High school swimming: Mtn. Crest's Herzog has come a long way

When Mountain Crest senior Jay Herzog came into in the Mustangs’ swimming program as a freshman, he literally couldn’t swim.
“Four years ago at tryouts, literally, we thought he was drowning,” said Mountain Crest coach Yolanda Bates.
My, how far the senior has since come.
Herzog has improved and improved over the past four seasons, and now he can say something that only a handful of the thousands of Utah prep swimmers who have participated in the sport can say – he’s a state record-holder.
Along with superstar Jake Taylor and stars Timmy Bates and Tyler Keller, Herzog was part of Mountain Crest’s recording-breaking 200 medley relay team at the start of the 4A state championships on Friday inside the Richards Building at BYU.
Taylor went :23.09 in the backstroke portion of the event to make it all possible, but his teammates behind him all went fast to break a 12-year state record.
Of those three teammates, Herzog’s role was certainly the most improbable, and coach Bates couldn’t have been happier for him afterward.
“Four years ago he couldn’t swim, and now he’s a state record-holder,” she said.
Bates agonized over whether to put her A team in the medley relay or concentrate on the 200 free and 400 free relays, but she ultimately decided to go for it – and the gamble worked, at least in terms of breaking a record.
“The reason for swimming the 200 medley relay was to get a state record,” said Bates. “That record is 12 years old, and even if it only lasts a week because of Brighton, I thought, ‘Your name is in the record books and that’s a great thing to do.’”