Kearney swimmer hopes to leap from small Missouri HS team to 2024 Olympic Trials
For many high school athletes, finding their sport can be a grueling process. But for Kearney High School’s Whitaker Steward, swimming was a no-brainer.
Steward takes after his two older siblings through the sport, with both of them graduating from Kearney and his older brother briefly swimming at LSU. Together, the two had a great amount of influence on their little brother’s love for swimming.
“Everyone in our family just got into swimming,” Steward, 15, told The Star. “And when I was really little, they were teaching me how to dive off the block into our pool. So I think I just fell in love with the sport at a really young age, and I was always in the water from when I was very little.”
In turn, Steward now finds himself among some of the top youth swimmers in the country selected to participate in USA Swimming’s Select Camp at the organization’s Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs. After that, he’ll be dreaming even bigger — with an eye on the 2024 Olympic Trials.
“He did all the sports. We let him play baseball, basketball; he’s done it all,” his mother, Laura Steward said. “But he was really gifted at swimming.”
Per USA Swimming’s website, the Select Camp features 52 athletes in total. Forty-two of those athletes, including Steward, were selected for being in the top three of an individual competition. Steward’s placement came in the 1500 meters.
Prior to his selection to the camp, Steward had already made waves with the Kearney swim team, taking home a state championship in the 500 yard freestyle as a freshman in 2022. He became the first freshman in MSHSAA history to place first in that event.
Kearney’s swim team is home to just nine boys, coached by Trevor Woehrman. Though a small community, Steward feels as though there’s much more to it.
“I think that kind of makes us more of a family together,” Steward said. “After all of our test sets or hard practices, we’ll do a little dinner. Or ... we’ll do what’s called a pasta dinner because swimmers like to carb load before big meets, so we’ll do a little outing together. It really makes it not seem like a small school at all.”
Outside of his time with Kearney, Steward also is a member of the Tsunami Swim Team in Kansas City, led by coach Tom Kleiboeker.
“I think Whitaker takes pride in realizing the path of most resistance (and the courage to take it) is the one that creates the greatest long-term success,” Kleiboeker said. “We believe it’s one of the greatest virtues and one of the quickest paths to character. He always looks to do the most at the highest quality and wants to make sure he isn’t missing anything at any stage of his development.”
In his time with Tsunami, Steward connected with current Texas Longhorn Alec Enyeart, who Steward has modeled his stroke after. Enyeart, a member of the 2022 USA Swimming Junior National Team and 2022-23 USA Swimming National Team, is a qualifier for the 2024 Olympic Trials after qualifying in 2021.
“I just kind of mimicked him, like I would see his stroke in the water and I would just try to match everything he did,” Steward said. “I’d get in the same lane as him, swim with him, and that just helped me because everyone always talks about the super fast people or the super elite people, but it’s totally different to be in the water or the same practice alongside them.”
Along with Enyeart, Steward attributes his growth as a swimmer to his training-group members at Tsunami: Ellis Crisci and Sam Hennenfent. He also credited Kleiboeker’s leadership.
“I was just kind of a swimmer doing OK, doing good times ... and then I went to Tsunami and I swam for Tom,” Steward said. “He just kind of took me to that next level in the elite program, the group that I’m in at Tsunami.”
Between school and three daily practices as a member of the Tsunami and Kearney swim teams, Steward has still found time for a life outside of swimming, even if his day-to-day routine begins at 4:30 every morning. Steward is a member of Kearney’s student council and the school’s news network, while also taking an interest in medicine, history and nature.
“There are some elite level programs, and he’s a really good student,” Laura Steward said. “So what he’d like to do is keep getting faster and keep his grades up so he has good choices.”
But of course, swimming remains the priority for Steward, as he’s currently a top-10 class of 2026 swim recruit.
“Whitaker is the type of kid to put his head down, do the work and take whatever challenges we throw at him in stride,” Woehrman said. “He also will swim anywhere, at any time. Even when he’s on vacation during the offseason, he will find a pool to work out at, even if it’s an hour away. That kind of drive and dedication is why he’s currently a top-10 recruit in the country.”
Laura Steward has been down this path before. And as her youngest son continues to rack up high-level swimming opportunities, she’s taking it all in as a proud mom.
“It’s a lot less stressful this time around because I know swimming isn’t the end of their life; it’s not the end-all, be-all,” Laura Steward said. “He’s such a great kid, and he’s such a joy to watch. He’s the sweetest thing ever. I mean, he has a lot of fire, but it’s buried behind a huge smile. ... I love it, my husband loves it. ... It’s been a lot of fun.”
Steward will head to Colorado Springs from Oct. 12-15, and afterward will set his sights on qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
