The Morning Swim Show, Feb. 15, 2012: Zach Switzer One of Woodberry Forest’s Swimmers to Watch This Weekend

PHOENIX, Arizona, February 14. TODAY'S edition of The Morning Swim Show offers a preview of this weekend's Virginia Independent Schools championships with an interview with swimmer Zach Switzer and coach Greg Guldin.

Switzer talks about his individual goals for this weekend, and Guldin enhances it with a look at the team goals. Guldin also talks about how he trains Switzer, and what the future holds for the high school junior. Be sure to visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

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Morning Swim Show Transcripts
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(Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Peter Busch: This is The Morning Swim Show for Wednesday, February 15th 2012. I'm your host Peter Busch. In the FINIS monitor today we'll talk to Zach Switzer and his coach Greg Guldin. This weekend swimmingworld.com will live stream the Virginia Independent School State Championships and Zach is one of the top swimmers to watch at that meet, and they're both joining us right now in the FINIS monitor from Orange, Virginia. Hey guys, welcome to The Morning Swim Show. How are you?

Greg Guldin: Doing well. How are you?

Peter Busch: Good. Where is Orange, Virginia?

Greg Guldin: It's right outside Charlottesville, Virginia. We're about 45 minutes away from the University of Virginia.

Peter Busch: Very good. Well Zach we look forward to watching you swim this weekend. What are you going to be competing in?

Zach Switzer: I'll be in the 200 IM and 100 back and then two relays.

Peter Busch: I understand you're going for some state records?

Zach Switzer: Yes sir.

Peter Busch: Tell me what the records are and if you think you've got a really good shot.

Zach Switzer: The 200 record is 1:53 and then the 100 back record is 50-point. And I went on 55 in-season so hopefully I'll be able to get under the 200 IM record and then my goal for 100 back is 49 which puts me right under the 100 back record.

Peter Busch: Coach, how would you say Zach does in training? What kind of training do you guys like to do there at Woodberry Forest?

Greg Guldin: We do a lot of different types of stuff. The boys here — their schedule's pretty demanding academically, so we've always got to balance that with our training schedule but we do three or four doubles a week, we do a lot of lifting, we do a lot of explosive training in terms of biometrics and things like that. We do a lot of work on our power rack here and some videoing above and below water and Zach does really well with all of that, always coming to every morning practice, coming to every afternoon practice, ready to go, lifts really hard every single time so I think he's ready to hit his goals.

Peter Busch: It sounds like you guys have some pretty advanced facilities for a high school.

Greg Guldin: We do. We've got an indoor and an outdoor pool – our campus is on 1200 acres so we've got a lot of athletic facilities here. We've got an indoor and outdoor pool, we've got a pretty advanced weight room, we actually got a golf course on campus too and different types of things like that which we don't use for training but we've got access to a lot of topnotch facilities to use.

Peter Busch: Zach this is your senior year, right?

Zach Switzer: Junior year.

Peter Busch: Junior year, okay. Are you starting to think about colleges yet and wanting to swim?

Zach Switzer: I am, I would really like to swim in college.

Peter Busch: Any idea where you'd like to go?

Zach Switzer: I've heard from a few colleges but right now I haven't really done any research. I'm still waiting for the best bet I guess.

Peter Busch: Coach, what do you expect to see in this year and senior year from Zach? What kind of colleges are going to be knocking at his door by the time it's all said and done?

Greg Guldin: This is really the time that it's about to start happening for Zach. I would anticipate a lot of the top swimming schools kind of going after him especially in the area here. We've got Virginia Tech which has a great program, we've got UVA which has a great program and then all over the country I think there's going to be a lot of schools knocking at Zach's door here and we're really excited about that.

Peter Busch: How's the team? What do you expect from them this weekend?

Greg Guldin: We've got stronger kids at States this year. We've got a bunch of divers that are going through, four of them for the first time which is huge. We've got strong relays which we're looking forward to, we haven't really decided which ones we're going to get after yet but we've got strong relays across the board, we've got another student here, Keith Allen, who's hoping to win the 100 breaststroke and be the state champion in that, and we've got some other kids here who are just really excited about all the events that they're going to be swimming in. This is really – the meet coming up this weekend is really the meet that we gear for all season.

Peter Busch: And tell us about this meet, if people are going to be watching it live on swimmingworld.com what kind of atmosphere is it, where is it held, just kind of set the scene for us please.

Greg Guldin: This year the meet is held at the Freedom Center in Manassas and it's all the Virginia Independent Schools. It's a really, really exciting meet. Jim Kerr at Seton School has hosted the past few years and has done a phenomenal job in terms of creating that high school atmosphere that we really like. It's a prelims finals meet and finals every night. The athletes walk out behind a cloud of fog, playing to music that they got to choose, there's just teams, there's people wall to wall both in the stands and around the pool from all the schools all over the state and it's just a really, really exciting meet that gets all the kids from across the state pumped up to do some lifetime best swimming.

Peter Busch: Zach if they ask you what song do you want to march out to for that 200 IM what are you going to say?

Zach Switzer: Well I was thinking something by Coldplay maybe –my roommate suggested that.

Peter Busch: Okay. So you kind of keep it rock pop?

Zach Switzer: Yes, I guess so.

Peter Busch: You're not going to be coming out to rap music or anything?

Zach Switzer: That's also a possibility but I haven't really thought of it that much.

Peter Busch: You're a versatile guy.

Zach Switzer: Yes sir.

Peter Busch: Well guys have fun at the meet. It sounds like it's going to be a blast and what high school swimming is supposed to be about – team, atmosphere, and just a lot of fun — and good luck going after those records Zach.

Zach Switzer: Thank you.

Peter Busch: All right. Coach thank you very much for joining us as well.

Greg Guldin: Thank you, it was a pleasure.

Peter Busch: All right, that's Coach Greg Guldin and Zach Switzer joining us from Woodberry Forest in Orange, Virginia. And that is it for today's show. Make sure to watch that meet this weekend on swimmingworld.com. I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.

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