Beutler eyes a bigger prize

SANTA CLARA — Last May, Snow Canyon senior Joe Beutler faced a difficult decision: Go all out in hopes of qualifying for Olympic Swim Trials or sacrifice the glory that would accompany qualifying for that hugely prestigious event and instead focus on trying to re-tool himself as a swimmer.

He opted for the latter.

"We decided that even if I qualified for Olympic Trials, it was going to be kind of empty to go there and be at the bottom," said Beutler. "Or I could take a shot to the heart and (instead) focus on my senior season and try to accomplish something truly amazing."

With just under four weeks to go until the 2009 Class 4A state meet, Beutler, who will attend and swim for Columbia University next fall, has positioned himself to try and do exactly that.

Under the guidance of Cottonwood Heights Aquatic Team coach (and Brighton High coach) Todd Etherington last summer, he completely restructured his freestyle stroke (cutting down three to four strokes per lane), improved his kicking, added 20 pounds to his frame and worked on his breaststroke.

Already a three-time recipient of Swimmer of the Meet at state (twice in 3A and once in 4A) and already the state record holder in the 200 free, Beutler hopes those improvements help him to do a pair of special things at next month's 4A state meet: Break Rick Morley's 32-year-old 500-free record of 4:34.08 and win a team state championship with Snow Canyon.

Visit with Beutler for a while, and it becomes clear pretty fast that those two items are at the top of his priority list right now.

Besting Morley's heralded record — and potentially going sub 4:30 — in the 500 free is something that Beutler has been dreaming about over the last several years, and while he thought he would've broken the state's longest-standing swim record by now, he hopes to take care of that unfinished business in his final prep meet.

If nothing else, Beutler certainly knows the history he's chasing.

"It's 32 years old in February — double my age almost — and it's the one record that's been standing, and it hasn't been touched and it's hardly been close," said Beutler. "I got close to it last year, and (Skyline's) Brooks Felton's been close to it, but other than that, no one's even been able to think about breaking it."

And then there's Beutler's goal to hoist a team state championship.

Snow Canyon emerged last year as a legitimate state championship contender before finishing second to Springville. However, while Beutler enjoyed a phenomenal individual meet, Snow Canyon collectively swam just OK.