Title tales: Three-time swim champ was a natural

Yellow Springs’ Brunsman says he fell for the sport at an early age; looks back fondly on success.

Contributed photo Matt Brunsman (left) won three state swimming championships for Yellow Springs in 1989 and 1990.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer Updated 10:11 PM Wednesday, July 21, 2010

YELLOW SPRINGS — From his first race at age 9, Matt Brunsman found himself hooked on swimming.

“I just barely won,” the 1990 Yellow Springs High School graduate said. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I like this thing.’ ”

Today, Brunsman owns two trash bags full of medals from his career at Yellow Springs and the University of Tennessee. Three of them are for state championships he won in 1989 and 1990.

At a school overflowing with state champions in track and field, Brunsman is the only state champion in swimming.

Brunsman won his first state championship as a junior in 1989, taking the 200-yard individual medley in 1 minute, 53.47 seconds. He considers it one of his greatest races because he hadn’t tapered for the state meet. He was more focused on the high school national meet that year.

A year later, Brunsman went all out at state in pursuit of state records. He just missed on a record in the 200 IM (1:49.47), but did win again. He also won the 100 breast stroke (56.29). Brunsman is even more proud of the fact that he was named an All-American his senior year.

Like all the state champion swimmers from the area, including Catholic Central’s Maggie West Epps, who was a good friend of Brunsman in high school, hard work made Brunsman a champion. He swam with the Dayton Raiders before and after school.

“I remember one girl who hated the 4 a.m. practices,” Brunsman said. “I would snap her with the towel. Once I woke up, I was awake. The hardest part of the whole day was trying to study after the two workouts. About 8 o’clock, you’re just about to sit down for homework, but you’re going to be asleep by 9:30. High school was harder than college because your day was just so dominated by swimming. In college, at least you had a couple of gaps.”

Brunsman was a Southeastern Conference champion at Tennessee. He still ranks in the school’s top 10 in the 100 and 200 breast stroke.

Today, Brunsman lives in Charlotte, N.C., and is a usability engineer for Wells Fargo Bank. He and his wife, Kelly, a Tipp City native, have a 1-year-old son, Zane.

Brunsman stays active by competing once a year with some friends in a mountain biking/cross country running relay. He isn’t swimming competitively right now, but in recent years he competed at the master’s level in open-water events.

Twenty years later, the memories of his swimming career remain special.

“I got better every year,” Brunsman said. “All the way through high school, I hit every goal I wanted to achieve.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351

or djablonski@coxohio.com.

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