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Taylor hopes to reach plateau By Greg Stiles ASHLAND � Curtis Taylor admits he�s still driven, just in a different direction. The former Ashland High and Kansas University swim star once churned 10 miles or more through the water every day in pursuit of swimming excellence. The 29-year-old Intel employee pushes himself to achieve. "My motivation was to be the best swimmer I could be," Taylor says. "I have that internal drive to succeed. That was more important to me than getting a scholarship. I was always setting goals to get to the next level." It remains that way in the business world. "I wanted to move up the rankings," Taylor says. "I didn�t want to be 10th, I wanted to be fifth. I didn�t want to be fifth, I wanted to be first. Work is stepping stones. Everything in life is the same. You reach one plateau, and you always know what the next one is." Taylor is back home in the Rogue Valley this weekend to participate in the state masters swimming championships at the Southern Oregon University�s pool. The long distance swimmers had their turn Friday, the rest of the competitors dive in at 9 a.m. today and Sunday. The plateaus are a little different for masters swimmers. "It�s kind of funny, but I think masters swimmers take it more seriously than they did as kids," Taylor says. "It�s kind of backwards from age-group swimming. When you�re a kid, you want to be the oldest in your group. In masters, you always want to be the youngest." Taylor set the standard back in 1990 by which Southern Oregon Conference sprinters measure themselves when he turned in a 21.34-second effort in the district meet. He went on to win both the state 50 and 100 freestyle titles. His high school 50 was 21.09. His best at Kansas was 20.32. He took more than two years off from swimming after leaving Lawrence, Kan. He ran to stay in shape but decided that wasn�t keeping the weight off. The time he spends in the pool now pales in comparison to his Jayhawk days. Instead of four hours in the pool and another 60 minutes in the weight room every day, he swims an hour five times a week and pumps iron an hour on two days. The net result within the past year is a best of 21.52 in the 50 during a masters meet at Tualatin Hills Recreation Center. "My stroke technique has changed," Taylor says. "Assuming you can get back into the same level of shape, you can swim smarter. But I also realize that other things are more important at 29. I have a wife and a baby. Those other things are more important now. The pressures are different." Nonetheless, his competitive nature pushes him to excel. He swims at Portland�s Columbia-Willamette YMCA with a mixture of veteran competitors, older novices and triathletes. "It makes for good dynamics in practice," Taylor says. "Triathletes have a whole different purpose. They don�t care about walls or events. They just have a mile swim to prepare for." One of the things Taylor pondered during his days at Kansas was why swim sprinters logged so much more mileage than track sprinters. "I asked the track guys and they said the farthest they ever went in practice was 200 meters," Taylor says. "Swim sprinters were putting in 10-15,000 meters a day. It made no sense. I�ve come to conclusion that humans weren�t made to swim and you just have to make sacrifices if you want to swim at a higher level." Another thing Taylor doesn�t understand is why Kansas recently announced it was dropping its men�s swimming and tennis programs. "There were 75 supporters demonstrating at the Big-12 basketball tournament at Kansas City," he says. "They have a huge 60,000-seat football stadium they can�t fill because the team is bad. They focus way to much on ways to enhance basketball revenues and not enough on football. "That�s where the money comes to pay for the non-revenue sports." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4483, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.