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“If I didn’t swim in the summer, I’d have a lot of down time and be out of shape come college season and I’d have to work even harder to get back into shape,” Marthiljohni said. “This way I sort of stay in somewhat type of shape.”
Marthiljohni, who graduated from Memorial earlier this month, has been swimming for the Quail Creek team this summer and took part in the Coastal Bend Swimming League of Victoria’s city championships on Saturday at the Northcrest pool.
Marthiljohni swam in the boys 18 & over age group and qualified for the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation’s regional meet, which will be held in Burnet on July 12.
“The regional and state meets in the summer are pretty fun,” Marthiljohni said. “You meet some new people there. You get to swim against more people from your age group.”
Marthiljohni took the advice of his physician and began swimming at the age of 7 and never stopped.
“I had asthma then and the doctor said swimming would be the best thing to help asthma,” Marthiljohni said. “That’s when I started getting into it.”
The league has seen a decrease in the number of swimmers this summer, but Marthiljohni thinks more people will participate if the Victoria school district builds the natatorium that was included in the recently passed bond issue. He also believes it will help the high school swimming program.
“I think it should increase interest because you can have club swimming and keep it open year round,” Marthiljohni said. “Since we don’t have a natatorium most of them get into other sports and in high school you have to choose around swimming because swimming is one of those sports where you go from fall into the spring.”
Sabrina and Sophia Broughton enjoy swimming for the Northcrest team, which practices four days a week.
“It’s really fun and it doesn’t take a lot of time,” said Sabrina, who swims in the 11-12 age group.
“It’s a lot of fun to be active and I want to get wet a lot in the summer,” added Sophia, who swims in the 9-10 age.
Karly Hoerig, who swims in the 11-12 age group for Northcrest, hopes to swim in high school and believes the numbers would increase with a natatorium.
“I think the new natatorium may take care of that,” said Hoerig, whose brother Ryan swam at Memorial. “Some of them may come back. I like it because you have to depend on yourself. It’s fun and you get a lot of exercise.”
Marthiljohni is looking forward to swimming on the college level and would like for more Victoria swimmers to get the same opportunity.
“I’d tell them to start and if their times aren’t that fast, don’t be discouraged about it because you can work on that,” Marthiljohni said. “You’ll get faster throughout the year the more you practice.”
Mike Forman is a sports writer for the Victoria Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6588, or by e-mail at mforman@vicad.com.