Experience best result for Vieira at national swimming meet

Gabby Vieira excels in the butterfly.

She's also not too shabby when it comes to the butterflies.

Vieira conveniently was in a pool when she faced the fiercest competition of her young life last week at the Short Course Junior Nationals in Austin, Texas.

The water masked the 14-year-old's perspiration, while goggles concealed her wide eyes.

Hard work had put the precocious Vieira in uncharted waters infested with the nation's top junior swimmers. Vieira, whose coach generously calls her 5 foot 3, was among the youngest and smallest competitors in an elite four-day meet for swimmers 18 and younger.

"I would say it's intimidating," Vieira said. "There are a bunch of older people way taller than you, way faster than you, and you have to try to keep up with them. It was real scary."

Vieira was competing on her first national stage, and she couldn't locate her level of nervousness anywhere on a scale of 1 to 10.

"On the first day, I was probably a 12," Vieira said with a laugh. "Yeah, I was really nervous. After that I kind of got a feel for the meet."

Vieira is a talented swimmer in numerous events, which provided her the opportunity to compete in four events and adapt to the environment.

She made the top-24 final in one event, placing 13th in the 100 butterfly in 55.26 seconds.

Had Vieira matched her career-best 54.64 seconds in the finals, she would have placed second.

"The 100 butterfly is usually my best event," Vieira said. "That's why I was really nervous for it. I was mainly nervous for the 500 free because it was the first event, and I didn't know how the meet worked so much. It was kind of new to me."

Vieira, an eighth-grader at Central Junior High School, is well known in local and regional swimming circles.

She has a habit of breaking long-standing Gator Swim Team records for her age division, including many that were set in the 1990s by Erin Vogt, who won two state titles and the MVP at the Missouri Swimming and Diving Championships her freshman year of high school. Vogt later swam at the University of Arizona.

Steve Franklin is in his ninth year as coach of the Gator Swim Team and in his 35th year of coaching overall.

"She's the fastest I've had in several age groups, and the fastest I've had ever now in some events," Franklin said. "I've had some faster girls in different events, but she, overall, is probably the best [girl] swimmer I've ever had."

Vieira began swimming with the Gators at age 8, and her name resides next to 45 Gators short-course records (yards) and 51 long-course records. Seven of the records are for Open division -- swimmers of any age.

She also has set 18 Ozark Swimming age records since age 10.

She has been in the top 10 nationally of the USA Swimming rankings since age 10. She currently has seven top 10 national times in the girls 14 division, including the second-fastest time in the 100 butterfly.

Her 54.64 seconds in the 100 butterfly ranks 22nd all-time for her age division.

Even with all that on her resume, Vieira was just a face in the crowd of 851 swimmers at her first national meet.

"Any time you go to your first big senior or junior national meet, there are no bad swims," Franklin said. "Even a bad swim is a good swim. You're getting your feet wet and it's the first time you're walking on deck and some of these girls are 6 foot 1, [6]-2, and Gabby's not used to that. She's 14 and one of the youngest kids there. It's a little deer in the headlights.

"As the meet went on, she started feeling a little more comfortable, but for the first couple of days it was pretty tough."

A bout of illness between the Ozark Championships and the Junior Nationals did not work in Vieira's favor. Franklin said it wasn't even certain if Vieira would make the trip south due to a severe cold, but he said she trained well after returning from the illness.

"I think being sick didn't really help," Vieira said, "but I think the main reason I didn't get my best times is because about two or three weeks before we had Ozark Championships, and I dropped most of my time in that. I think it would be really difficult to drop even more time from what I did there.

"My training was kind of pointed for the Junior Nationals, but I rested for Ozark with everyone else to see if it would work, and it did. But it was difficult to drop even more from there."

The events at the Junior Nationals had as many as 50 or more competitors in the field, and all had posted qualifying times to be there.

"It was very fast," Franklin said. "It's unbelievable how fast that meet is."

It showed Vieira how high the bar can go.

"I think it's making me want to train harder so I can keep up with them," Vieira said.

Vieira already has a grueling schedule. She swims two hours before school three days a week and trains 2 1/2 hours five days a week after school. She also trains three hours Saturday mornings.

Her next big event will be the Senior Nationals in 2012, a meet in which she qualified in the 100 butterfly. She will face the nation's top swimmers of all ages in that meet.

She's optimistic her recent experience will serve her well in future national competitions.

"I hope if I go I won't be as nervous as I was the first time," Vieira said. "I was kind of a little overwhelmed the first time. I'll be more used to my competition. Maybe it will help me do better."