Nagdeman big part of strong junior boys swimming class




CHS junior Gavin Nagdeman dives into the pool for the 50 freestyle leg of a 200 medley relay exchange with Scottie Pejic in a meet vs. Valparaiso at Chesterton. CRAIG NAGDEMAN/photo

CHS junior Gavin Nagdeman dives into the pool for the 50 freestyle leg of a 200 medley relay exchange with Scottie Pejic in a meet vs. Valparaiso at Chesterton. CRAIG NAGDEMAN/photo

If not for three teammates ahead of him, Gavin Nagdeman would have been the favorite to win the 100-yard backstroke at the Hobart sectional last season. Instead, he didn’t participate in that race because schools are limited to three swimmers per individual event.

Alejandro Kincaid and twins Connor and Carter Casbon finished 1-2-3 at the sectional. Nagdeman had to wait his turn. Kincaid is back and the twins are club swimmers at Purdue.

The year Nagdeman had been waiting patiently for arrived, so looking forward to that made everything great for Nagdeman as swimming season neared, right?

Wrong.

“I remember preseason, before I even started all this, I felt like I’m not into it right now and I don’t know why,” Nagdeman said. “I felt slow, like I was being dragged back, so I tried to look for help. My parents and some of my teammates and school friends talked to me.”

A mother of a friend of his suggested a personal trainer she knew from her workplace and set up an appointment for him. Nagdeman underwent weight sessions with the trainer and said that “about a month after I finished my training, I could feel it kicking in. My coaches and fellow athletes kept pushing me forward and I felt myself getting faster and improving.”

Nagdeman still won’t be the favorite at sectionals in 100 backstroke because Kincaid is expected touch the wall first. A second-place finish, however, is a realistic goal.

“He was right on their tails,” Pavlovich said. “He swam other events for us, but he never got to swim his best event his first two years in sectionals.”

Pavlovich said he believes Nagdeman has a chance to “make it to state in an individual event, 100 back, maybe the 50 free. It’s kind of a big year for him to see what he can do. I’m excited about him.”

Nagdeman has been anchoring the team’s strong 200 medley relay team that has its eye set on the Chesterton pool record of 1:33.05, set in 2014 by some of the biggest swimming names in school history: Aaron Whitaker, Gary Kostbade, Blake Pieroni and Ethan Whitaker.

Working out with weights, Nagdeman said, helped him to “go even faster in the water and get better endurance.”

Nagdeman said that an early age he was told in club swimming that, “a great backstroker always has a good kick. It’s not just powerful kicks, it’s leg endurance as well. You have to be able to hold that kick throughout the race. Squats and core workouts help with leg endurance.”

It’s in the legs that Kincaid has the advantage over Nagdeman, Chesterton swim coach Mat Pavlovich said.

“Gavin is kind of power-oriented, has a lot of turnover, “ Pavolivich said as he moved his arms in the fashion of a backstroker, but did so standing poolside, not while on his back cutting through the water. “He actually can turn his arms faster in the backstroke than Alejandro can. His arm speed is faster. It’s just incredible how quickly he can cycle through the stroke, but he can’t maintain it as well, and Alejandro is better at underwater kicking and stuff like that.”

Pavlovich called Nagdeman “a strong kid He’s more of a sprinter. He tends to fade sometimes in events, occasionally. He’s getting better with that. He’s not really a great 200, 500 swimmer. He’s more of a 50, 100 guy. If you were to put him in back-to-back events, he would probably struggle a little. But when he gets that rest and he’s ready to go fast and sprint, he’s really good. He’s a big part of our team.”

Talking about Nagdeman made Pavlovich think about how pleased he is with the progress made by juniors on the boys team. He cited Nagdeman, Daniel Streeter, Scottie Pejic and Aidan Tharp as examples.

“That junior girls class kind of quit, other than Olivia Piunti, but the boys junior class is pretty loaded,” he said.

Nagdeman, according to Pavlovich, is loaded with character, not just swimming ability.

“Gavin, great kid, I really enjoy coaching him, very coachable, very respectful. If he misses a practice, he doesn’t make excuses. He’s always honest about why he didn’t make it,” Pavlovich said. “He’s almost always here, but just to show you a little bit about his character, he missed a practice and there was no excuse, no BS. He said: ‘I apologize. I should have been here. I slept through my alarm.’ He handled it the right way. To me, that goes a long way because usually kids either don’t tell you why they’re not here or they kind of give you a little run-around. They come up with some lame excuse sometimes. He kind of reminds me of a different generation type of kid, just a well-mannered, respectful kid.”

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