BENTONVILLE — Eunsol Chon couldn't have scripted a better finish for her junior year as a swimmer.

Bentonville swim coach Nick Nersesian chose her to follow teammates Emiley Horton, Taylor Pike and Alexis Abernathy and swim the anchor leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay, which happened to be the final event of the Class 7A/6A State Swimming Championships. She was the one who would touch the board to complete the race, then look up to the scoreboard and discover that the Lady Tigers broke the state record by more than 3 seconds.

"As soon as I finished, I looked up at the board," Chon said. "The record time is right next to the board, so you just compare the times. When I saw that our time was faster than the state record, I was just so happy."

Chon had more than one reason to be thrilled that day as she played a vital role in Bentonville regaining the state girls swimming title. Earlier in that meet, she helped the Lady Tigers break another state record, this time in the 200 freestyle relay, then she won the 200 intermediate medley and finished second in the 100 backstroke.

Those accomplishments led to Chon's selection as the girls Swimmer of the Year by NWA Media, and it all began with a little more dedication to her work in the pool.

"She probably had some goals last year that she might have set pretty high for herself," Nersesian said. "What she did differently this year is she decided to go after those goals and reach them.

"It was dedication. At some point during the summer and the long-course season, she looked at some of the different times around the state and the different people she's competing against. Sometimes athletes look around and see they have accomplished a lot, but there's that next step that they need to get to."

Chon's increased dedication began with improving on what she thought was her weak spot -- the backstroke. She began working on that heavily during practices, and eventually cut two seconds off of her time in that part.

That kind of improvement also showed with some of her other strokes and had her believing that she could do good things in the pool this season.

"Based on my performances in practice and in local meets, it didn't come to me as a surprise that I did well," Chon said. "I worked hard in practice and worked hard on my techniques, and that tends to show in the state meets.

"Improving so much in backstroke also helped me in my IM and helped me win it. In the IM, people tend to catch me on the backstroke, so that's something I wanted to improve. When I work on my backstroke, I also work on my underwater kicks, which actually help me with my freestyle."

Chon said her focus will be placed on the butterfly and the sprint freestyle, as well as continue to improve on her underwater kicks. She's also begun the early stages of looking at colleges and trying to find the right fit for her to take her swimming beyond the high school ranks.

Sports on 03/27/2014