By: Matt Florjancic, ‘07
BEREA, Ohio – Thirty-four hundredths of a second.
It is not a lot of time, but in the case of Baldwin Wallace University swimmer Tommie McQueary, that is all that separated him from a top-three finish in the 100-yard butterfly at the 2023 Ohio Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.
And nearly one year later, that small amount of time continues to be a driving motivator for McQueary as he focuses on medaling in the 100-yard butterfly and defend the title he won in the 200 when he competes at the 2024 OAC Championships next week.
“It made me so mad,” McQueary said of the 0.34-second differential that separated him from a second individual medal. I was this close to getting a medal in it, and then, I won the 200 the next day. I got second in that my freshman year.
“That kid (Forrest Campbell) was a fifth-year who graduated, and so, I was like ‘I have to win it this year.’ The 200 fly was definitely my favorite event the past two years, but I’ve only got to swim it once this season. I’m not nervous for it. I’m just like, ‘I’ve done the 100 a bunch. I know I’m ready for the 100,’ so if I could do that, that’d be really cool.”
High Expectations
McQueary entered the 2023 Championships with high expectations for himself.
Knowing that he was the top returning finisher from the 200-yard butterfly race, McQueary felt all season that it would be his race to win or lose. McQueary came in with the best seed time, and then, posted the best time in the preliminary heat.
In the championship race, McQueary won in a career-best 1:52.90, which was nearly two seconds faster than the second-place finisher.
“All last year, I knew since that kid had graduated that I was going to be top dog going into the 200 fly,” McQueary said. “I don’t want to say it stroked my ego, but I had a big head last year about it. Sometimes, I can be a little egotistical about it, but I try to keep it really low-key.
“I’m not trying to brag or anything. I don’t want to sound like I know I’m going to win, but in my mind, I’ve already won the event. I’m going in there, and I’m just doing what I need to do. Before every race, sometimes I’ll get a little nervous, but I’m just like, ‘I’ve done this a million times before. I know I can do it. I’m just going to go out there and do it.’”
Testing the Limits
While McQueary was confident he would win the 200-yard butterfly event, knowing how good he could be drove him not just to dream about winning the championship, but also, work hard toward the goal.
Working hard is something McQueary does in and out of the pool. In addition to being a championship-caliber swimmer, McQueary is an Academic All-Ohio Athletic Conference and College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honoree while pursuing an engineering degree.
“My freshman year, when I took Physics, Physics II actually, we were just learning about magnetic fields and electrons moving, and I just thought it was super interesting,” McQueary said. “Then, I took an advanced physics lab this past semester, and it was about optics and light. I thought it was really, really cool.
“When I first came here, it being general engineering, I was a little wary that it was going to be all civil engineering or something off the wall like structural engineering that I wasn’t really interested in. There have been courses over that, but I get a wide range of knowledge about it, and then, being able to add in the second major in physics, I get to kind of specialize. I’m doing engineering, I like physics, too, so I can kind of build my own major basically.”
Embracing His Passion
Being an engineering major with an aptitude for physics, too, McQueary gets to work on some pretty unique projects and use the curious side of his personality, which is nothing new.
While growing up, the self-described “really curious” McQueary loved playing with Lego sets and working to solve Rubik’s Cubes. He has not lost that desire for building things, either. As a lab assistant last year, McQueary helped build a motor.
“It was electric; I built all of it except for the solenoids, which was a bunch of wire wrapped around this metal post,” McQueary said. “I just had to machine these little carbon posts that would press down by these springs inside of a little screw-type thing. They would press onto this metal plate with four rivets in it, and it spins around.
“As one of the carbon posts goes to the next slide in-between the rivet, the magnetic field changes. The power’s either moving one way or the other, so it changes the direction of the field, and then, it makes it keep spinning faster and faster. It was really cool to build. I was using a lathe and a drill press building it. It actually working when we hooked it up was probably the greatest thing. I was like, ‘Wait, why is it doing that? It’s actually moving.’”
Constant Competitor
Those who spend time around McQueary quickly understand how competitive he is, and when something is achieved, be it in swimming or the classroom, they are not surprised by it.
Coach Laura Demaline has watched McQueary -- a school record-holder in the 200-yard butterfly event, co-holder of the 100-yard butterfly record and member of two record-setting relays -- raise the level of competition on the team.
“He has one of our top grade point averages on the team,” Demaline said. “He has a very rigorous courseload and does well in it, and then, doesn’t miss practice. He’s not one that we have to take attendance to see if he’s there. He’s there. He shows up every single day and manages his time outside of the pool so that doesn’t become an issue.
“He’s obviously competitive within the conference, one of our fastest swimmers ever to walk on campus. He’s going to elevate things in that way, but because of his work ethic, he is constantly pushing people to race in practice, and he’s bringing his A game every day.
“You don’t have to wonder if he’s working hard, and I think that’s something that has been such a great addition to our pool and pool deck, especially for younger swimmers to be able to look up to that.”
Goals to Pursue
By bringing his best to practice every day, McQueary went from a standout recruit to a conference champion and record holder in just two years. Admittedly, McQueary is “very goal oriented,” and is looking to add more accomplishments to his resume before the end of his junior season.
Next week, McQueary and the Yellow Jackets will take part in the 2024 OAC Swimming and Diving Championships at the Ocasek Natatorium at The University of Akron, and the junior standout has some lofty goals he would like to achieve.
“Win the 200 fly again,” McQueary said of his main goal. “I want to get my NCAA cut in the 200 fly. I need to. I want it bad. I wanted it really bad last year and only dropped a second in my 200, which I was still happy with, but it was a little bit of like, ‘I’ve been saying 1:49 all season, and I just went a 1:52.’ It would’ve been like a four-second drop had I done the 1:49, so I think I set my goals a little too high last year, but in the 100, definitely go an 0:49.
“I tied the record in it last year to the 100th of a second, so touching the wall, turning around and seeing that I went the exact record and the guy who has the record before me -- Greg Shaw -- I know him and I called him right before the 100, and I was like, ‘You have about 20 minutes left of being a BW record holder.’ I was just talking a bunch of stuff, and then, I tied it to the 100th, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ I texted him. I was like, ‘You live to have a record for another year. We can share it for a while.’”