Swim Star Qualifies for Olympic Trials

Senior Andrew Benson steps onto the starting block and claps his hands. The Junior Nationals crowd at the Stanford Avery Aquatic Center goes quiet, awaiting the start of the men’s 100-meter freestyle. The buzzer sounds, and Benson flies off of the block. His white and black SOLO Aquatics cap blasts ahead of the field into the halfway turn and doesn’t falter for a moment on the way home. He is the first to touch lane one in a time of 50.40 seconds, winning the heat and punching his ticket to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Nebraska this June.A senior and co-captain of Big Red Varsity Swimming, Benson started his swimming career at the age of nine when his mother, a swimming coach for the Exeter swim team, persuaded him to swim for a season. It was a perfect match, and the young swimmer began training year-round. This past summer, Benson’s many years of intense training paid off, as he is now moving on to compete against many of America’s most distinguished swimmers, such as Nathan Adrian and Caleb Dressel, in hopes of claiming a spot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic Swim Team.“Making Olympic trials is a culmination of all of the hard work of not only myself but also my coaches, teammates, teachers, parents and friends,” Benson said. “Without the support of everyone along the path, without every little interaction, I would most certainly not be in the position I am today.”Benson’s training partner on SOLO Aquatics, senior Charlie Venci, spoke highly of the athlete. “Andrew is a motivation machine both in and out of the water. I am so grateful to have a teammate with a work ethic as contagious as his. He has truly earned this opportunity and I cannot wait to see how well he does in Omaha,” he said.Coaches Meghan Feran and Harrison Hollingsworth of SOLO Aquatics shared similar sentiments. “We are very proud of Andrew and seeing him achieve the goals he set,” they said in a joint statement. “He spent the year working through some challenges, but continued to push himself and work incredibly hard to achieve what he set out to do a long time ago.” PEA’s boys varsity swim coach Don Mills described Benson in three words. The first—“enthusiastic.” Recognized by his teammates and coach alike as the team’s “hype man”, Benson can always be found carrying around his large speaker and playing music to rile up the team. “Benson will be the loudest person on deck no matter if it’s a practice, a varsity meet, or he’s watching a JV meet,” upper Aren Mizuno confirmed. Mills’ second word—“dedicated.” “Everyone else can help push you, help you train and be your supporters, but it also has to come from your self-motivation and willingness to succeed,” Benson said, attributing his triumphs despite rough patches to his own self-motivation.The third and final word—“humble.” Mizuno said, “Without seeing Benson swim, it’s impossible to know that he’s as good as he is.” Benson can slice through the water like a hot knife through butter, but his teammates agree that he doesn’t act like that sets him apart from the rest of the team.Occasionally during practice, swimmers hold a “throw down,” or a one-on-one race. During these races, Benson is often found slamming kickboards together, trying to get the competing swimmers to achieve their best. Lower Georgie Venci added, “Anytime a teammate needs a pair of goggles or a swimsuit, Benson is the first to check his bag and try to help.”Benson earned the name “toothless” after getting one of his teeth knocked out during a water polo game lower year, but upper Adam Tuchler elaborated that the name holds greater significance. “In the movie How to Train your Dragon, the really fast dragon is called toothless, and that’s like Benson,” Tuchler said. Benson doesn’t let his intense swimming routines get to his head, and he always has room for a little sprinkle of humor and immaturity. “[Benson] has had the same duck hoodie-towel since he was nine years old, and one time over this summer he lost his pull buoy and used a Tropicana jug as a replacement,” C. Venci recalled.Mills contributed a memory of his own, from the time Benson was at Eastern Championships competing for Big Red. “5 minutes prior to breaking the school record for the medley relay, Benson and C. Venci were in the shallow end of the warm-up area bouncing up and down, seeing who could get the highest out of the water, all while they were making the opposing teams swim around them during their warm up,” Mills said.In summary, Benson got it done this summer. He qualified for the Olympic Trials in his signature event and had fun in the process. Later this school year, he will be putting the pedal to the metal in hopes of putting on a show in Omaha and earning a trip to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games.Feran and Hollingsworth are optimistic about the future for Benson. “As we start this new season, we are very excited to see what the future holds and are confident he will be doing big things,” they said.