Kirkwood senior Max Marcus stood behind the starting blocks in his denim trench coat with his varsity letter ‘K’ sewn onto it and cleared his mind.
The Missouri state swimming champion in the 500-yard freestyle as a junior, Marcus had set a new goal prior to his senior season.
“Last year, it was all about ‘beat the guy next to me.’ This year, it was about ‘beat myself’ – try to beat my times from last year. That’s really what got me motivated to do it again,” Marcus said.
Marcus repeated as 500-yard freestyle champion and added a 200-yard freestyle state title, putting a bow on a tremendous high school swimming career.
The school record holder at Kirkwood High in both the 200-free and 500-free events, Marcus’ quest to beat his own time had an additional perk. His mark of 4:25.67 at the state meet eclipsed the time of Kirkwood swim and dive coach Matt Beasley, who won two state titles in the 500-free while swimming for Parkway South.
“I beat his time for the first time as a high school swimmer, so it was fun to usurp him a little bit and get ahead of him on the all-time leaderboard,” Marcus said. “He’s been an amazing mentor to me. He trained me to do it.”
While shorter distances are not necessarily in his sweet spot, he trained extensively to improve his performance in the 200-freestyle. He finished ninth as a sophomore, barely missing a spot in the championship race. Last season, he placed fourth.
This year, he won the 200-freestyle state title with a time of 1:39.63.
“I didn’t win that last year, so I had a lot to prove. There were two motivations there – the time, and to beat the guy next to me,” Marcus said. “It felt really good to win it this year.”
Marcus began swimming competitively at age 6, joined a club team at age 8, and cranked up the intensity in his training year after year.
“When I was young, I was not very good, and I feel like it’s been a pretty steady incline for me,” Marcus said. “Around 10 (years old) is when I started to get pretty good, and I’ve let my training take the way, and that’s taken me all the way to the top.”
That dedication and desire to improve has resonated throughout the Kirkwood program.
“He is one of, if not the hardest working athlete I have worked with in my 13 years as head coach,” Beasley said. “We really relied on him in so many ways this year. Not only with the points he scored, but in the example he set in practice and with his attitude and message he brought to his teammates.”
Those are not the only things Marcus brought to his teammates.
At a conference swim meet during his sophomore year, Marcus was cold while standing behind the blocks and put on the only pants he had with him, a pair of blue jeans.
It started a denim craze that became a fashion signature for the Pioneers.
“My friends all thought that it was really fun, and we joked about getting Kirkwood jeans for the state team,” Marcus said.
Before the state meet that season, Marcus bought 20 pairs of jeans at a thrift store for his teammates, and his mother Jen embroidered the word ‘WOOD’ on the back of each pair.
Last year, the Pioneers arrived at state with denim jackets that read, ‘KIRK.’
This year, the team sported denim newsboy caps with an embroidered ‘K’ on the back.
“The denim has been a nice tradition that my friends and I have enjoyed for the past three years. We really enjoyed standing out at state with our all-denim uniforms,” Marcus said.
The team aspect of high school swimming Marcus has enjoyed thoroughly. Despite the Kirkwood team not technically naming captains, Marcus and senior Josh Denckhoff became the equivalent of co-captains, organizing teammates and creating team-bonding activities.
“It’s been cool to become a leader this year,” Marcus said. “It just feels really good to be part of a team, and it really motivates you to work extra hard, especially on the relay events.”
Marcus also has his name etched in the school record books in the 200 and 400 relay events. He helped the senior-laden Pioneers earn a fourth-place finish at state last year and place fifth this year.
“We lost a pretty good senior class, and we weren’t sure how we were going to do throughout the season, but we had some younger guys who really stepped up, trained hard and got really fast,” Marcus said. “As a team, we did way better than we anticipated. I’m really proud of our guys for doing that.”
Marcus began his club season with the Clayton Shaw Park Tideriders shortly after the high school season ended and will compete at Winter Junior Nationals outside of Chicago in December.
In the 800-meter freestyle, he currently sits eight seconds off the time needed to qualify for the Olympic Trials, which will be held in June.
“Eight seconds sounds like a lot, but it’s not too much, about a second per 100 (meters). Training-wise, if I keep going hard, I think there’s a chance for me to qualify,” Marcus said.
After graduation, Marcus will attend Princeton University where he will continue his academic and swimming career.
“The real appeal for Princeton was to be at the top of the academic field and pretty high up there on the athletic field also. That combination was really what I wanted,” Marcus said.
Marcus is a member of the Math Club, Physics Club and Coding Club at Kirkwood High and takes trips to elementary schools to play math games with fourth and fifth graders. He also has an internship in the Washington University biomedical engineering department, helping to develop cognitive neuroscience experiments in the neurosurgery lab.
“I’ve helped design some of the paradigms they use to experiment. It’s been cool to work there, do some science and get some experience,” Marcus said.
And as for his experience as a swimmer and fashion trend-setter at Kirkwood High, Marcus is extremely grateful.
“I want to stress the importance of how fun it was to be a part of the team at Kirkwood. It’s been my home for the past four years – an amazing experience.”