Fayhee refines her technique, now sees hard work paying off

Kally Fayhee finally put the dates of the season-ending girls swimming meets into her calendar on Tuesday.

It's not that the Rosary junior is forgetful and she's certainly not trying to avoid the upcoming trio of conference, sectional and state meets -- the finishing group commonly referred to as Championship Season.

But Fayhee has probably been enjoying this season so much that it just slipped her mind.

And that's a change from last year, where the season was tough as she altered her stroke technique. But as they often say about tough times, tough people tend to meet those challenges.

And make no mistake, Fayhee is tough, and the Beads will need that quality from the Batavia native as they make their final preparations to defend their state championship.

"The biggest part is going to be when we get into sectionals or at state and she is going to be tough," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. "We have some freshmen and sophomores who haven't done this before. She is going to project that toughness that will be great for those kids."

Fayhee demonstrated mental strength throughout the 2006 campaign and into the ensuing club season as she restructured her freestyle stroke.

"She had a really short stroke," Schalz said. "When you are 11 years old and what I like to call a mosquito in the water, you can get away with that. As you get older and grow and develop muscles, that stroke doesn't work any more.

"We were getting her to take longer strokes and to move her body farther with every stroke. It's a different feel. It was hard and a lot of tears were shed over that stroke."

Keep in mind that Fayhee wasn't a poor swimmer by any definition. She swam the fourth-fastest 500-yard freestyle as a freshman, but finished seventh as that stunning swim came in the consolation heat.

But the decision to alter her stroke technique made 2006 difficult.

"I was thinking more about my stroke count than racing," Fayhee said. "My stroke count went down four strokes. But this summer was huge for me. I finally learned how to race again. It seems like it would be a really easy thing, but it's not."

Schalz said Fayhee's incredible work ethic actually became a detriment at times as she fought through the restructuring of her stroke.

"When you're moving your arms 100 miles an hour and you slow it down, it doesn't feel like you're working as hard," Schalz said. "She felt it was a punishment and that was the mental breakthrough she had to get through."

As a measure of her talent, Fayhee finished ninth in the 500 freestyle, 10th in the 200 freestyle and swam as part of the Beads' 400-yard freestyle relay championship team.

The Beads had just about clinched the state title by the time that meet-ending relay hit the water. But they won anyway.

"The 400 free relay was an amazing feeling," Fayhee said. "I was so happy. I was so excited about the 400 free relay, I forgot about us being state champions. It hadn't really even hit me. I don't really think it hit me until a week later."

The extra work has paid massive dividends this season, and Fayhee will head to New Trier as one of the swimmers expected to make an impact in both distance freestyle events.

"It's made me a tougher person," Fayhee said. "It's shown me how to get over those plateaus and to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For a year, I didn't see that. Now it's all come together."

With all the ground she's covered with her longer stroke, these next few weeks might be ones Rosary swim fans will want to circle on their calendars, just like Fayhee did on Tuesday.