Veronica Teeter

FREESTYLIN’: Senior Wyatt Davis works on his freestyle. Davis won a gold medal in the 400-meter mixed medley relay.

Senior Wyatt Davis

As a freshman entering high school, Wyatt Davis was an accomplished young swimmer, but his dream was to compete for a gold medal. Just this past fall, Davis accomplished that goal at one of the highest stages in junior swimming.

The Carmel High School senior swimmer won in style, coming back from fourth place to win a gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke at the Aug. 25 World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

“The 200 back has always been one of my favorite events, and being able to trust my training and my race strategy to be the first to touch the wall for Team USA was a very special moment for me,” Davis said.

Davis attributes his success to his “underdog mentality.”

“As long as you have a lane, you have a chance to win, or at least move up in places,” Davis said. “So to me, it didn’t really matter all that much what I was seeded. I just knew that if I had a lane, I had an opportunity to do something great.”

The win gave Davis six medals for the World Juniors, which stretched from Aug. 20 to 25.

“To be honest, I was not expecting to get a medal at all,” Davis said. “I was going into the meet hoping for a few new best times and to enjoy (Junior Worlds). Never would I have thought the week leading up to the meet that I would have walked away with six. I just learned to attack every race with the utmost confidence and to trust the process that got me there.”

Davis picked up a gold in the 400-meter mixed medley relay. He also earned a gold medal for being in the prelims for the 800-meter relay team. He earned silver in the 50 backstroke and 400 medley relay and a bronze in the 100 backstroke.

Senior Jake Mitchell

Swimmer and senior, Jake Mitchell was on the U.S.’s winning 800-meter relay team at the world junior championships in Budapest, Hungary; his performance set a world junior record. He gave the Americans the lead in the third leg. He also placed fourth in the 400 meter backstroke and seventh in the 800 backstroke.

Mitchell said cheering for Team USA was his favorite part of the experience.

“Surrounding myself with swimmers that work equally as hard, if not harder than me was easily one of the best parts of Junior Worlds,” Mitchell said. “To cheer for the United States was the most exciting experience I ever had.”

(Both Davis and Mitchell are committed to swim for the University of Michigan next fall).