Mother knew best last week.

That’s when Whitehall junior Ian Thomas set a new school record in the 100 backstroke in the Zephyr boys 110-49 victory over Freedom on Jan. 4 at Whitehall.

“Last meet, my mom couldn’t make the meet and she texted me, “Break the backstroke today,” and I hate when she says that because I feel bad if I don’t break it, and she said that to me just now when she had to leave early, and then I ended up doing it, so I was happy I was able to do it,” Thomas said.

Thomas’s time was a record-setting 57.01.

“My coaches have been putting me in the backstroke for a few meets now, and I’ve been hovering around 59s. Probably my hardest backstroke was a few meets ago when my coaches put me in against (teammate) Aaron (Stinner), and we both pushed each other, and I still got a 59, so I really wasn’t expecting it,” said Thomas. “I was only expecting to maybe break it if I decided to do the backstroke at districts, so it’s really a shock to me. I feel like I stayed under water a little longer this time, and I kicked underwater a little harder.”

Nick Martinovic previously held the school’s backstroke record of 58.47 set in 2020.

“Dave’s (Seeloff, assistant coach) really good at looking at splits and knowing 25 (yard) times, and I’m looking at the last 10 yards and looking at the clock and going, all right, Ian should do it in this time, so he probably knew at the end of the first 50 that he had it, and I knew it more when he had 10 yards to go with a second or two to spare, which was really good,” said Whitehall coach Pete Rile. “It was very good.”

In the boys first event of the day, Thomas led off the 200 medley relay and combined with Kenny Dai, Aaron Stinner, and Andrew Deutsch to take first place with a time of 1:50.02.

“I was telling my friends, when the meet was starting, I always say how I get so nervous in the beginning, and as soon as we, if I’m in the medley, get done, those nerves don’t fully go away, but they kind of dwindle a little, especially with a big win in the medley like that, and I had backstroke so it kind of warmed me up for the backstroke later in the day,” Thomas said.

Thomas went on to win the 200 freestyle in 1:56.47, followed by Stinner’s victories in the 200 IM in 2:03.60 (.50 away from a new school record) and the 500 free in 5:03.28.

“We have, with the boys in particular, Aaron, and we have Ian, who both have capabilities of breaking a number of records up on our board. Not just looking ahead to districts and what they can do or medal, but every day, every week, we’re going in there and looking to see they could do it. They just may not be thinking about it,” said Coach Rile. “It’s not in their minds; it’s in our minds. We think about it every time we go to meets.”

Freedom took first place in the next two events, the 50 free won by Ryan Rummel in 24.83 and the 100 butterfly won by Micah Lawser in 1:03.99.

Deutsch sprinted to first place in the 100 free with a time of 57.26.

Gabe O’Brien, Dai, Alex Madden, and Gary Marrucci combined to win the 200 free relay in 1:48.73.

Freedom’s AJ Black won the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.89.

The Zephyr foursome of Marrucci, Deutsch, Thomas, and Stinner closed out the meet with a first-place finish in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:48.31.