Trinity’s Ben Patton has state swimming record in mind

When your first season of swimming in high school ends with two state championships, how do you find improvement in the following season?

If you’re Trinity Academy sophomore Ben Patton, you set your sights on a state record.

Patton, one of the top swimmers in Kansas, not only wants to defend his Class 5-1A titles in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard individual medley, but he wants the fastest times in state history. After missing the record in the backstroke by seven-tenths of a second with his title-winning performance of 50.98 seconds, Patton has made that his goal this season.

Trinity opens the season Saturday at the Maize Invitational.

“That’s what motivates me to get better,” Patton said. “I just think it would be cool to say that I broke a school record, I guess.”

Patton is coming off a successful club season and Trinity coach John Flesher can already see the difference when he watches Patton in the pool.

“He’s just so talented physically and obviously his work ethic is really good,” Flesher said. “He swims six days a week and twice some days. He’s got a heavy workload, but he loves it and he does a good job of balancing it.”

Patton says he feels some pressure to repeat his championships, but that is alleviated with the help of his teammates. He says he is motivated to work hard when he sees swimmers such as Colton Smith, Dylan Davis, and David Koster work hard.

“I do feel the pressure because I’m expected to win again, but I think it’s good,” Patton said. “It really pushes me to work harder and my teammates really motivated me, too.”

Flesher thinks that dynamic helps create better practices, which will make Trinity a more competitive team.

After finishing fourth at last year’s state meet, Trinity wants a top-three finish this season.

“I think it just makes our meets that much more exciting,” Flesher said. “We have a lot of really talented swimmers and I think that’s going to give us a leg up on some of these teams. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but having those guys on our team definitely makes it exciting.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2016 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Trinity’s Ben Patton has state swimming record in mind."