Ben Murphy
Sports Scene
Heritage junior Riley Hilbrandt competed at the Division 1 girls state finals swim meet at Eastern Michigan University on November 18 and 19, taking 11th place in the breaststroke with a time of 1:06.48 and 12th place in the 200 IM with a time of 2:10.74.
“It went OK,” Hilbrandt said. “It wasn’t the best I’ve done, but it definitely will give me more motivation. It makes me willing to work harder to get better in time for the Sharks’ [YMCA club team] season.”
“Division 1 is really hard to score in because the times are so fast,” Heritage head coach Kent Howenstine said. “Her same times would have been in the top four in Division 2. She is an outstanding swimmer, the best swimmer in this area by far. The other swimmers they score in Division 2 and look like they’re swimming real well, but because we’re in Division 1, it doesn’t look like we do as well.”
Like most athletes who are successful, it has taken Hilbrandt a lot of hard work to get to her high level. “I swim seven days a week and I swim with one of my good friends, Heidi Hendrick,” she said. “I work out three times a week as well. I just work hard at everything.”
Her hard work has been noted by her coach.
“She’s been trained well, for a lot of years, she does a lot of things right,” Howenstine said. “She’s probably the best underwater swimmer that I’ve seen. Swimmers that stay underwater do well… and she works real hard, she outworks the other kids.”
While already a standout at the high school level, Hillbrandt hopes she can swim to collegiate horizons as well. She hopes to use her participation with the Saginaw Sharks to propel her there.
“We do meets all over Michigan; if you get fast enough enough qualifying times, you do meets out of the state,” she said. “I guess my main goal is nationals and junior nationals for the Sharks. [Having already made nationals] I’m trying to get to junior nationals. That’s what all the Division 1 colleges are saying that I need.
“It goes all year round,” she said of swimming with the Sharks. “But you’re not allowed to participate in it during the high school season. It’s really hard, if you skip out two weeks of swimming you get out of shape really fast.”
Though it may be seen by some as a lot of hard work, Hilbrandt has enjoyed almost every minute of her swimming career to date.
“I started swimming when I was four, but that was just lessons,” she said. “At six, I started competing for the Sharks. It’s really fun to compete against other schools and travel a lot. Traveling is my favorite thing and seeing all the different pools and seeing the different places, it’s a fun experience.”
The junior swimmer could be in for a lot more traveling, assuming her dreams of competing for a Division 1 collegiate team come to fruition.
“I just want to compete at a college level,” she said. “I think I have to start training a lot harder and doing a lot of yardage. If I get to junior nationals cut, I can go there and if I keep up on my grades, I think that will help me get to a Division 1 college.”