- April 26, 2024
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Flagler Palm Coast swimmer Micayla Cronk. Photo by Ray Boone
FPC's Micayla Cronk poses with her medal after winning the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle. Courtesy photo
FPC's Micayla Cronk poses with her medal after winning the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle. Courtesy photo
Micayla Cronk, who won a state title in the 100-yard freestyle as a 14-year-old freshman last year, describes herself as a "horrible" prelim swimmer. For whatever reason, something about swimming and competing early in the morning never agreed with her — until this season.
When Cronk, now a sophomore at Flagler Palm Coast High School, stepped onto the block for the preliminary heats of the 200-yard and 100-yard freestyles in the Class 4A State Championship early the morning of Saturday, Nov. 10, she felt confident for a change.
For the past several months, she had club practice before sunrise three times a week. Her club coach would make her do an all-out, 200-yard swim at the conclusion of each practice.
All those hours of work prepared her for this moment.
“It was getting me race-ready,” Cronk said. “When I finally got to prelims, I was ready to compete.”
Cronk competed in the 200-yard and 100-yard freestyles in the state championship meet at Sailfish Splashpark Aquatic Athletics Center in Stuart. She won both.
“Not a lot of people get to say that,” Cronk said. “But it’s what I’ve come to expect.”
The 200-yard freestyle was her first event of the day.
“She does the work. She’s dedicated. I don’t doubt that she’s going to bring home more state championships. The future is bright and wide open.”
MARIE-ANNE JOHANSSON, Bulldogs coach
After a 1:49.71 showing in the prelim, Cronk swam a tight race with eventual second-place finisher Ella Bathurst. With every breath, she could see Bathurst a lane over inching closer and closer. On the final 25 yards, Bathurst was within a shoulder length of her.
“My legs were hurting so bad. It was like a piano fell on me,” Cronk said. “But I just kept kicking and pulling as hard as I could.”
Bathurst touched the wall in 1:46.82. Cronk did so in 1:46.68. She had never been sub-1:47.00 before.
Her win in the 200 free gave her the confidence she needed in the 100 free, where she would be defending her title.
She had about 20 minutes until her next event. When she stood on the podium with her first-place medal from the 200 free, her legs were still burning with pain.
“It’s hard to walk after something like that,” she said. “You feel like 1,000 pounds trying to lift your self out of the pool.”
As the No. 1 seed in the 100 free, she got to choose the song the announcers played when they introduced the swimmers before the race. With her cousin Rebecca cheering her on at the other end of the pool, Cronk danced to “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon. The brief, light moment calmed down her raging nerves.
“After that, I got into my zone,” she said. “I had to lean on all my training.”
It wasn’t a close race.
“After the first 25, I knew I had it in the bag,” she said.
With a time of 49.43 seconds, she won the event by more than a second — a huge lead in a sport like swimming.
With two years of high school eligibility, Cronk, 15, is already a three-time state champion.
“I think it’s awesome for her,” Bulldogs coach Marie-Anne Johansson said. “She does the work. She’s dedicated. I don’t doubt that she’s going to bring home more state championships. The future is bright and wide open.”
