O'Hare puts team before self

n The senior swimmer has fought through shoulder injuries to swim her senior season at Siloam Springs.

Bud Sullins/Special to the Herald-Leader Siloam Springs senior Kaylee O’Hare and her teammates will participate this weekend at the Arkansas State Swimming and Diving championships on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Bud Sullins/Special to the Herald-Leader Siloam Springs senior Kaylee O’Hare and her teammates will participate this weekend at the Arkansas State Swimming and Diving championships on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

From a medical perspective, Siloam Springs senior Kaylee O'Hare shouldn't have participated on the Lady Panthers swim team this year.

O'Hare has struggled with loose-jointed shoulders, which routinely pop out of place when she competes. It's very painful on both shoulders, she said.

"Yeah it hurts pretty bad," she said. "They've always been just kind of a little bit looser. All the swimming has made it worse."

Despite the advice against swimming, O'Hare decided she could tough it out for her senior year, which concludes this weekend at the Arkansas State Swimming and Diving Championships held at the Donaghey Student Center Natatorium on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The diving portion begins at 3 p.m. Friday followed by the swimming competition at 10 a.m. Saturday.

"I probably shouldn't have swam this season," O'Hare said. "But I love Stephanie (Goddard) and the team, and I love swimming, so I thought I would finish out my senior year."

Siloam Springs swimming coach Stephanie Goddard gets emotional when talking about O'Hare's toughness, fighting through the pain to compete for her teammates.

"I think that's been the hard part of the whole season is knowing she's doing it for everybody else," Goddard said, "and she shouldn't be doing, but she wants to do it. She's just a great, great kid. She is top-notch."

O'Hare is qualified to swim in four individual events -- the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard freestyle, the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard backstroke. She's also qualified to swim in two relays -- the 200-medley relay and the 200-freestyle relay.

At the state meet, swimmers have the option of swimming in two individual events and two relays or swimming in three relays.

Though it's not official, both O'Hare and Goddard anticipate O'Hare will swim in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly for her two individual events. Those are the two events she's best at.

"And they're my favorite," she said.

The butterfly and the freestyle are also the hardest events on her shoulders, she said.

"Swimming is really hard on your shoulders anyway," she said, "especially the butterfly, and butterfly is my favorite stroke."

"I'm just grateful for whatever she can do," Goddard said. "I think she can definitely finish in the top six in any of the events."

In the relays, O'Hare swims with teammates Heather Casteel, Shannon Kretzer and Clair Gryder. She performs the butterfly leg of the 200-yard medley relay and swims another leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay.

O'Hare began swimming at a young age with the Siloam Springs Flyers and even participated with the highly-successful Northwest Arkansas Aquatics Sharks when the swim club had a team based in Siloam Springs.

O'Hare would practice a lot on her own with the dream of one day swimming in college.

She's accepted the fact that's not a possibility anymore and said this weekend's swim meet will be her last competition.

"It's been a good journey, but this will probably be it," she said. "I always thought I was going to go swim in college, but my shoulders are barely lasting right now. It's crazy that it's all coming to an end. It should be a good last meet. It's also sad."

State qualifiers

O'Hare will be joined at this weekend's state meet by several of her Siloam Springs teammates.

Kretzer qualified in the 100-yard breaststroke along with the 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay.

Gryder and Casteel will join Kretzer and O'Hare in the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relays; and they qualified with with Kretzer and Caroline Farine in the 400-yard freestyle.

Brittan Butler qualified in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. Butler also qualified in the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay with Ben Davis, Eduardo Suarez and Drew McWhorter.

Drew McWhorter, Ryke Beever, Suarez and Stephen Grant qualified in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Amanda Glass, Madison Spence, Aaron Jones, Drew McWhorter and Jordan McWhorter all qualified for the state dive meet.

Sports on 02/25/2015