Sophomore Andrew Martin has been swimming competitively for three and a half years, two of those years being at the school. This year he had an injury that put him out for most of the season, but he still swam at state.
“Once I got the times [for state] and I was like, I already have state cuts. I’ll just go to state and I’ll swim fast and do my thing,” Martin said. “But I wasn’t ever nervous about it, I was just kind of like whatever happens happens.”
His injury ultimately didn’t stop him from making state. Kirkpatrick talks about how this was not surprising.
“I was not surprised when he qualified [for state],” Kirkpatrick said. “I was surprised though, that he came back at such a high level.”
Not only did Martin make it to state, he placed fourth. He talks about how placing fourth felt and the doubts he faced.
“It felt good to get top five because after the injury I didn’t even know if I was gonna be swimming for the rest of the season,” Martin said. “I didn’t know when I was going to be able to do things next, and it felt really good to be in state.”
Martin started having knee problems freshman year. Originally the doctors thought it was patellar tendonitis, so they sent him to physical therapy. The pain went away for a while, but at the beginning of the boy’s swim team season, he felt the pain again. thinking nothing of it, he went to physical therapy again.
According to Martin, patellar tendonitis was not the culprit this time.
“Two weeks into physical therapy [for patellar tendonitis ], I was at a swim meet, and my knee swelled up to [the size of] a watermelon,” Martin said. “I was in Iowa, so I had to drive back to Kansas City, and I went to the ER, and they told me that I have a big black spot on my X-ray. 12 hours later, we got the MRI
results, and they said that it was an infection in my knee.”
Since this injury was more intense than his original diagnosis, Martin had to go through a different process of healing than before.
“I had a pretty big hole in my knee; it’s still there, but it’s manageable now,” Martin said. “It did require me to be on crutches for nearly two months, then I was in a brace for another week, then walking but not doing any activities for another week and a half, and then I was back in the water.”
Boy’s swim coach Brian Kirkpatrick saw the effect of Martin’s injuries not just on his physical health but also his mental health.
“His injury affected him a lot, because he was so looking forward to the season, and he was so disappointed because it happened right when the season was starting,” Kirkpatrick said. “It was something that he had to work through.”
Although the healing process of his injury was long, Martin wanted to get back to swimming as soon as he could.
“I was getting very antsy by the end of it, the fact that they wouldn’t let me jump or do anything that I would enjoy doing most of the time was kind of annoying,” Martin said. “I was so ready to get back in the water and just do something that I was thinking about it every day for the final week before I got cleared.”
Even though Martin didn’t get as much swim time as his other teammates, Kirkpatrick talks about how he has seen Martin grow throughout his recovery.
“Andrew has always been a talented swimmer, but he has grown a lot as a competitor,” Kirkpatrick said. “He’s also just grown physically, which has allowed him to take more advantage of some of his natural abilities, and I’ve seen him grow also as a leader on our team.”
Martin talks about his experience in watching his teammates swim from outside the water rather than in.
“Usually, while you’re in the water, you don’t get to see how good everybody else is doing,” Martin said. “So when I was outside the water and I got to see all the freshmen grow, and their times improve, and that was pretty cool.”
