Athlete of the Week: Sawyer set the pace for Sailors

One thing about Newport Harbor High senior Sawyer Farmer is that nobody needs to tell him the value of hard work.

There was a time last year, though, when Farmer actually worked too hard. In addition to swimming, he was in five Advanced Placement classes.

The hard work has paid off Farmer, who is bound for UC San Diego. He is one of 12 valedictorians at Newport Harbor, and has a four-year grade-point average of 4.6.

But only he knows how much effort was put in to achieve these things.

“There were some nights that I’d go to bed at 5 [a.m.] and get up at 6,” Farmer said. “There were some nights that I wouldn’t sleep. An everyday occurrence was four hours of sleep ... It comes to a point where you don’t get enough sleep and you go crazy. Last year, I don’t know, I went crazy.”

The lack of sleep took a toll on Farmer. Right before the swim season last year, he had to have two emergency surgeries, and he said his stressful lifestyle contributed. For a month, he didn’t swim.

“When I was little, I got my teeth shot out with a BB gun, and there was a pocket behind my tooth where they replaced it,” Farmer explained. “When I got a sinus infection, it put pressure there. That put pressure on my tooth and pressure on my sinuses.”

His face swelled up, necessitating the surgery. Holes were drilled in the top of his mouth so it would drain out. The next day, he had three root canals.

Farmer said he has scaled back the course load a bit as a senior. Though he’s still taking AP Calculus and International Baccalaureate classes in Biology and Business, he’s able to catch more shut eye now.

In the water for the Sailors, he certainly doesn’t look tired. He finished out the season lightning quick. As far as Newport Harbor swimming school records, Farmer now owns three of them.

The Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week set two of them last week at the CIF Southern Section Division 1 swim finals at Riverside City College. He broke the 100-yard freestyle school record previously owned by his good friend Dominik Folkner (Newport class of ‘15) in the preliminaries. In the finals, Farmer swam even faster, placing seventh in 45.80 seconds.

Farmer also broke the 50 free mark in the finals, where he placed third in 20.80 seconds. The old mark was a 20.90, held by Dan Furman since 2005. Both freestyle records are All-American consideration times.

The third record Farmer holds is in the 400 free relay, where Folkner, Hayden Hemmens, Jason Trzeciecki and Farmer swam a 3:04.88 last season at Sunset League finals. Farmer, Reece Hemmens, Jason Grew and Nick Halphide placed seventh in the event this year at CIF.

The sprint freestyle events are the specialties for Farmer, who swims club for SOCAL and is concluding his high school career this weekend in Fresno at the CIF State Swimming Championships. But during the season, Newport Coach Ross Sinclair made Farmer swim the 200 individual medley. That’s where the team needed him.

“It was kind of against his will,” said Sinclair, who has known Farmer for several years as he was Farmer’s instructor through Newport Beach Junior Lifeguards. “He would fight it every week when I told him he had to do the 200 IM.”

There was reason for this. Farmer, who has put on nearly 20 pounds of muscle since last year, wanted to better prepare for his CIF events of the 50 and 100 free. Still, he wasn’t bashful about letting Sinclair know what he thought.

“I’d complain a lot,” Farmer said. “[Sinclair] says all I do is complain, which is kind of true. It’s not the most exciting event. No one really wants to swim the 200 IM.”

Farmer likes the excitement of the sprint freestyle events. Heck, he likes the excitement of competing, period. He gives much of the credit for that to one of his club swimming coaches, Trevor Basil, who also coached at Harbor when Farmer was a sophomore.

Farmer also ran track earlier this season for the Sailors, in the 400 meters. He ran in the distance medley relay at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational meet. For him, Farmer said, it was just another thing to compete in.

“I kind of wish I got to run it one more time,” he said. “I wanted to see how close I could get to breaking 50 [seconds], but I wanted to rest for swimming.”

Swimming is where Sawyer, who has two younger sisters and one younger brother, has his future. It’s an athletic family. Scout, who will be a junior at Harbor, plays for the girls’ soccer team. Rhett, who will be a freshman at Harbor, plays lacrosse. And Rowdy will be a seventh-grader at Ensign Intermediate.

The four siblings all lived with their mother, Kim, until Sawyer moved out earlier this year to live with his dad, Craig. Sawyer said him and his mom have “had a bad year, relationship wise.” Still, he credits her for helping him with everything along the way.

“She has been unbelievably supportive and I couldn’t have accomplished what I have, athletically or academically, without her,” Sawyer Farmer said. “No one has done more for me than her, even with our problems and stuff, and I really appreciate it.”

Farmer said he has remained in close contact with Folkner. After Farmer broke Folkner’s record, they talked on the phone for about 45 minutes that night. Soon, Folkner will be home from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the two can train together again over the summer.

First, Farmer has three more swims in Fresno on Saturday. Of the events, two individual and one relay, only the 400 free relay is in the CIF State Meet championship final. The quartet qualified fifth.

Farmer will have fun swimming one last time with his buddies, all of whom will be back next year for Newport Harbor as Grew and Halphide are sophomores and Reece Hemmens is a junior.

But, no matter how they do, Farmer won’t have to lose any sleep over it. His high school swimming career will be over.

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Sawyer Farmer

Born: July 22, 1997

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5-foot-11

Weight: 185 pounds

Sport: Swimming

Year: Senior

Coach: Ross Sinclair

Favorite food: Sushi

Favorite movie: “The Town”

Favorite athletic moment: Swimming with then-seniors Hayden Hemmens, Dominik Folkner and Jason Trzeciecki at last year’s CIF State Swim Meet.

Week in review: Farmer finished third in the 50-yard freestyle (20.80 seconds) and seventh in the 100 freestyle (45.80) at the CIF Southern Section Division 1 swimming finals. Both times are school records.