Oct. 27, 2016
by Dan Froehlich, Auburn Media Relations
Heat 10, lane 7. The final prelims heat.
"You're in that heat because of the time you've gone before."
Those words, spoken by Rachel Apple, were an attempt to calm down her older brother, Zach, as he was preparing to race the men's 100m freestyle prelims at this summer's USA Swimming Olympic Team Trials.
It didn't matter that in lane 6 directly next to him was Conor Dwyer, a 2012 Olympic medalist, or that Ryan Lochte, an 11-time Olympic medalist at that point, was just a few lanes further down the pool. Zach, who was coming off of his freshman season at Auburn, was ready.
"I'm there because of what I've done in the past," Zach thought to himself. "You're not just thrown into a heat with guys you're not as fast as. It was a reality check -- I can compete with those guys."
Zach, who had qualified for Olympic Trials with a 49.43 during the Richard Quick Invitational in June 2016, would swim a 50.18 to finish 35th out of 88, but for him it was a culmination of what had been a wild 15 months.
Growing up in Trenton, Ohio, a farming community halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton, Zach had been both a basketball player and a swimmer, though swimming was more just for fun and not all that intense. As a 6-year-old, a summer club coach of his, Kirk Grand, himself a senior in high school at the time, saw something in Zach and filed it away.
"I was able to coach Zach when he was a youngster and he was always enthusiastic," Grand said. "At that point he was just kind of trying to learn how to manipulate his arms but he was always a hard worker."
Zach, who would grow to be 6-foot-6, continued to swim and hoop, but when high school came it was time to choose one or the other.
Swimming won out.
As the years wore on, Zach went from a serviceable swimmer to a state meet qualifier and then a Western Kentucky swimming commit. But in April of his senior year of high school, WKU's program was suspended, leaving his future plans in limbo.
At the same time that Zach was trying to figure out his future, Grand, who swam at Miami (Ohio) and graduated from Ohio State, was working on his PhD at Auburn and working as a volunteer coach with Auburn's swimming program.
"My mom was the guidance counselor at the high school that both Zach and I went to," Grand said. "When the Western Kentucky thing went down, my mom called and said, `Zach's getting better.'"
"It was craziness about where I was going to go to college," he said. "I didn't know because I wanted to swim for sure. Luckily I knew Kirk and he talked to Tyler (McGill) for me. Auburn was always a dream school for me, partially because of the sprint dominance. Having that fall in line was perfect for me."
"His junior year he was a 46 (seconds) in the 100 freestyle and wasn't very recruitable in terms of our level, SEC level," Grand said. "Then he got way faster his senior year. He has that small-town attitude of `I'll do whatever it takes.' It's a Midwestern thing -- put your head down and work hard."
Being young in swimming years, Zach was limited in what strokes he was competing in, meaning the sprint freestyle would be where he would fit in on Auburn's roster. Not a bad place to be when you consider Auburn's tradition of sprinters over the years.
"I didn't have the aerobic base to swim anything longer," Zach said. "I really enjoy (the sprint free) though. It's fun. I can't imagine diving in a pool and not going all out."
His training has paid off.
Not only did Zach qualify for the Olympic Trials last summer, but he saw his life-time bests in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyles drop by almost a full second during his freshman season. His 200-yard free time was cut by almost four full seconds, with his 1:34.63 from the NCAA Championships last March checking in as the seventh-fastest time in Auburn history.
"Zach just continues to get better, continues to push the process and continues to challenge himself," Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said. "I think we saw just a fragment last year of how good he can be. He made massive improvements in all three of his events and I think that's going to continue. People are going to talk about him in the same vain as a Matt Targett, as an Adam Brown and as a Fred Bousquet in the future."
For now, Zach and his teammates will focus on the present season, which continues on Friday in a dual meet with LSU. Both Auburn's men and women are 2-0 in dual meet action and are ranked 10th in the first CSCAA Top 25 poll of the season.
Friday's meet begins at 3 p.m. from Baton Rouge, La.