Holland Christian senior Maria Heeres follows family legacy of school records
HOLLAND - When Maria Heeres steps onto the blocks, everything changes.
The Holland Christian senior goes from a cheerful, energetic teenager to a sprinter with tunnel vision, focused on getting her hand on the wall first.
"It is definitely a switch. You can be having fun, but at the end of the day, you have a job to do and you have to finish things off. You have to get in the zone, put your game face on and really finish," Heeres said.
The flip of a switch is not something always seen in the same way, but it is familiar for Holland Christian swimming. They saw Katherine Heeres and Jacob Heeres do the same thing.
Now, it is the youngest, Maria Heeres, flipping that switch and anchoring the biggest relays for the Maroons.
"It is a lot of fun anchoring a relay. I love finishing it off and hitting that wall and finishing strong," she said.
The three siblings have different personalities, but the same switch was flipped when they got on the blocks for Holland Christian, or at the college level with Katherine at Hillsdale and Jacob at Calvin. With Maria anchoring the school-record-breaking 200 medley relay all three siblings now sit on the school record board in at least one event.
Subscribe:Get full coverage of local sports with this special offer
"My sister is very determined and very loud. I am following her and turning into her a little bit. But I am definitely more energetic than Jacob. He is pretty mellow," Maria Heeres said. "It is definitely big shoes to fill with my brother and my sister. My sister got us all into swimming. It has been really fun to see all of us swim."
And swim extremely fast.
Maria Heeres has been one of the state's fastest for several years, but now has the senior mentality - and anchor mentality.
"She does it very, very well. She is a very focused swimmer. I can ask her to do any race, and it is always a game face.It is really awesome to watch her take over that anchor spot that Meghan (Bengelink) had because I know she will fight just as hard as Meghan did," Holland Christian coach Lisa Myrick said. "When she gets up on the block, she has that face. But when she is on the deck and with her teammates, she is very happy-go-lucky, a great kid to have around. But she is very determined in practice as well."
Maria Heeres is a blend of the physical makeup of her siblings as well. She is tall, but also has the muscles of a sprinter, a strength that translates to speed.
"It has come from lots and lots of years swimming. It is building on that and adding lifting weights to that in high school. You don't want to get too big, but as a sprinter that helps," she said.
Maria Heeres is hoping to be able to use that strength and speed to help the Maroons reach their goal of winning a conference championship and also finish in the top four at state for the second year in a row.
"I am really excited to see where the season goes. I definitely think we have an expectation for how we are supposed to perform," she said. "We hold ourselves to that standard and that helps us come back strong and build from where we were last year."
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Maria Heeres anchors some of Holland Christian's biggest swim relays
