Four PHS swimmers added to Hall of Fame Board

The Powell Aquatic Center’s Hall of Fame Board will undergo quite a bit of change this year. This season, four Powell High School swimmers — Nate MaGill, Hudson Wilkerson, Kacey Creed and Richard Spann — broke school records, meaning their names and times will be added to the Hall of Fame Board.

“That’s one of the first things I did when I got here, was look at the board,” said Wilkerson.

“I remember one day he was like, ‘I want to get on that board,’” chimed in MaGill.

“Yeah it‘s kind of a goal or kind of a mindset to try to push yourself that hard to try to accomplish those goals and try to break more records, so it makes you work harder,” said Creed of seeing the Hall of Fame Board each day at swim practice.

“I feel accomplished, just having your name on the board is awesome,” said Spann.

Next year, Spann, who is a freshman, said he wants to beat Creed in an event.

The members of the PHS swim team have a healthy competition amongst each other, which also serves as a source of inspiration.

“We’re all family so I mean we are all trying to push each other and make each other better in any way we can,” Creed said. “So we’re always trying to push each other or make them work harder in any way we can.”

As the four swimmers and divers came close to breaking the school records, Creed said teammates and coaches helped with the mental aspect.

“[They] supported us in saying we could do it and break it,” said Creed. “They were trying to get us in [the mindset] ... that we could do it.”

MaGill and Wilkerson made the Hall of Fame Board in diving.

MaGill, a senior, made the Hall of Fame Board in the 11 dives event with a score of 418.95. That placed him into the third slot.

“It’s a cool feeling knowing that every time I go to the pool, that my name is there, for hopefully for a long time,” said MaGill

Wilkerson, a junior, made the Hall of Fame Board in both the six dives and 11 dives. He earned fourth place in the six dives, with a score of 246.50, and vaulted into the No. 1 spot in 11 dives with a score of 490.55.

“I got another year to try to break my record,” said Wilkerson, who’s a junior. He’s set a goal to not only break the record already set but to also break the state record in 11 dives in his senior year; the state record is 497.80, set by Adam Miller of Newcastle in 2001.

Creed, a junior, set school records in both the 100 breaststroke and 100 butterfly. Creed moved up the board from third place in the 100 breaststroke — which he set in 2016 with a time of 1:05.22 — to first, with a time of 1:01.76. That displaced a school record set in 1984 by John Arross.

In the 100 butterfly, Creed made it into second place with a time of 55.14.

As a senior next year, “my goals would probably be to train harder, work harder,” Creed said. “I’m going to shoot for doing my personal best in those two events and probably breaking some more records if I can.”

He added that it feels really good to have his time up on the board “and I guess show all my hard work that I put into swimming.”

Spann rose to the third place slot in the 100 backstroke with a time of 56.70.

“That’s what I set my goals as at the beginning of the year — I broke my record that I was shooting for,” Spann said. “I wanted to get under a 57 [second time] in my 100 back and I got a second less than that.”

Spann has been swimming for about five or six years and lives in Cowley.

“I’m really dedicated to the sport and I want to get better as much as I can so I’m willing to put in as much time as I — if I have to drive an hour, two hours everyday to get here then I’ll do it,” said Spann of the drive.

Spann would like to swim at the collegiate level at one of the top Division I colleges with a special interest in the University of Texas. But swimming at the collegiate level is not Spann’s only goal in swimming — he is hoping to qualify for the Olympics his senior year.

“If I continue cutting as much time as I have been every year, I should be able to reach it my junior or senior year,” said Spann. 

Spann has thought about going to medical school to become a neurosurgeon or orthopedic surgeon, but he’s now leaning toward music education and concert performance. Outside of swimming, Spann plays the saxophone and takes private lessons for piano.

MaGill is finishing out his high school athletic career by running the 110- and 300-meter hurdles as well as being on the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams in track. MaGill also played football this last fall.

“It sucks that I’ll be gone,” said MaGill of the end of his diving career. “But I’m happy with the way it ended — knowing that I actually did get up onto the board. I didn’t think that I ever would, but I did. It’s awesome.”

MaGill started swimming in the seventh grade and, “My brother [Jake] would take me to the old pool and just kind of like throw me off the board and say, ‘Do this,’” he said.

The youngest of four, MaGill said his brother described diving as cool, and it sounded pretty fun.

“I like flying through the air; it’s fun, just doing cool stuff off the board,” MaGill said of his favorite part of diving.

MaGill will attend Northwest College this fall, majoring in photography.

Wilkerson started diving his freshman year.

“I didn’t know about it until like the summer before I was a freshman and some dude told me I would be good at diving, so I did diving,” Wilkerson explained.

Wilkerson’s favorite part is the competition.

“I like competing against the other top divers in the state, seeing where I place,” he said.

With the 2016-17 swim season completed, the four Hall of Famers thanked coaches Stephanie Warren and Jerry Rodriguez for pushing them to do their best throughout their swim careers thus far at Powell High School.

Creed wanted to add a special thanks to coach Rodriguez “because he raised me since I was 3 in the pool. I mean he’s the one that really made me who I am today.”

Rodriguez is retiring from coaching the PHS boys swim team and from coaching USA swimming.

Spann also thanked his USA swim coach, Ross Fuller.

Last, but not least, MaGill, Wilkerson, Creed and Spann wanted to thank their parents.

“They’ve pushed me to do better and then when I have failed at dives and stuff they’re there to help me,” Wilkerson said.