Manchester Freshman Living Life In The Fast LaneNORTH MANCHESTER – Over the course of the current season, one high school girls swimmer has set seven school records.
One would assume that swimmer must be an upperclassman, more than likely a senior, but that is not the case for Halle Briner, a freshman at Manchester High School.
In her first prep season, Briner has set school records in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 freestyles, 100 butterfly, 100 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley, and she has her eyes set on breaking more over the course of her Lady Squire career.
The youngster has been swimming since she was 9, preparing her for success in the pool. Beginning the sport at a young age stems from her father’s success in the pool when he competed for the Squires.
“My father was a really good swimmer and he never really pushed me to swim,” said Briner. “A lot of people told me how good he was, so I wanted to see how good I was.”
Craig Briner still holds three school records at Manchester, the 200 free (set in 1990), 50 free (1992) and 100 butterfly (1992).
Briner has given credit to coaches in her life for helping her get this far in her young career. The Manchester High School coaches are always there for her and offer advice when needed.
Her club coach has been there through it, from start to now. Her father coaches Halle’s club team, the Manchester Aquatic Club, or MAC.
“He’s been coaching for five years now,” Halle said. “If I didn’t do MAC, I wouldn’t be doing this well.”
MAC allows the star to swim all year and compete against a lot of different swimmers in the state and surrounding areas.
Coaching can really help an athlete become better, but it takes a special person to really use those teachings and see results quickly. Briner has set goals for herself for this season and her career, helping her stay accountable for her actions and to push herself. She wants to swim at the Junior Nationals and swim collegiately with a scholarship.
At practice, the team has to do a lot of hard sets, which include a warm up of a 200-yard freestyle or 200-yard individual medley. After that, they are tasked with having to swimming at hard intervals, meaning they swim 800-yard freestyles.
When it comes to swimming, she will usually perform the same routine before she jumps into the water.
“I will give all of my teammates high-fives beforehand,” she said. “Then I’ll slap myself down and get ready for the race.”
She isn’t a vocal leader, but knows that being a leader can be shown through actions, which is what pushes her to excel during each event.
Her favorite moments do not come while she is breaking a record or that she broke one, it comes when she says all her teammates are screaming for her and she can feel that tension and excitement in the water.
That’s who Halle Briner is, she wants to accomplish all these feats with her teammates.
“It has really been an honor breaking all of these records, but has been great doing it with the team,” Briner said. “I want to break the relay records here, so I can do that with my team.”
When Halle is not in the water, she likes to play tennis and will play for Manchester this spring.
She aims to play No. 2 singles for the Lady Squires.
Before she focuses on tennis, however, she will compete in the IHSAA swimming state tournament.
The Lady Squires will compete in the Warsaw Sectional, which begins with preliminaries Thursday.
