Bentonville's Pike Small In Stature, Tall In Swimming Talent

— Taylor Pike barely stands 5 feet tall and could easily hide herself among a group of high school swimmers.

There's no way to hide what she did for Bentonville's girls in the pool this season. The freshman, the latest in a family of swimmers, won two individual events at the Class 7A/6A State Swimming Championships, then helped the Lady Tigers set a state record to cap their quest for a state title.

All-NWA Media Girls Swimming Newcomer of the Year

Taylor Pike

SCHOOL: Bentonville

CLASS: Freshman

HEIGHT: 5-0

NOTABLE: Teamed with Emiley Horton, Alexis Abernathy and Eunsol Chon to win the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3 minutes, 37.33 seconds, breaking the state record by more than 3 seconds. … Won the 100 butterfly in 58.37 seconds and the 500 freestyle in 5:09.16, beating her closest competitor by more than 12 seconds. … Teamed with Second-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay with Katelyn Hedgecock, Jessica Kjellberg and Alexa Tininenko for a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay.

"Being a freshman, I knew I had a long way to go, and everyone makes mistakes," Pike said. "But I knew that in order for our team to have a good chance at winning, we all would have to do our part.

"I was right on my club times, and I was able to win events at regular meets, district meets and state meets, and I was able to swim just like I did on my other teams."

Pike won the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5 minutes, 9.16 seconds, and she was one of two swimmers to finish the 100 butterfly in under a minute, winning the event in 58.37 seconds. She then teamed with Emiley Horton, Alexis Abernathy and Eunsol Chon to win the 400 freestyle relay in a state-record time of 3:37.33, breaking the previous mark by more than 3 seconds.

Her accomplishments made the choice for Newcomer of the Year for girls swimming by NWA Media an easy one.

"She's not your typical freshman," Bentonville coach Nick Nersesian said. "She has a huge swimming background. Her grandfather is a swimmer, her mother is a swimmer -- and she's been put on that family tradition of swimming and met those expectations.

"She's very humble, and she's very grounded. She knows what she wants, and she has the ability to do a lot of great things out there. She's one of those rare individuals that comes along once in a while and competes, and it was great to watch her all year long."

Nersesian was fully aware of her swimming heritage, but Pike still had to prove her talents in the pool. She did it from the outset as opened the season with two wins at the Springdale Bulldog Invitational.

While she is short in stature, Pike is at her best when it comes to the longer races. Her winning time of 5 minutes, 9.16 seconds in the 500 freestyle -- the longest individual event done in high school swimming -- was more than 12 seconds faster than her closest competitor.

"It's not very easy to do good strength stuff against taller girls," Pike said. "So the dive is harder for me to catch up on, and the turns are harder. In the distance races, there is time to recover, and I think that's where the real swimmers show up."

Sports on 03/27/2014

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