Sarasota High swimmer resets for improved junior-year run

For Sarasota High junior swimmer Isabel Traba, two top-10 finishes at last winter’s state championship meet meant nothing but disappointment.

After a freshman season that saw Traba grab a silver medal in the 200 individual medley and a fourth place-finish in the 100 butterfly at states, she finished seventh and fifth in those events, respectively, a year later as a sophomore.

“I don’t know what was going on,” Traba said. “I wasn’t happy with the way I swam.”

She’s using the finishes as motivation for this year’s postseason run. The Sailors have a strong team overall. They and Riverview High have battled all season for the title of top area team. Sarasota got the upper hand at the Tri-County Championships on Oct. 7, besting the Rams 513-495 in the team standings. Traba won the 100 butterfly in 57.62 seconds at the meet, and anchored the 200 freestyle relay team to a win in 1:41.53.

Traba’s Sarasota Sharks club swim coach Brent Arckey said the junior is "a heck of a racer," and primed to have a big postseason.

"I tell these kids, 'Make someone beat you,' and that's something she's really good at," he said. "If you're going to beat her, you're going to have to be really good. She's as good as she wants to be. The sky's the limit for her, because she's positive and works hard and enjoys racing."

The “disappointing” finish at last year’s state meet hasn’t affected Traba’s stature as one of the top swimmers in the state. In fact, some in the sport consider her one of the top swimmers in the country. Those people represent USA Swimming, which invited Traba to a national select camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Boulder, Co., from Oct. 19-22. Only 48 girls nationwide were selected for the camp. Traba’s Sarasota Sharks club teammate Emma Weyant, a Riverview sophomore, went with her to the camp. (Their teammate and Riverview sophomore Arik Katz was selected to the boys’ camp.)

Traba learned a lot at the camp, she said. Because everyone at such an elite gathering is fast, little things make the difference between first, second and third place. During a video session at the camp, coaches showed the girls how and when Olympic swimmers take breaths. Traba figured out she normally breathes late, and is now working on getting the timing exact, she said.

As a parting gift, U.S. Olympic gold medalist Leah Smith, who helped at the camp, handed Traba a USA swim cap. Traba still can’t describe what representing her country, even if just at a camp, means to her. The trip would have been perfect, she said, if she hadn’t picked up a cold halfway through it. It’s annoying, but she’ll be ready for districts Oct. 28, she said.

What Traba has accomplished is more impressive when you consider what she’s fought to get it. Traba battles anxiety on a daily basis, she said, and has since she was 12 years old. It comes in different forms. Sometimes it’s about swimming. Other times it’s about school, or even being far from home. Unfamiliar environments, or a “fear of the unknown,” seem to be common triggers, she said. It even flared in Colorado.

“What happens is, I start to feel ‘sick’ sick, like in my stomach,” Traba said. “It won’t go away until I get home from whatever I’m doing.”

She’s been to doctors about it, but ultimately decided to manage it herself. She knows she’s going to have to work on it for a while, she said, but in the meantime she’ll manage the best she can, as she always has.

If Traba makes it back to states, it will be her third time. She'll be more more comfortable in the environment, and that means bad things for her opponents.