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Photo by Eric Engman

Photo by Eric Engman

FAIRBANKS — As if swimming wasn’t already a tough enough sport, Anne Goering has an extra challenge: chlorine-induced asthma.

That inconvenience didn’t stop the West Valley High School captain from winning the 200-yard freestyle state championship a year ago. Now a senior who will graduate a semester early, she appears to be the favorite in that event again Nov. 6-7 in Anchorage and also has a decent shot at the 100 freestyle title.

Her hard training comes with a price, particularly at poorly ventilated pools.

“If we do excessive sprint sets, sometimes I go into coughing fits and then I have to take a break and I have to stick my head outside for five minutes or so before I can breathe normally again,” Goering said Wednesday before practice at the Patty Center Pool. “But it’s not painful. It’s just annoying. ... It gets frustrating a little bit to have to interrupt your training like that.”

Wolfpack coach Bryan Mitchell said Goering has an unmatched work ethic and refuses to use her asthma, which was diagnosed last year, as a crutch.

“Sometimes I think she’s going to puke out her heart,” Mitchell said by phone Tuesday.

Then, as his star swimmer warmed up with the rest of the team on Wednesday, he added: “She’ll come to the (finish) wall and just cough and cough and cough, but that’s the only way she knows how to practice is hard. She’s not going to hold back one bit and that’s what made her a state champion.”

Goering’s specialty is the 200 free, and her time of 1 minute, 55.27 seconds, which edged Jordyn Caldwell of Chugiak for the 2008 state championship, would even be a record for the Alaska Nanooks.

Goering fondly remembers that race, in part because of the mystery created by breathing to the side away from Caldwell for the last length.

“I was sprinting the last 50 (yards) and I did not know where she was the last 25,” Goering said. “So when I hit the wall I looked up and I had won by a tenth of a second and I was amazed.”

Goering, an honor student, amazes those around her by how she juggles a schedule that includes training three hours a day, practicing the violin and keeping up with schoolwork.

“I don’t have much of a social life, but that’s OK,” Goering said. “... You have to be able to manage your time really well to get all of it done.”

Mitchell said Goering’s maturity level is well beyond most kids her age.

“She’s a real testament to what an athlete can do if they’re motivated in the right way,” the seventh-year West Valley coach said. “It’s very impressive because high school students nowadays have a hard time getting to school on time and doing their homework, let along balancing that with practice and school and violin and taking classes well above her (school) year.”

Goering, whose mother Chun Hua is from Taiwan, wants to continue swimming in college but hasn’t yet made a decision where to go. She plans to study engineering but has ruled out attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where her father, Doug, is the dean of the engineering department.

Goering, who recently turned 18, will apply to stellar academic schools like Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh that have NCAA Division III swimming programs. She’s also considering Division I schools including the University of New Mexico. Goering will likely get a jump on her college career by taking a couple of classes at UAF next semester.

Goering appreciates swimming in part for the bond with teammates at West Valley and her club, the Midnight Sun Swim Team. But Goering also loves the individual aspect.

“When you’re swimming and you’re racing, it’s just you and the water,” she said, “and there’s nothing else, really.”

Contact staff writer Matias Saari at 459-7591.