All-Area Boys’ Swimmer of the Year: Julian makes one last push for greatness

For the athlete who’s done just about everything, there seemed little left to accomplish, on the surface at least, for Glendale High’s Trenton Julian before the start of his senior season.

The once-in-a-generation Nitros’ swimming talent is part of one league relay record team and owns six individual school records along with three Pacific League top marks, six Pacific League championships, eight All-American finishes and four CIF Southern Section Championships.

The Glendale resident also has a scholarship awaiting him at prestigious University of California at Berkeley and will be headed there in August.

Only one thing is missing, something any 18 year old could take for granted.

For nearly a year, Julian has been chasing one particular person: himself.

The youngster injured his shoulder during his run up to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Ever since, the term “100%” seemed 100 miles away.

“Even now, I’m not up to where I was a year ago,” Julian said on a late May afternoon at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena. “I’ve had to continue to heal and get stronger. That’s the goal.”

Despite a couple of nagging injuries, Julian still turned in a stellar season that included a pair of league championships and a CIF Southern Section Division II title in the 200-yard individual medley.

For those efforts and more, Julian was named the All-Area Boys’ Swimmer of the Year for a third straight season, as was voted on by the sportswriters of the Glendale News-Press, Burbank Leader and La Cañada Valley Sun.

“Maybe the weirdest thing about this season is that this is it,” Julian said. “When I think of Glendale and Rose Bowl, I’ve been with a lot of teammates since I was in fourth grade, fifth grade and now we’re going our own separate ways. Going into this year, I just wanted to have one more strong year.”

An ultimately painful, but successful 2017 campaign began at the conclusion of the 2016 season.

Julian captured two Division II Championships and topped that accomplishment by earning qualification to the U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials in Omaha, Neb. from June 26 to July 3. The meet represented the final leg before the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“It was a very different experience because here you are watching and reading about the trials and to have someone like Trenton represent the city and this program was so rewarding,” Glendale swim coach Carol Driffill said. “To say I played a small part in his life, it means the world to me.”

The youngster advanced to the trials in the 100-meter and 200 butterfly, but was unable to do both.

Julian aggravated a shoulder injury the week before trials and only competed June 28 in the 200 butterfly, where he gritted out a 71st-place time of 2 minutes, 4.16 seconds.

Somewhat disappointed with his results, Julian made a fateful decision to continue training instead of resting.

Six months later, with the health of his shoulder still in question, Julian did something drastic.

“The pain was still bothering me because I trained with it during the summer,” Julian said. “After that, I got it worked out and over January and February, I rested for six weeks.”

The break came at a time when Julian was dealing with more than just shoulder issues.

“During those six weeks, I actually had an ankle injury, too,” Julian said. “I wasn’t able to train at all. I was forced to stop and it was kind of hard to stay away. I tried to just kind of distract myself so I wouldn’t go a little too crazy.”

Behind in training and fitness, Julian was in a new type of race as he tried to catch up with last year’s pace.

In 2016, Julian set the Pacific League record in winning the 200-yard individual medley championship in 1:49.80, while he also set a new personal-best time of 4:30.82 in the 500 freestyle. He also swam the second leg of the second-place 200 medley relay squad (1:40.67) and the anchor of the fourth-place 400 relay team (3:24.83).

On May 3 at Burbank High, Julian battled through his shoulder injury to win the Pacific League 100 butterfly in 49.56, which set a league record.

Julian followed that victory with another triumph in the 200 freestyle in 1:40.48, while helping qualify the 200 medley relay squad (1:40.97) of himself, Anthony Ovespyan, Kierin Ferris and Liam Graham to the CIF Southern Section Division II preliminaries on May 12 at Riverside City College.

At the prelims, Julian earned the top seed in Division II in the 200 IM (1:50.80), while he was No. 3 in the 100 butterfly (49.61).

As for the relay, the Nitros’ run ended that day as the squad finished 24th in a time of 1:41.10.

“The goal was to try to drop the time so it would be a school record and we just missed it,” Graham said. “I know Trenton was disappointed we didn’t break the record, but I wasn’t that upset.

“I just finished the final race having swam with Trenton Julian. I felt pretty privileged and it was a huge honor. The guy pushed me to be a better swimmer and I’ll always be grateful for that.”

In what turned out to be his final high school event, Julian shined again on May 13 at the Division II Championships.

The Rose Bowl Aquatics swimmer captured the 200 IM in an All-American time of 1:47.35 and finished second in the 100 butterfly with a mark of 48.13.

His title in the 200 IM extended a bit of history for Julian, who won at least one CIF Championship over the last three seasons.

“Overall, I was pretty happy because I was able to swim,” Julian said. “A little over a month ago, I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to swim at the meet. So, coming off that I was pretty happy. Of course, I still would have loved to have won the 100 fly, but it was still a good race.”

Prior to Julian’s arrival at Glendale, the boys’ program owned four titles won by Mark Chatfield (two in 1971), Booth Harley (1960) and Robert Sanchis (1954). Julian’s four titles add an entire wing of championships to the Glendale trophy case.

“Honestly, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to coach someone with that talent, but he’s more than just talent,” Driffill said. “He’s a nice young man, who’s humble. He was a pleasure to work with and he always showed everyone respect. More than his winning, I’ll think we’ll miss the man he’s become.”

For Julian, the path ahead begins now.

“I’ve accomplished a lot, but I know I can get better,” he said. “That’s all I’m trying to do, just be the best version of me. My experience here at Glendale and at Rose Bowl, those will always be special and they’ll always motivate me.”