During the United Masters Swimming Short Course Yard Championships in May, ECC’s very own instructor and swim coach, Traci Granger, set a national record of 26.77 in the 50-yard butterfly.
Granger not only set a new record, but she also beat her time of 27.19 from last year’s competition and was able to keep the title as the nation’s fastest swimmer in her age division.
Traci Granger’s time in the 50-yard butterfly wasn’t the only record that she set. She also swam the 100 butterfly in 1:00:28, beating the old record time of 1:01:26.
“I feel great,” Granger said. “I didn’t even know what the record was and I hadn’t paid any attention to it. I just remember thinking it was too fast for me to ever do.”
She said she did her regular training but her coach made her practice butterflies and workout more. Although she just practiced her regular training, it still wasn’t easy for her to earn the title as the nation’s fastest swimmer.
“In training, I tend to swim with a lot of guys and they tend to make bigger waves so the water is rougher,” Granger said. “It was harder for me to swim, especially because I was doing butterflies.”
Another difficulty Granger said she had to overcome was going on intervals where she was unable to get any rest. She said that when she does butterflies in training, she needs a little more rest to continue with the stroke.
Even though there were several difficulties she had to deal with before competing in the spring, Granger does not feel any reluctance to go through the same kind of training again to prepare herself for future competitions.
“I’m planning as of right now to go to nationals again next year,” she said. “I hope I can keep swimming as I get older, not get tedious, and just have fun.”