PROVO — For many high school swimmers, placing at the state meet would be a thrill. But when you’re Kyler Hodgson, placing isn’t exactly what you go to a swim meet for. The Bountiful High junior placed second in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:02.2 and 4th in the 100m butterfly in a time of 55.2.

“I wanted to have the meet of my life and I didn’t,” Hodgson said. “My times were way off and things didn’t go the way I’d hoped for.”

After picking up the second, Hodgson ran into one of those things that were out of his control when he dove into the water to start the butterfly. As he was swimming he felt light-headed and still was able to come home with the 4th place. When the race was over, the reason for his inability to swim to his standard became obvious as he was suffering from a serious nose bleed.

“It just bled and bled,” Hodgson said. “My nose gets dry from swimming and every now and then it bleeds like this. This was a bad time for this to happen.”

The good news for Hodgson is that he has another full year of high school swimming to go. He believes this experience will only fuel his desire to succeed.

“I am proud of accomplishing what I have this year and what happened today will only keep me working harder for next year.”

“I know I can swim a lot faster and I will in the future.”

sschulte@davisclipper.com