Texas swimmer keeps on resetting her 200 IM title

	Westlake's Mary Beck proved good things come in threes as she set and reset the 200 IM record three times in February. Martha Beck

Just before Mary Beck turned four, the Colorado native taught herself how to swim. Now a sophomore at Westlake (Austin, Texas), Beck has broken the national 200-yard individual medley record not once, but three times in a single month.

Her first breakthrough came at the regional finals on Feb. 3, when she was clocked at 1:58.28, erasing the 1:58.45 set in 2000 by Olympian Natalie Coughlin. "That definitely was a goal for me," says Beck. "But I wasn't planning to break it in the regional. I wanted to do it at the state meet."

Beck's mark didn't stand long, though, as Center Grove (Ind.) junior Michelle McKeehan swam a 1:58.06 at her state finals on Feb. 10. Beck found out via a cell phone call from a friend while she was in a drug store. "I was not expecting that," she says. "I was really surprised, but then I took it as a challenge."

So during the Feb. 16 preliminaries of the Texas state meet, she swam a 1:57.74 to regain the record and lowered it again the next day with a 1:57.41 to take home a gold medal. "I wanted to re-break that record as many times as I could," she says. "I'm really competitive."

Beck's times are particularly phenomenal because she is just starting to recover from hypothyroidism, a disease that causes great fatigue in addition to numerous other problems. Her thyroid gland basically has been destroyed by the excessive physical demands of swimming three hours a day year round. She will need replacement hormone therapy for the rest of her life -- a huge price to pay for doing what she loves.

She was first diagnosed in July after suffering through six weeks of fatigue and totally ineffective swimming. Her setback was especially frustrating because in March she had set USA Swim 13-14 age-group national records of 54.54 in the 100-yard backstroke and 1:56.34 in the 200-yard backstroke.

Her mother, Martha, said that even though Mary "hardly could walk up the stairs," she tried out for the USA Junior National Team two weeks after her diagnosis and swam an Olympic-Trials cut time of 2:19 in the 200 IM. That qualified her to compete in the Junior Pan Pacs meet in January in Maui. All she did there was win a silver and three golds.

"Once I get my medicine under control, I should get a lot stronger and faster," says Beck, who plans to study marine biology in college. "I'm improving on a daily basis." Her mother calls her record performances "shocking. She's still tired and she still is struggling. But she's certainly a lot better than last summer."

The Texas teenager has since discovered that her illness is genetic because her paternal grandmother had it. However, it never was a problem for her grandmother because she did not participate in strenuous sports.

Mary received her love for the water from Martha, who was a standout swimmer herself. During the two months before Mary turned four, she would walk across the street from her house in Englewood, Colo., sit by the Sundance Hills pool and watch people swim.

Though she learned strictly by observation, she does owe some gratitude to her own sweet tooth. Lifeguards used to take a bag of her favorite candy -- Reese's Pieces -- place it at the far end of the pool and explain that she had to swim the 25-yard length to earn her reward.

"She never choked or got water up her nose," Martha says. "Breathing came to her naturally, which is very unusual. We took her to the Stanford Swimming Camp when she was nine where a coach told us she had an obvious feel for the water that couldn't be taught."

She had tried soccer at age seven, but that was a flop. "I don't have any hand-eye coordination, so anything with a ball doesn't work," Mary says.

The Becks moved to Austin two years ago so Mary could join the Longhorn Aquatics USA Swim Club, coached by Hall of Famer Randy Reese. Mary simply had run out of competition in Colorado. "It just wasn't working for me," she says. "I felt kind of alone. It set me apart once I got to a different level in swimming."

The move brought instant happiness for two coaches. Reese saw immediately that Mary "had a chance to be really good. She has a good attitude and likes to train. On a workout to workout basis, a lot of swimmers will take one off but she doesn't. I think she's got a great shot [at the Olympics]."

Westlake coach Isaac Grombacher calls Beck "one of those kids who can do just about anything she wants. She is very focused. We are a football school, so it's really nice to have swimmers get some recognition."

The 5-foot-8, 130-pounder followed up her record performance in the state meet by winning four medals the following weekend in the American Short Course Championships at the University of Texas. She won the 100-yard backstroke in 53.71, the 200-yard backstroke in 1:54.31 and led off on the 4x100 relay, which set a girls 15-16 age-group national record of 3:20.84 - 5.06 seconds under the previous standard. She also swam her best time of 1:57.28 while placing second in the 200 IM.

Beck will not be swimming for her high school team next year because she will be devoting every moment to prepare for the Olympic Trials. She admits to being pretty laid back in everything she does except swimming. "It takes a certain personality to be able to deal with seven days of training a week and all-out dedication," she says. "I don't want to be disappointed, so I'm going to work as hard as I can."

And just in case someone again eclipses her national high school record in 2008, Beck warns, "I hope to get faster. I would love to come back my senior year and lower it again."

More notes

• Carroll (Southlake, Texas) junior football stars Riley Dodge and Tre' Newton said this week they will attend the University of Texas in 2008. Dodge, the son of North Texas coach Todd Dodge, passed for 4,184 yards and 54 touchdowns last fall, while running for 1,119 yards and 13 touchdowns. Newton, the son of former Dallas Cowboys lineman Nate Newton, ran 274 times for 2,010 yards and 20 touchdowns. Texas now has pledges from 14 underclassmen for 2008.

• Jon Diebler became Ohio's all-time basketball scoring leader with a 44-point performance Friday night as Upper Sandusky rolled past Norwalk, 90-64. The 6-7 senior guard now has 2,960 points during his brilliant four-year career, surpassing by two the 22-year-old record that was held by Jay Burson of Concord John Glenn. The Ohio-State signee's big night drew a standing-room only crowd, which included Burson, Ohio State coach Thad Matta and Dan Ross, commissioner of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Diebler leads the nation with a 42.6 average.

• Jerry Doerger recorded his 500th boys basketball victory as Clermont Northeastern (Batavia, Ohio) rolled past New Richmond, 67-37. Then the 70-year-old coach received a Mohawk haircut, the price he had to pay for an earlier promise he made to his overachieving players. He thought they would be lucky to win 10 games this season, but the milestone victory gave them a 14-6 record.

• Doyle Wolverton became only the fifth girls basketball coach in USA history to win 1,000 games when he guided Leake Academy (Madden, Miss.) to an 81-55 win against Columbia. The 54-year-old coach, who has won 86 percent of his games and has just one losing season, received the game ball and a $1,000 check from his school.

• Mary Kathryn Govero set a Mississippi girls basketball record for most career points (4,867) when she netted 31 to lead Mt. Salus Christian (Clinton) to a 50-48 victory over Claiborne (La.) Academy. The 5-11 Mississippi State signee, who is averaging 37.7 points, surpassed the six-year-old record of 4,853 by Monique Horner of Southeast Lauderdale.

• Indiana's No. 1 freshman, 6-7 DeShaun Thomas, exploded for 40 points, including the winning tip-in at the buzzer, as Fort Wayne Bishop Luers nipped Fort Wayne North in an 88-86 shootout. Thomas, who also had 11 rebounds, made two free throws with 18.6 seconds left to tie the score.

• New York City basketball fans will greatly miss Burt Beagle, who died recently at the age of 73. Beagle had been the statistician for the New York Catholic High School Athletic Association since 1974 and was a great information source for local and national media.