Darden meets two idols, gets upper hand on dad for once

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 19, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

CHARLOTTE -- Stepping onto the starting blocks and seeing one Olympian out of the corner of your eye can be intimidating.

To see it twice?

Zach Darden experienced just that during the Senior Zone Sectional meet contested at the Mecklenburg Aquatic Center this past weekend. The Wayne School of Engineering junior met -- and swam -- against his idols, Olympians Ryan Lochte and Cullen Jones.

"It was intimidating," Darden said.

And undoubtedly a memorable four days, too.

Not only did Darden compete against Lochte and Jones in four events, he broke one of his dad's times in the pool and helped his Eastern Carolina Aquatic teammates set a club relay record.

Darden's incredible finish to his short-course season started during the preliminary rounds. He set personal-best times in the 200-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly, and felt confident he could do better in the evening portion of the meet.

Lochte, as expected, dominated the 100 fly.

The 17-year-old Darden started strong off the blocks, too, and churned through the water at a good pace. Once he completed his final turn, he gathered up his remaining energy and raced toward the wall.

"My main goal was to break 51 (seconds)," Darden said.

He did. The time of 50.43 seconds glowed on the scoreboard.

Darden searched for his dad, Chuck, in the standing-room-only crowd. He couldn't find his long-time mentor, a former three-time state champion who is enshrined in the Goldsboro High swimming record books.

"I was so estactic," Darden said.

Jones awaited Darden and his ECA teammates in the 400 free relay. ECA competed without its top freestyle swimmer, Philip Perdue, who hadn't practiced due to the flu and didn't attend the meet.

ECA accepted the challenge and turned in a club-record, second-place time of 3 minutes, 4.09 seconds. The foursome of Darden, Ryan Eagle, JT Casey and Dalton Shaw lost a narrow decision to Jones' squad.

"We all went personal-best times and got it," Darden said. "That was a big deal. The whole meet, in fact, was crazy fast. My coach (x) said I had been a big contributor to the team and no matter what happened this weekend, just be happy with my season.

"The personal-best times were icing on the cake. I enjoyed seeing a lot of faster swimmers ... best swimmers in the nation and world."

But which was better -- breaking dad's record or competing against two of the world's elite athletes?

Darden grew silent.

"I got the chance to talk to Lochte and ask him a few questions," Darden said. "It helped give me some perspective going into the summer, which is almost like an offseason. I really want to work hard. I've got some big goals for next year."