Princeton’s Caden Brooks making a big splash

It was love at first splash.

Caden Brooks went to visit his dad’s swim team in Bloomington when he was 8 years old and wanted to dive right in.

“I didn’t know swimming was a thing,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was and I saw kids swimming and I asked him that day, if I could start swimming and he put me in practice that Monday. I just immediately loved it.

“That’s what got me first into it and I have just really embraced it. There’s just something about it. I think I like the individualistic part of it, like all the pressure is on me. I don’t have to lean on anyone else.”

The Princeton High School senior, who swims for the Illinois Valley YMCA Dolphins swim club throughout the year, has turned that love affair into a successful adventure, winning two events in last week’s United Township Sectional at East Moline to qualify for the IHSA State Meet this weekend in Westmont.

Brooks started swimming at the Illinois Valley YMCA under Rob McInally, who is also the swim coach at L-P and developed a tight relationship. When Brooks moved into high school he said there was hope to form a co-op between L-P and PHS. It was worked out McNally was hired by PHS to become its head coach and represent Brooks in the IHSA postseason series.

Brooks won both the 100 backstroke at the sectional with a time of 51.13 seconds and the 500 freestyle in 4:43.03.

He said he went in expecting to win the 500 freestyle, but didn’t do as well as he hoped.

“Honestly, I was kind of disappointed with my time. I mean it was the state cut and I won, but I was hoping to go faster,” he said.

He may have surprised himself in winning the 100 back stroke.

“I went into it knowing it was going to be a right race with the kid from L-P, Joe Ovanic, who just broke the sectional record in the 100 fly not too long before the 100 back,” Brooks said. “We were right next to each other and I knew it was really close. So, when I pulled ahead of him, I was pretty pumped.”

Dolphins coach Patty Redig said Brooks had a good day.

“Compared to all the other guys there, he was not tapered or rested,” Redig said. “I only gave him one day of lightening up. That shows how much he likes to compete to do that well without being tapered. This week I will taper him, so hopefully he will drop a good amount, especially in the 500 free.”

State preliminaries at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont will be Friday with the top 12 swimmers advancing to Saturday’s finals — the top six in the championship finals and the next six in the consolation finals.

Brooks’ best chance to medal will come in the 100 back stroke in which he is ranked 11th.

“It’s going to be just like a photo finish. I’m going to go into that and go as fast as I can and see what happens,” said Brooks, who plans to continue his swim career for McKendree University in Lebandon, Ill. next year.

“Just because he’s 11th doesn’t mean he’s going to stay 11th,” Redig said. “If he wants to make it [to Saturday], he’s going to still have to drop a good amount of time. The state meet is interesting because with sectional times some people are tapered and some aren’t. Some are halfway through their taper. Some people drop a tremendous amount [of time at state], and some go up because they were already tapered.”

Brooks is ranked 26th in the 500 freestyle in what he calls a stacked field.

“Honestly, I’m just going into that hoping to drop some more time, get my confidence boosted back up in the 500,” he said.

Redig is excited to see Brooks swim at state.

“He has never been in a meet of this caliber,” Redig said. “It will be interesting to see how he reacts. I think he’s going to be fine. He’s pretty confident in himself. What will get him through is how much he likes to race. I hope he’s a little nervous. That will definitely help. My job is to make him as confident as possible.

“It’s kind of a crapshoot, but he knows what my best guess of times he needs to make it in both events is. Do I think he could do it? Yes.”

While he no longer coaches the Dolphins’ swim team, McNally follows Brooks’ swimming closely, and is not surprised by his success.

“Caden’s work ethic has been quite strong for many years, so his performance at this year’s Sectional Meet came as no surprise to me. It was a classic case of level of effort relative to level of success,” he said.

- Kevin Chlum contributed to this story.