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Show Cheryl Earns State Championship Crown By DAVE WIGHAM BOUNTIFUL Third time was the charm for Viewmont senior Cheryl Rosengreen. As a sophomore she placed second at state in the 100-yard backstroke, then again last year as a junior she had to settle set-tle for the bridesmaid spot. This year, though, her third and final chance, Cheryl made the best of it to claim the state's title and establish a new state record in the process. "LAST YEAR I figured I would be number once since the girl that had beaten me twice was graduating. That was in the 3A class. This year we went to 4A so again I wasn't sure," she noted. Going into the state event Cheryl had the third fastest time in the 4A ranks. "All year my times were around 1:07.9 but when I got to the state meet the adrenalin just got going. In the preliminary races I established estab-lished the fastest time. In the finals I just went for it and my time was 1:03.06 for the record." re-cord." CHERYL COULD tell at the start of the state meet that the two other girls weren't really concerned about her. "But they started to pay attention after my times in the qualifying heats," she laughed. Another aspect in the state meet that gave her some confidence confi-dence was the fact that she swam against both girls in the opening leg of the medley relay. re-lay. "I was ahead of both of them when the second swimmer swim-mer hit the water, so I knew I could beat them in the backstroke," back-stroke," she added. THE ONE thing different about ab-out this state champion was her complete honesty about, workouts. "I hate practice and workouts," she says, matter of factly. "Coach Jackson had to be pretty understanding about the whole thing. I love the competition, but to swim back and forth in a pool for two hours is something I could never nev-er do. Even when I was younger youn-ger I couldn't stand the workouts." work-outs." By her own admission she missed about half the workouts work-outs this year. "I do feel bad for the team, especially the ones that worked out all year and never made it to the state meet. It really wasn't fair of me to do it like this but that's just the way I am. All my life I'd goof off during the workouts. I talked to the coach and told him I'd give 110 percent at both region and state and I did," she admitted. CHERYL IS also very outspoken out-spoken about the younger people peo-ple and swimming. "I've been swimming for about 12 vears now, I began when I was six. I really don't think kids need to start that young, look at Becky Stokely of Viewmont. She had never swam competitively before be-fore her sophomore year and that was the year she won the state title. I honestly think a lot of swimmers burn out before high school. I'm not down on all those little swimmers, but Becky proved you don't have to start young to win a state crown." The thing that kept this lovely love-ly young lady in the pool was the actual meets, the competition competi-tion of going head-to-head with other individuals. SHE IS a state champion and no one can take that away from her. Maybe her methods aren't what you'd call standard but they worked for her. She didn't try to hide the fact from her teammates and coaches that she hated the workouts. They accepted that fact, as she did, and they still benefitted from her talents. You may not agree with her methods, but this reporter found Cheryl Rosengreen completely honest and willing to talk about it. She is self-motivated self-motivated and thrives on competition. com-petition. ALL THIS despite being only 57" tall. "My mother looked at me next to the other swimmers and thought I was in the wrong race, I was that much smaller than them.'' As a sophomore she claimed first place at region in the 100-yard 100-yard backstroke and the relay. She then went on to place second at state in the individual indi-vidual medley event. Then as a junior she won both the backstroke back-stroke and butterfly event at region while placing second in the back at state. This past season sea-son she claimed the top honors. I ; I if:.'" T I : mff:& : ': flit .M t ' - :' . ; " W' . V' I ' ' ..;.;:-;;::'';:'::': . .;' . I l . V ' - ;' |
