By Adam Krohn
Each time Dalton High’s Omar Farag takes to the pool this season, he’ll have a little extra motivation.
The versatile sophomore, who specializes in the 100-meter butterfly, can’t shake the memory of how last season ended. At the state meet at the Westminster School in Atlanta, Farag was disqualified from swimming his specialty.
“I twitched on the block and that’s considered a false start,” Farag said. “They counted it and disqualified me for it.”
The disqualification left Farag disappointed because he was unable to see all the hard work and first-place finishes during the regular season come to fruition when it mattered most. Heading into the state meet, Farag owned Dalton’s highest pre-meet ranking at 12th in the 100 butterfly.
“It was really depressing,” he said. “As soon as the meet was over, I told myself I had to get better and practice really hard for next season so I can come back and swim as fast as I can.
“Everyone was telling me, ‘You’re just a freshman, you have three more years,’ but that didn’t make me feel any better because I practiced so hard.”
So far, Farag is off to a strong start. In Dalton’s first competition — a tri-meet against Cartersville and Northwest Whitfield at home — Farag qualified for the state meet in the 100 butterfly with a time of 55.54 seconds. He was also part of the Catamounts’ 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays team that qualified for state and finished first in the 200 freestyle.
Farag’s presence in events across the board is what Dalton coach Charles Todd likes about him.
“We can put him in just about any event and he’ll do well,” Todd said. “We’re expecting quite a bit from him this season.”
While Farag can contribute to the team in different ways, his main focus is on the 100 butterfly. What has made him so successful in that event are his broad shoulders and upper body strength, which gives him an advantage over other swimmers.
“He’s actually really strong,” Todd said. “His arms are huge and his shoulders are big, but his most contributing attribute is his flexibility for the butterfly. He’s real flexible in the shoulders and that allows him to really stretch his stroke out and move quickly through the water.”
Aside from his physical attributes, Farag also uses a geographic attribute to his advantage in order to be a better swimmer. His house is located across the street from the school, so he wakes up for the early team practice at 5:30 a.m. and hops into the pool. He also practices after school.
Farag said it’s this time of the season that’s hardest on swimmers, because they load up on two-a-day practices and are pushed harder in order to break down muscle. Once the muscles are broken down, the workload decreases as winter progresses and the muscles build up, leaving the swimmers in better position by the time the state meet rolls around.
“The beginning of the season is tough,” Farag said. “We won’t do as well (in the regular season meets) because we’re all broken down, but it all pays off in the end.”
To help ensure those efforts prepare Dalton’s swimmers for state, Todd is increasing expectations. The Cats finished 16-1 last season, while the Lady Cats were 15-2, but they’ll be challenged by facing tougher competition from Class 5A teams — Dalton is a 4A school — this season.
Todd is shooting for a 13-4 finish from both teams, if not better, and Farag thinks that goal is attainable.
“This season should be really great,” he said. “We have a lot of freshmen coming in that are really fast with some of the top times in the state. We’re strong numbers-wise and we can specialize in different things.”
As for Farag, Todd believes he can be even better.
“I’d like to see him pick up the intensity in practice, drop a little weight and add some muscle,” Todd said. “If he does that, he’s going to be a fine swimmer that a lot of colleges will be looking at.”
