They’ve all come up through the ranks of age-group swimming, and that’s what’s made them good. They’ve been good for a long, long time. – Viewmont coach Steve Doman
Rhyan White, Sefilina Maile and Rachel Butler rarely cross paths. They’ll occasionally see each other on the deck of a pool during a meet and say hello, but that’s realistically the extent of their interaction.
While the trio of underclassmen might not have a lot of connections outside of the pool, there’s a definitely mutual respect between the three fastest girl high school swimmers in Utah this season.
Of the eight individual high school events, White, Maile and Butler own the overall fastest times in Utah in seven of those events this season.
Viewmont’s Maile has the best times in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events. Brighton’s Butler owns the best times in the 500 freestyle and the 200 individual medley, while Cottonwood’s White is tops in the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly.
They cross over and swim other events as well, but they each have their specialties, and they’re virtually impossible to beat.
“They’ve all come up through the ranks of age-group swimming, and that’s what’s made them good. They’ve been good for a long, long time. That’s why they’re so hard to beat, they don’t allow other people to beat them because they practice so hard and train so hard,” said Viewmont coach Steve Doman, who also coaches Maile at Tsunami swimming in Davis County.
Maile moved to Utah from New Mexico over the summer, and didn’t participate in last year’s state meet as a freshman. Butler was a freshman last season and won 5A individual titles in the 200 and 500 freestyle.
White won the 100 fly and 100 back as a sophomore at last year’s 5A state meet. Then, last summer she also got a chance to participate on the national level in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, where she fared very well.
White finished 18th out of 137 swimmers in the 200 backstroke trials and 61st out of 157 participants in the 100 backstroke.
“As good as she is and as good as she is here locally, there are athletes outside of Utah that are equally or better, so taking those chances to compete at elite level has certainly benefitted her,” said Cottonwood coach Ron Lockwood, who also coaches White on the Wasatch Front Fish Market swim team.
Lockwood said White is a tremendous athlete in and out of the pool, and might be one of the best girls swimmers the state has ever produced.
“She identified early that she can be special and can be good and she hasn’t just rested on being a talented athlete,” said Lockwood.
She’s set a new 100 backstroke state record each of the past two seasons, and figures to break it again before this year’s high school season concludes at the state meet in February.
New state records are something the trio of swimmers could be threatening to break over the next three years, and it’s not an accident.
“I know a lot of people think — and they probably think the same thing about Rhyan and Sefilina — that these girls are just good because of talent. I know for a fact with these girls it goes so much further than that,” said Brighton coach Todd Etherington, who also coaches Butler in Cottonwood Heights swimming.
He said it’s the result of individual dedication, being pushed by teammates and fine-tuning a training regime that continually pushes the athletes.
As for Butler, Etherington said it’s been a challenge to continue to find ways to push her.
“Rachel is awesome to work with. She’s very trusting and willing to do whatever it takes to reach her goals. She’s a very easy-going kid but also a very competitive young lady,” said Etherington. “When she gets tired and beat up, she still tries to find a way to perform at a very high level regardless of how tired she is.”
Maile has a similar care-free attitude for Viewmont.
“She doesn’t stress out over what’s taking place. If it put them through a super hard set, she just goes along with it,” said Doman.
Maile has great leg drive and great turns, she’s worked very hard since moving to Utah on getting tougher in practice, which conversely makes her tougher in meets, said Doman.
“I really don’t see anybody beating her in the next three years that’s out there in Utah, they could, there’s always an upset and there’s always a chance to beat her, but she’s so fast,” said Doman.
In their specialties, it’s going to be hard for anyone to beat Maile, White or Butler in the high school pools over the next couple of years.