nearly a half second over Crown Point Swim Club’s Aly Tetzloff with a time of 32.2 seconds. She finished first in the 50 backstroke again two years later, winning the event in the 11-12-year-old division by a tenth of a second over Samantha Gowdy of Mount Vernon in 28.52.
Her national-qualifying time this year came in a third-place finish as she, the champion and the runner-up all broke the previous state record. The hope is that she can be even faster in Austin.
“I would just like to see her improve her time, but that’s going to be tough,” said Marcie. “But Anne has a tendency to rise to the occasion. … She just does it.”
Anne agreed that her goal is to surpass that best time of 56.49 that earned her a spot on the national stage. She also said she wants to beat at least one other national competitor.
But mostly, the meet is a chance for her to get the experience of swimming against the best the nation has to offer.
“I think it’s going to be really overwhelming,” Anne said. “I know I’m going to be nervous, but I just have to go in there and swim backstroke, just a 100, 50-some seconds and then I’m done. It’ll be nerve-wracking, but I think I will be fine.”[[In-content Ad]]