Senior Kenan Dean has broken SV’s 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard fly, and 400-yard freestyle relay records since the swim season started nearly two months ago. 

     “The records that I broke are basically all-time Sun Valley records, so I’m the fastest person ever that went to Sun Valley High School in those events,” Dean said. “I’m really excited when I win those school medals, but right now my main focus is winning regionals and state championships; I’m hyped up, but also focused on knowing what I have to do to win.”

     He also tied his record in the 200-yard medley relay this year and holds two other previous records for the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle relay which he set in the 2019-2020 and 2017-2018 seasons respectively.

     “I’m just proud for him,” swim coach Rachel Henry said. “He’s worked so hard for it and he’d established as a goal pre-season that he wanted to break some of the records, but seeing a swimmer that is able to accomplish that- just proud.”

     He set his first record of the year in a match against Cuthbertson. In a double match against Piedmont and Marvin Ridge, he broke his next two records.

     “I just think it brought excitement to everyone and that’s not just to our team. We shared information to those that we’re swimming with that he was trying to break the record, so they were watching eagerly as well to see if he would successfully break our Sun Valley record,” Henry said. “It just brings, you know, an excitement to the whole venue when a record is broken.”

     An amicable rivalry with former team member Dalton Stier (2018) encouraged Dean to improve his times. 

     “Honestly, it was one of my goals for this year to beat the [records]. Mostly all the records I broke were held by one of my friends, whom I swam with when I was a freshman and he was a senior, so it was always kind of my goal to get those,” Dean said. “I was excited, but it was more that I knew it was coming than I was surprised.”

     Due to Covid-19, swim meets have operated differently than in previous years. Separation of lanes and limited swimmers at competitions are two examples. Motivating the team is difficult because teams cannot congregate and spectator numbers have seen a drastic cut.

     “It’s a lot different, obviously, this year, but we’re still swimming against other schools. It’s a lot of separation of teams and pods throughout the stands. Obviously, there’s no parents allowed, which kind of sucks,” Dean said. “Sometimes they have to put a space between each team, which sucks because a lot of the people I’m racing against from other schools are people I’m friends with. It makes it hard to go to a meet and not be able to interact with other teams.”

     Dean has not let these issues stop him from achieving his goals. He works around the clock to improve his time by training, weightlifting and continuing to swim with the Mecklenburg Swim Association.

     “This year I got a lot more into weight training and lifting and that obviously made me a lot stronger for the springtime events. I’ve really just been putting in a lot of hours in the pool, a lot of hours in the weight room since we got back from Covid,” Dean said. “Since late April, it’s just been a hard grind for me to put up some times that I know will get me to what I want to do.”

     Many of his teammates describe Dean as being dedicated and hard-working. As the team captain, he works to motivate his fellow swimmers.

     “I’m not surprised [he broke the records] because he works really hard. I know he swims every single day, and it was something he wants to achieve,” senior and former swim team member Maddie Womer said.

     Mental training is also a point of improvement for the senior swimmer. The strain of the sport is often underestimated, but Dean’s dedication shows as he curates an appropriate mindset for success.

     “He has been able to grow with the mental aspect of the sport and having to be a little bit more strategic on decisions that are made with the events,” Henry said. “He’s providing guidance on, not necessarily the technique, but on outside aspects like the mental [challenges of swim] and camaraderie and leadership skills. It has been something we’ve worked more on this year.”

     Short-term successes have done nothing but spur Dean on to bigger goals. He hopes to make it to NCHSAA state championships again, as he did in both his freshaman and sophomore years, where he is a five time state finalist, and to continue the sport in college.

     “My main goal coming into the season is I want to be state champion in an event, and that’s still my main goal in high school swimming. In two weeks we have our regional meet, and I want to win both my races at regionals which is the meet where you have to get top three in your event to go to states,” Dean said. “I would like to win both of those events and then advance to states. Being able to win one race there would be really nice.”

     Four colleges offered Kenan swim scholarships, but the University of Tampa is Dean’s first choice and likely where he will commit.

     “I can see him doing something with swimming in the future whether it be coaching or even on the swim team [in college],” Womer said.

     Swim has been a lifelong passion for Dean. He started at the age of four and has grown with the sport, maintaining a steadfast dedication to the sport and his team.

     “Many people overlook how difficult and hard swimming may be sometimes. Everyone’s like ‘Yeah I want to swim’ and yes you may be really good at it, but it’s hard. It takes a lot of mental preparation to get through a good, long four years of it and I’ve been doing it for much longer than that,” Dean said. “So when you feel like you have one bad meet or one bad race or one bad practice it’s not the end. It’s not the end of your swimming career. It’s something I thought a lot as a freshman and even as a sophomore, but I just didn’t understand how truly hard it was, but obviously it’s something that’s paid off a lot in the past couple of months.”