Erik Nusl is easy to spot in the swimming pool.
He’s the guy out front in the water and the guy clutching the trophy at the end of the meet.
The provincial age-group record-holder (15-17 boy’s) in the 100-metre butterfly won all four individual races at the Alberta Summer Swimming Association meet held Aug. 14-16 in Edmonton. He added a gold medal in boy’s 15-17 200m medley relay.
He was named the meet’s top male swimmer for the third-straight year.
“It was pretty exciting. We had a really good team this year,” Nusl said of a Piranhas team that won 10 medals at provincials. “Even without the individual stuff, we won the team relay. It was a deep team this year. We have lots of good, experienced swimmers. Especially in the older boy’s categories. Which we haven’t had in a long time.”
Piranhas first-year coach Breanna Hendriks enjoys working with swimmers like Nusl. At Region E regionals in Calgary earlier this month, the 17-year-old Cochrane High School multi-sport athlete (football, track) swam a provincial-record time (58.88) in the 100-metre butterfly.
“Hard worker, for sure. He’s clearly dedicated,” Hendriks observed. “And coachable. That’s the perfect athlete, right? That’s why all the kids did really well, because they are all coachable.”
Part of that coaching includes preparing swimmers like Nusl for different swim-meet strategies. At regionals, swimmers raced in heats before advancing to finals. At provincials, it’s one and done.
“For regionals it was a little bit easier in a sense that they were able to get a second chance at a swim. They could maybe tweak their racing strategy or a technical error. They could fix it in the evening swim,” Hendriks explained. “It was a little bit more challenging for the older swimmers especially because they didn’t have that morning session to get set up and then go race at night. They had to just get up and go. I think they all did a really, really great job of doing that. That is challenging to be able to do that.”
A challenge Nusl managed swimming to four individual and a relay gold medal in the top age group at provincials.
“You get up and you go,” he stated. “It doesn’t really get into your head. It’s definitely nicer to have the swim in the morning to get ready for the afternoon. You know what you have to work on for the final.
“But it was a good meet over all.”
