Cape Central swimmer 'can take the pain' and showed just that

The prep athletes throughout Southeast Missouri this past winter season didn’t lack impressive performances, and without question, Cape Central junior swimmer Marianne Dean is among that bunch.

Dean played a significant role in helping the Tigers place third in the MSHSAA Class 1 Girl’s Swimming and Diving State Finals in February at the St. Peters rec-Plex, and she did so having to overcome as much adversity as anyone on her team.

“Marianne is a workhorse,” veteran Cape Central coach Dayna Powell said.

The backstory is that Cape Central had to compete this season with one arm (figuratively) tied behind their backs, as Powell’s team had very limited time to train due to a lack of a facility, once Central Municipal Pool was closed last fall.

In the case of Dean, she competes in the longest distance event at the high school level, the 500-yard freestyle, which requires the most amount of preparation of any race at this level.

“She is tenacious,” Powell said of Dean. “She fights every bit.”

Dean was coming off an eighth-place finish in the 500 free as a sophomore and placed seventh this season. However, that improvement doesn’t begin to tell her story.

With limited training, Dean dropped her time over eight seconds, which is an unfathomable accomplishment, given her circumstances.

“She knew what we needed from her,” Powell said.

Powell had complete trust in Dean to race to her potential, because, according to Powell, Dean has complete trust in her coaching.

“We were doing a set this year,” Powell recalled, “and I started to explain why we were doing it, and Marianne just said, ‘I trust you.’ She didn’t need to be told why we were doing the set.

“I thought ‘Wow. Thank you.’”

Dean also played a critical role in the Tigers finishing the meet on a championship note.

As Cape Central battled to finish as high as possible, the final race of the meet, the 400 free relay, was an event that the Tigers had an opportunity to win and score 40 much-needed points.

Dean swam the second leg of the relay in a time of 54.12, which was over a second faster than she had swum in the prelims a day earlier.

That effort helped Cape Central smoke the nearest finisher by 1.5-plus seconds and set a new Class 1 state finals record.

Dean also contributed by placing 10th in the 200 IM after not even competing in the race at the state finals as a sophomore.

“We always tell our athletes to trust the process,” Powell said. “She is one who is all into anything that we are doing. She trusts the process. I know that she is in the pain box, but man, she can take the pain.”