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photo by Laura Knudson/The Advocate
At age 18, Colin Eaton will be spending most of his summer training for the Olympic Trials.
Corbett grad trains for the Olympic Trials
at college pool
The Advocate
It's not every day that a recent high school graduate gets to spend part of his summer training for the Olympic Trials. However, this is the case for 18-year-old Corbett High School grad Colin Eaton.
Eaton grew up in Gresham and has been swimming since age 10. His career began because "the girl I had a crush on in third grade was a swimmer so I wanted to be on the swim team, too."
Aside from being a top-notch student, taking five AP classes and finishing with a 4.7 weighted GPA. Eaton's accomplishments in the pool are just as impressive. This includes an Oregon State Activities Association (OSAA) All-American title, five state championship titles, high school state records in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle, USA Swimming Scholastic All-American, Junior National finalist, and Oregon state 17-18 record-holder in the 50 yard freestyle.
Eaton sticks to the sprints when it comes to swimming. His best races are the 50-meter freestyle, the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly.
Eaton will be swimming the 50-meter freestyle at the trials June 25 through July 2 in Omaha, Neb. His current PR is 23.27 seconds, which places him third in the nation for 18-year-olds and under. He said his ultimate goal is to break the 2008 Oregon swimming Open Age Group record at 23 flat.
"This doesn't seem like much time, but in such a short race every hundredth of a second counts, hence why swimmers spend far too much time shaving unnecessary parts of the body," said Eaton.
He feels this is an obtainable goal. However, to qualify for the Olympics, he would have to swim somewhere around a 21.6.
"Unfortunately, I am not yet at this level," he said. "This year I am just happy to be competing at Trials."
Skip Runkle, head coach of Mt. Hood Aquatics where Eaton swims, echoed this, saying, "He is not yet at a point where I would call him a 'player' to make the team, but he certainly would like to go his lifetime best in Omaha (where the trials will be held), plus gain some valuable experience in case he is in a position to make the team in 2016." Eaton said in four years his goals for the Olympic Trials will be much higher.
Eaton has been swimming for Mt. Hood Aquatics for four years coached by Runkle.
"Skip is a fantastic coach and has so much experience," said Eaton.
Runkle has been part of the USA National Team coaching staff 13 times and was voted Oregon Coach of the Year three times.
"Needless to say, I am lucky to be coached by him, despite some of the grueling sets he gives us," said Eaton.
Grueling seems like an understatement when describing Eaton's 21 hours of training a week, including waking up at 4:30 a.m. to train for an hour and a half. He swims 6-8 miles a day on top of dry-land training, which means hitting the weight room after swim practice.
Runkle said, "He has been focusing on training better than ever in all aspects and has been doing some additional speed work with resistance (buckets, parachutes) in the water."
Eaton said, "After qualifying for Olympic Trials in the 50 freestyle, Skip really intensified my sprint training." Working on building power, Eaton swims across the pool as fast as he can with the bucket attached to a tower with a pulley system, usually weighing 80-180 pounds in water.
Runkle said Eaton is coachable and "has good natural talent (speed) but his biggest attributes are his strong work ethic, his commitment to the process of training and passionately pursuing his goals."
As if qualifying for the Olympic Trials at 18 wasn't enough, Eaton has also been offered a spot on the USC swim team. This was both exciting and relieving to him.
"All the years of waking up at 4:30 in the morning, swimming 10 miles a day, having to cancel social plans, and enduring many awkward social encounters after having to shave my legs for a big meet, had paid off. It felt like finally receiving a paycheck after years of hard work," he said.
Eaton deferred the offer due to the high tuition. He added, "It is not a 100 percent guarantee that I will attend USC, in that I have not signed to go there."
If Eaton were to attend USC it wouldn't be until August 2013.
Because it is harder to get accepted as a transfer student, Eaton will be taking the year off from school. Backed by his parents, he plans to stay another year in Gresham training at Mt. Hood and possibly collecting more offers from top colleges.
All in all, Runkle said of the soon-to-be Olympic Trial competitor, "I would like to see him achieve his goals in swimming but more than that, I want to see him apply what he's learned in the pool to other areas of his life for even bigger successes."
Although it can become repetitive sacrificing a social life and swimming back and forth all day long, he still loves it. Eaton said he definitely wouldn't stop swimming.
"It has brought so many positive things to my life; new friendships and the ability to work hard as well as significant travel opportunities," said Eaton.
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