Neuqua Valley swimmer Alex Parkinson surprised a lot of people by winning the state title in the 500-yard freestyle as a junior last year.
But as great as his performance was, it wasn’t enough to convince everyone that Parkinson is the best distance swimmer in the state.
“We kept trying to tell him he was the underdog, and I think other people thought that too,” Neuqua Valley coach Chad Allen said. “Last year, I think experts picked him like eighth place, this year second or third.
“I heard a lot of noise this year that he probably wasn’t going to win this year, but there was no doubt in my mind he was going to win.”
Allen wasn’t wrong, and Parkinson wasn’t fazed by those unconvinced of his prowess.
“I more so was just concerned with swimming the time that I wanted to go,” Parkinson said. “I think closer to the end when I started realizing I’m still in first, I can win this, I started really trying to go for it.”
Parkinson, a senior who has committed to South Dakota, got what he wanted, both time-wise and place-wise. He held off a strong challenge from Oswego’s Chase Maier to win in 4 minutes, 22.33 seconds, once again breaking his school record in the event at FMC Natatorium in Westmont on Saturday.
Parkinson, who became the first Neuqua Valley swimmer to win the 500 last year, is the ninth boy to win back-to-back state titles in the 500. He is the first to do so since Hinsdale Central’s Danny Thomson, who holds the state record of 4:18.86, won three straight from 2010 to 2012.
“He’s a heck of a distance swimmer,” Allen said. “He can do the mile, the 1,000. I think he’s just going to keep getting stronger.”
Which is exactly what Parkinson has done the past two seasons. He set the school record of 4:29.28 in the preliminaries at the state meet last year before winning his first title with a finals time of 4:29.39. That was a narrow victory; he edged St. Ignatius’ Charlie Tracy by 0.04.
But Tracy regressed this year, finishing eighth in 4:36.78 on Saturday, while Parkinson kept dropping time. He lowered his Neuqua Valley record to 4:25.30 during the preliminaries on Friday to get the No. 1 seed ahead of Maier, who was 2.4 seconds slower.
Parkinson’s extra speed Saturday was necessary because Maier, who earlier in the meet had finished second in the 200 free, was right on his tail.
“He definitely did push me a bit,” Parkinson said. “I enjoyed seeing him out of the corner of my eye, and that definitely did push me.”
That comment speaks to the quiet confidence Parkinson had all season. It blunted the extra pressure brought by being the defending champion.
“He had an awesome swim,” Allen said. “Once we saw Chase swim that 200, we knew it was going to be a dogfight.”
But Allen was confident he knew the what the outcome would be.
“I think there’s definitely a couple people who thought they were going to win, but deep down I just thought there’s nobody who can beat him,” Allen said. “He just trains so well.
“Obviously, he got pushed. Chase had a great race too. But Alex knew he had to keep the pressure on and just go, and he did.”
What makes Parkinson so good?
“I like to believe I’m good at the 500 mainly because I’m good at doing plans for what I want to swim,” he said. “Today my plan was do the first 100 like I normally do, and after that start, pushing it a bit to make everyone else more uncomfortable in the race. And then the second-to-last 100 I start picking it up, and the last 100 I go all out.”
Parkinson leaves Neuqua Valley as just the second swimmer in program history to win consecutive state titles in any event, joining Brian Alden, who won three straight in both the 50 free and the 100 free from 2006 to 2008.
“It makes me really happy and excited for what I might accomplish in the future,” Parkinson said.
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.