A steady stream of injuries didn’t keep Chesterton senior Calan Berrier from swimming his way to Indianapolis two years in a row to compete at state meet

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

No one ever will know just how good Chesterton senior swimmer Calan Berrier might have been and how many races he might be swimming at the state meet this weekend if he had put in the same amount of intense training as his talented teammates.
No one ever will know because Berrier’s body kept getting in the way.
This much is known: It takes impressive talent to be able to swim at state in back-to-back years when battling the injuries Berrier has battled his entire high school career, even before that.
“I feel like I wasn’t able to put in as much work as everyone else just because I wasn’t in the pool,” Berrier said. “Out of the pool, I did everything I could.”
Berrier, classmate Luke Wheele and sophomore Aaron Guzzo each swim a leg of both relays that qualified for the state meet, the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400 free relay. Junior Tyler Scalf joins them in the 200 free and freshman Greydon Pieroni rounds out the 400. The preliminary heats are Friday night at IU Natatorium, when the field in each event is pared from 32 to 16.
The schools with the best eight times at Friday’s preliminary advance to the A final. The schools ranked 9th through 16 in heats qualify for the consolation final.
Chesterton swam a 1:28.79 in the 200 free at the sectional meet, which puts the Trojans 24th on the psych sheet heading into the prelims. Brebeuf Jesuit had the 16th-best time at sectionals, swimming a 1:27.80, 0.99 seconds faster than Chesterton.
So, a second swim isn’t out of the realm of possibility for the Trojans in the 200 free relay, but their chances appear better of making it to Saturday in the 400. They rank 15th on the psych sheet in the 400 free.
When Berrier swims his last race this weekend, it will be his last race period.“I was looking at a couple of schools and my goal was to swim in college, but I’ve gotten hurt every year,” Berrier said. “I don’t want to keep doing that and I just want to end it on a good note.”
Every injury comes with prolonged stretches out of the pool, so every time he returned to training, Berrier was in catch-up mode.
Eighth grade: Ankle fusion surgery followed by a long recovery that stretched into his freshman year.
Sophomore year: Torn labrum of the shoulder. Underwent surgery heading into his junior year.
Junior year: Missed most of the season rehabilitating from shoulder surgery and made it back in time to qualify for the state meet in the 200 free relay.
Senior year: Missed most of the season with a hip problem and made it back in time to qualify for state in the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay.
“Sophomore year was probably my healthiest,” Berrier said. “Then it was my hip this time. I think it’s a sign.”
His body talked to him, and he took the hint. No more swimming.
“I got through my four years though, and I’m happy with what I got out of it,” he said.
He was hoping to reach the state meet in the 50 free but fell short.
Berrier didn’t stay healthy long enough to make the event he enjoyed the most his best event.
“I always really liked the 100 free,” he said. “That was my favorite event. Right now, I am better at the 50, but I think that’s just because I’ve been injured so much and I don’t have the cardio to be as good at the 100, but that’s my favorite event.”
With Berrier swimming the third leg, the 400 free relay finished third behind Valparaiso and LaPorte in an extremely fast sectional race and made it to state via call-down with a 3:14.39.
Berrier’s 21.58 anchor leg in the 200 free relay was Chesterton’s fastest split. His 48.28 split in the 400 free was second to Wheele (47.12), but the splits of the younger swimmers, Guzzo (49.30) and Pieroni (49.69) were in many ways the keys to the Trojans making the cut.
“I was really impressed with Greydon and Guzzo,” Berrier said. “Both of them had never broken 50 before, so it was really impressive.”
Berrier has a realistic outlook heading into the state meet. He knows the caliber of the swimmers at IU Natatorium is a high step up.
“I mean, it’s different,” he said. “We got second in sectionals, but before we would dominate sectionals and then once we’d get down to state, you have so much more competition. It’s just a weird feel.”
Berrier had no trouble stating the best approach to take in that situation. He also had no trouble confessing that it’s easier to state the correct mindset that to maintain it.
“It’s swimming your own race and racing the clock instead of racing everyone else,” he said. “It’s a weird feeling. It’s also weird for a lot of the people who do win sectionals and they’re dominant in the sectionals and then once you go down to sectionals and you’re not the guy. It’s weird.”
At once weird and nowhere else he would rather be. As long as he and his friends made the trip, they’ll do their best to make it a two-day participation, instead of one.