Athlete of the Week: Menlo-Atherton's Izzi Henig

With M-A’s sophomore sensation qualifying for the state championships in four events, she is looking to compete in all four at the second-annual statewide meet being held Friday and Saturday at Clovis West High School.

“It makes it even more fun,” Henig said. “The races are going to be really competitive. More events — that’s what I’m really looking forward to.”

Henig qualified for the quartet of potential state glory by virtue of her outstanding performance Saturday at the Central Coast Section Swimming and Diving Championships at the Santa Clara International Swim Center. She captured three gold medals, scoring a hat trick of All-American honors in the process, to earn Daily Journal Athlete of the Week honors.

“Izzi, really all weekend, just seemed she was ready to go and ready to do her best,” M-A head coach Brett Koerten said. “And she definitely did.”

Henig’s top performance of the day came in the girls’ 100-yard freestyle, as she topped the field by over a second, hitting the wall for first place with a time of 49.09 seconds.

“That final was one of my best races,” Henig said. “I just got out and I felt good and I knew I was ahead of the pack a little bit. So I just took that and ran with it.”

While also advancing to state as part of two relay teams — she anchored a gold-medal swim in the girls’ 400 free relay, and also earned a fifth-place finish in the girls’ 200 free relay — Henig’s most anticipated performance of the afternoon, at least by that of her teammates, was her individual swim in the girls’ 50 free.

A sophomore transfer from Castilleja, Henig enjoyed a standout freshman debut in 2015; but her performance in the CCS championships was bittersweet. While she won the 100 free, she had a disappointing false-start mishap in the 50 free that caused her to be disqualified.

This year, Henig was intent not to let history repeat itself.

“My friends were cracking jokes about it (Saturday) but really I just tried to swim like I normally do and avoid making the same mistakes I did last year,” Henig said.

That mistake forced Henig to focus on just one event at last year’s state championship. And it was the only event in which a swimmer from Castilleja competed. This year’s state championships will be markedly different, as Henig will be joined at the meet by five other M-A swimmers.

“I’m looking forward to having that team atmosphere carrying with me instead of travelling alone,” Henig said.

Not only will she be swimming in four races, including four other girls between the two relay teams. M-A senior Vincent Busque also earned two state-meet berths by virtue of his two sixth-place finishes in the boys’ 200 and 500 free, with his time of 4 minutes, 34.8 seconds in the latter breaking a program record previously set in 1987 by John Scott.

“Izzi obviously swam out of her mind but Vincent was kind of the same way,” Koerten said.

Last season, Henig did get support from one Casti teammate, as then fellow freshman Georgia Lewis made the trip to Clovis to rout her on. This year, though, M-A has Haley Arrington, Kate Denend, Sophie Murff and Maddie Worden on roster to compete.

Worden — the only senior of the five — is set to swim at the Division-III program at Chapman University next season. Otherwise, the quartet that makes up the CCS champion 400 free relay team of Denend, Murff (both juniors), Arrington (a freshman) and Henig are all slated to return to M-A next year.

“Our girls team is just going to keep getting better and better,” Koerten said.

The showing at CCS for the M-A girls fell just shy of the 2014 season, when the team took fourth place. Saturday, the Lady Bears earned a fifth-place finish. Of the M-A girls’ 147 overall points, Henig had a hand in 106 of them.

“It was a really great feeling,” Henig said. “I’m super happy, and super happy I could get those points for M-A. I thought it reflected all the work I put in this year.”

Now, Henig is staring down several potential state titles. She is the top seed in both the 50 and 100 free. But even though she is still a sophomore, Henig is approaching the state spotlight with the savvy of an old pro.

“I’m just going to take them one race at a time, keep the team in mind and stay positive,” Henig said. “Try my best in every single race.”