For the past four years, Carrie Utterback has been an assistant girls swimming coach at Columbus East, where her daughter Jennifer has been one of the top athletes.
This year, Carrie’s son Daniel put a slight twist in the family’s outlook when he enrolled at Columbus North and joined the Bull Frogs swim team.
Tonight, Daniel will be on the opposite side of his sister and mother when North visits East for the annual crosstown dual meet. Action is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.
“It will be a little bittersweet because I’ve been with (Jennifer) for all four years, and it’s a season of lasts,” Carrie said. “It’s her last North-East meet; it’s her last sectional. But then for him, it’s a bunch of firsts. He’s starting, and she’s finishing.”
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The Utterbacks have been involved with swimming in Columbus since moving from Fishers in 2007, a year after Carrie’s husband John began working at Cummins.
Carrie, who won 11 letters in volleyball, basketball and track at Bremen High School and ran track for a year at Manchester University, has coached with Donner Swim Club and Franklin Regional Swim Team in the past. Daniel and Jennifer have been a part of those clubs.
John and Carrie’s oldest daughter Katie swam for North as a freshman and now is a sophomore at Indiana State.
Jennifer started taking swim lessons in Noblesville at age 4, then did Frog lessons with Donner after moving to Columbus. She tried gymnastics and clogging, but gave up both to concentrate on swimming.
As a freshman at East, Jennifer swim on the school record-setting 200-yard freestyle relay team. The past two years, she has been a part of school record-setting 200 medley relay team.
“I want to see if I can break one more record before I leave because every year since I’ve been at East, we’ve been able to break at least one relay record,” Jennifer said. “So hopefully, maybe the 200 freestyle relay record will go down this year, or the medley again.”
After mostly swimming the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle last year, Jennifer has done mostly the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke this season and has been the Olympians’ top performer.
“I was pretty surprised by how much improvement I’ve made throughout the high school season,” Jennifer said. “I’m just happy with my time improvements, and I’m happy to be on a team that’s very welcoming and supportive.”
Daniel started swimming with Donner at age 6 and has been a high-level club swimmer for several years.
“He’s been swimming with most of these (North) guys since he was a little age grouper,” Carrie said. “I think it’s a relationship thing. He knows these guys, and he has a relationship with (North coach) Logan (Schaefer).”
So far this season, Daniel has swam the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle, along with the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays. He won the 100 freestyle in the first couple meets of the season.
“It’s been pretty good,” Daniel said. “I’ve been competitive.”
Daniel also is looking forward to swimming one of his other top events, the 100 butterfly.
“I think his swimming talent is fantastic,” Schaefer said. “He has the ability to swim a lot of different things for our team and take his swimming to whatever level he desires. He’s getting a great taste of high school swimming and is really excited to improve throughout the year. I’ve known the Utterbacks ever since I’ve been here in Columbus. They’ve been very supportive of swimming and very supportive of their children reaching their goals. I feel very fortunate to be able to coach Daniel.”
Daniel has goals of winning sectional titles and making it to state in whichever two individual events he swims, along with the two relays. Jennifer also would like to earn her first trip to the state meet.
“That would be awesome,” Jennifer said. “I think we have a pretty good chance this year. We have a great group of girls, and my lanemates, we’ve been working really hard during workouts.”
Jennifer’s competitive swimming career likely will come to and end this winter. She wants to go to St. Mary’s, Purdue or Indiana University and major in accounting.
Daniel, on the other hand, hopes to swim at the collegiate level. His favorites at this point are Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Northwestern.
Since the girls sectional and state meets are held before the boys sectional and state meets, tonight will be the only time in which the Utterbacks are on opposite sides.
“I just think that the crosstown rivalry is nothing but good,” said Carrie, who works in the C4 office at North. “It’s good for the sport, it’s good for the community. It’s just going to be a lot of fun. I always look forward to the North-East meet.”
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What: Columbus North vs. Columbus East boys and girls swimming
When: 5:30 p.m. today
Where: Columbus East High School
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