By Josh Mathews
Humans swim from conception. Babies are born knowing how to swim, but the skill is lost quickly after birth. It wasn’t lost that long in the case of Clark Beach and Ethan Beach.
Swimming since age six has paid dividends for the Matoaca students and identical twins as they both committed to swim at the University of Florida this last week.
The twins chose Florida over Alabama and Virginia Tech knowing it was their home as soon as they left the Gainesville campus after their visit.
“The reason why we picked Florida is because they are a top program,” said Clark. “Their practice style and training methods fit me best. I feel that we can succeed academically and athletically there and fit in well with the team.”
Clark and Ethan are accomplished swimmers. For one, they both qualified for the Olympic trials. Clark made his first trial cut in 2014 in the 200-meter backstroke. In 2015, Ethan earned his in the 100-meter backstroke. Clark holds the Virginia state records in the 200 backstroke (1:59.56) and the 100 back stroke (55.96). Ethan’s best times are very close to Clark’s – 2:02.28 in the 200 back and 57.4 in the 100 back.
Clark will have a warm-up for the travel it takes to get to Tokyo. Being as he qualified for the U.S. National Junior team, he’ll travel to Japan and Hong Kong to compete Oct. 21-31.
While the two didn’t qualify in 2016, the twins hope to follow in the footsteps of Benedictine alumnus Townley Haas (Texas)and make the team in 2020. Should they qualify, they’d be the third and fourth Olympians from QUEST swimming club, joining Whitney Hedgepeth (1988, 1996) and Rada Owen (2000). Both were coached by Dudley Duncan, who’s been at it for 48 years now.
“They both have tremendous potential in the pool,” Duncan said. “They have an advantage being late-bloomers,” he explained. “They’ll go stronger as they move along in terms of body mass and overcoming logical inhibition. They’ll also go from the best swimmers to being like everyone else at that level.”
The boys love for swimming started at the age of six when parents Paula and Sam signed them up for the Highlands swim team. They loved it so much that they joined QUEST to swim competitively year round.
“At first, we didn’t know what we got ourselves into with the schedule,” explained Paula Beach. “My husband Sam and I worked it out and now that they drive, it’s much easier,” she joked.
What’s the schedule like for an Olympic hopeful swimmer who’s in high school?
When most of you are sound asleep, every day Clark and Ethan are up at 3:30 a.m. to make a 4:15-6:15 a.m. practice. Then, it’s off to school which starts at 7:20 a.m. Then, on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays, there’s an afternoon practice from 4:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. There’s homework and normal teenage boy activities in there, also. For those keeping score at home, that’s 16 hours per week spent swimming. It’s caused a fun competition between the two brothers.
“They seem to be most nervous when they are swimming in lanes next to each other,” explained Paula. “When they were younger it used to be an ‘oh I beat you’ mentality,’ but now they use it to push each other.”
“We are definitely competitive with each other,” said Clark. “It helps us to be better swimmers.”
The time at Florida, currently the 5th ranked swimming program in all of Division I, will pay dividends according to their coach, and its time the twins will use to prepare themselves to head to Tokyo in 2020.
“The three years of training will be an advantage to us,” Ethan said. “It motivates us to see the amazing things that Townley has done. I want to be added to the list of RVA Olympians.”
Duncan had a coach-like approach to the twins’ development.
“They are racers by nature,” Duncan said. “They’ll push early off the wall; they’ll do whatever it takes to go faster. As they gain more experience, they’ll gain maturity in that aspect as well.”
Locally speaking, the Beach twins join Jeff Newkirk (Matoaca/Texas) and Meredith Vay (Thomas Dale/South Carolina) as swimmers at major programs that are Olympic hopefuls. It’s taken a village to get them there.
“In ways it’s been a long journey,” said Sam. “Fun, exciting and exhausting,” he continued. “They’ve obviously put in the work and done the training. Everyone in the family has sacrificed something to get them, push them along to where they need to be. We’ll keep doing that.”
