THE FRONT ROW with BRUCE BOURQUIN June 17, 2016

Roughly two months after receiving her driver’s license and two more months before she begins her junior year attending Central Valley High in Spokane Valley, Sarah Nicholls is accomplishing something no Coeur d’Alene Area Swim Team female has ever done.

On June 27, she’s going to compete in the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, in the 100-meter breaststroke, in Omaha, Neb. She will swim in the time trials against 119 other swimmers that Monday, seven others in her heat, then that evening those with the fastest 16 times will compete in the semifinals. On June 28, the fastest eight will compete for two spots on the Olympic team in the event.

Nicholls is also the first female in the 30-year history of CAST to compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials, according to CAST coach Bob Wood. She’s the fourth member with CAST ties overall to do so, joining former Lake City and UC Santa Barbara swimmer Chris Wood, son of Bob Wood, in the 100 freestyle in 2000; Stanford swimmer Ben Lovell in 2012, and ex-Lake City and Stanford swimmer Mason Shaw in 2008. A fifth member, ex-Lake City and current University of South Carolina swimmer Bryce Kananowicz, went to the Canadian Olympic trials in 2012 and earlier this year.

“When I qualified, I didn’t necessarily know that,” Nicholls said. “When I knew, I thought that was really special.”

So what’s this 16-year-old from Liberty Lake doing in Coeur d’Alene at the Kroc Center during the past four years? Easy, just following her friends from Central Valley, other Spokane-area and members from Kootenai County at the age of 12.

“When I was looking at USA swim teams, I did some research on Coeur d’Alene and SAS (Spokane Area Swimming) clubs over there,” Nicholls said. “I had a couple of friends who were originally on my Liberty Lake (rec) team who were not on a USA swim team and so they joined CAST and I noticed, ‘Oh, my friends are coming here.’ And so I figured, why don’t I join them? So it was a matter of following my friends. One of the members who I knew went to Central Valley High School. Here there are a lot of people who go to Lake City and Coeur d’Alene, I went because there were people from Central Valley.”

Believe it or not, Spokane high schools do not have varsity swimming teams, and the closest one to Nicholls that has one in Washington is Cheney.

The brown-haired Nicholls recalls watching the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London on TV as a 12-year-old.

“Following the Olympics got me excited,” Nicholls said. “I was watching someone swim in the Olympics and I thought that was so cool. I was on the Liberty Lake team and everyone competing at such a high level insipired me to take the next step to a club team here.”

BACK ON March 19, in Federal Way, Wash., 23 miles south of Seattle, at the Western Speedo Senior Sectionals Championships, Nicholls won the 100 breaststroke event with a time of 1 minute, 11.9 seconds, which was .4 faster than the U.S. Olympic qualifying standard and the second-fastest time in the country for a 15-year-old (she turned 16 on March 25). In addition to qualifying her for the Olympic Trials, the time put her in the 101st spot out of 120 and 44th among female swimmers in the event ages 18 and under.

CAST coach David Dolphay has worked extensively with Nicholls.

“Her best time going in (to sectionals in Federal Way) was a 1:13,” Dolphay said. “That’s a substantial time drop. She had a great race and got it done, it was a big deal. She’s got an efficient stroke in cutting a path through the water, minimizing drag. She’s got a college-level stroke. She’s been working for this since September.”

“The coaches here (Dolphay and Wood) have been amazing,” Nicholls said. “They made me do things I personally never thought I could do and they’ve helped me so much.”

Wood has enjoyed watching her improve and become one of those rare swimmers who can compete at the Olympic level.

“She’s one of those people where the bigger the meet, the more she goes and it’s hard to find that,” Wood said. “She puts in a lot of extra work and gives 110 percent of effort.”

Nicholls likes the camaraderie of being around swimmers such as Nicole Rozier, who in the sectional meet in Federal Way, was two-tenths of a second away from qualifying for the Olympic Trials in the 200 individual medley. Rozier, a recent graduate of Coeur d’Alene High, has signed with LSU.

“I love being on this team,” Nicholls said. “My team is a lot like my family. They inspire me to keep going. Our senior squad has 18 kids on it who are the top swimmers, we’re super tight.”

Before Nicholls was 10, she competed in gymnastics, T-ball, volleyball and flag football. But nothing stoked her fire quite like swimming, where everyone tries to beat each other’s times.

“She didn’t start swimming until she was 10,” said Karen Nicholls, her mother. “She always had that competitive edge. Her mentality was always there. Her coach at Liberty Lake right away said, ‘Hey, you’re a good breaststroker. She swam all four strokes.”

Sarah, who is looking to go into engineering, has a father, Kevin Nicholls, who works as a senior project engineer at Providence Health and Services in Spokane. Karen’s a stay-at-home mom and Sarah has two younger sisters — Abby, 10, and Rachel, 7, who’s also a youth swimmer. Karen will make the trip to the Olympic Trials along with Sarah.

“For her to achieve that is incredible,” Karen said of her qualifying time. “It’ll be such an incredible experience for Sarah to be there. She’ll soak it all in. Her coaches said she has a real chance at the 2020 Olympics (when coincidentally, she’ll be 20).”

THE STRATEGY for ‘attacking’ the Olympic Trials is to actually aim for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, using this year as a sort of ‘practice’ meet for that. After all, it’s not like Nicholls is the absolute favorite, in a field that includes Olympians Jessica Hardy, who had the fastest time in the event at 1:05.18 back in 2013 and won the gold medal in the 400 medley relay at the 2012 Olympics. The qualifying times are from mid-2014 to this year.

Also in the field are Katie Meili (1:05.64, the No. 1 seed), Micah Lawrence (sixth in the 200 breaststroke in the 2012 Olympics) and Breeja Larson (1:06.16, sixth in the 100 breaststroke in the ’12 Games). Lilly King (1:05.73) is the No. 2 seed, and Molly Hannis (1:06.16) is third. The 16th seed has a time of 1:08.21.

“In order to finish second, she’d have to swim a 1:05,” Dolphay said. “That’s a difference of six seconds, which is a huge time drop. She’ll show up and compete, give it her best shot, and get the experience of swimming against the best in the country.”

So it’s not like a ton of pressure is on Nicholls. She’ll just enjoy the experience, soak it all in and just do her best.

“It’s incredibly hard to get into the top two,” Nicholls said. “I’m just looking to drop time. I’m looking toward 2020. It’s such an honor to swim against the fastest in the nation.”

So Nicholls will get a taste of what it really takes to become an Olympic swimmer. But she’s already worked so hard to get there, hoping this is the first opportunity out of at least a few.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25