Dublin Coffman’s Brown excited to show versatility, love of swimming
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
By Jarrod Ulrey
julrey@cbussports.com
Dublin Coffman’s Emily Brown, a Tennessee commit and three-time defending state champion in both the 200 free and 500 free, hopes to add to her state championships this season. Photo: John Hulkenberg
Emily Brown doesn’t appreciate anyone that might try to pigeonhole her.
There’s been no one more dominant in Ohio in girls distance swimming the past three years than Brown, a Dublin Coffman senior who signed to compete for the prestigious Tennessee program earlier this winter.
In each of the past three seasons, Brown has won Division I state championships in both the 200-yard freestyle and the 500 free, setting respective state records in those events of 1 minute, 45.88 seconds and 4:51.17 last season.
Considering her a distance specialist, though, underestimates the multi-talented competitor’s abilities.
At the Junior National level, Brown has competed in events like the 50 free, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke, and 200 individual medley in addition to her distance events.
“It’s still all up in the air (what events I’ll compete in this postseason),” Brown said. “I honestly haven’t decided. I might do the same or I might do different. I do enjoy branching out into other events for our dual meets. My IM is coming along quite nicely. I like to see my potential.”
For the 2022-23 swimming season, Brown received a certificate after finishing with the most points of any girls swimmer in Ohio based on a point system developed by swimmeet.com that includes how fast a swimmer is in each event they participate in.
To maximize her point total, Brown plans to compete again in each individual event.
Dublin Coffman’s Emily Brown participates in swim practice Dec. 18 at the Dublin Community Recreation Center. Photo: John Hulkenberg
“I didn’t know about it last year, but when we had one or two dual meets left, someone called me and said, ‘Why isn’t Emily trying to get this (distinction)?’” coach Mark Birnbrich said. “She won that last year and has a goal of repeating. Emily has proven that she can compete in any events, and she’s expanding out into events like the 200 IM, the butterfly and backstroke to show what she can do.”
Brown, whose mother, Katy Brown, competed in swimming while living in Naperville, Illinois, won championships in multiple events while competing at the youth level in Dublin’s North-East-West (NEW).
She was an eighth-grader in 2020 when Coffman won its first state team championship when future collegians Ellie Andrews (Texas), Hannah Bailey (Hawaii), Kristyn Sabol (Kentucky) led the way.
Last winter, Brown led the Shamrocks to a third-place finish with 169 points behind Dublin Jerome (225) and Upper Arlington (215) as central Ohio took five of the top six spots.
“Tennessee is one of the top 10 schools in the country,” Birnbrich said. “I know when I went to Ohio State, I went in as a 50 and 100 (free) guy and never really swam it in the Big 10. She’s trying to show how versatile she is. In the recruiting process, you want to talk about how you’re more than just a 200-500 person.
“At the Junior Nationals (in early December), she got ninth (in the 200 IM) and she was a little distraught about not making the top eight initially.”
Dublin Coffman’s Emily Brown, a Tennessee commit, participates in swim practice Dec. 18 at the Dublin Community Recreation Center. Photo: John Hulkenberg
According to Birnbrich, that reaction is part of her having a “competitive edge” to her mentality.
Birnbrich has been among Brown’s coaches since she was about 12 years old and is familiar with how Brown got one of her nicknames – Taco – growing up.
“It’s actually a funny story,” Brown said. “When I was, I want to say 10, I was at a swim meet and I was super nervous behind the blocks and (one of) my (coaches) was trying to reassure me, give me confidence and make me smile. The day before, at practice, I could not stop talking about how much I wanted a taco. So before I climbed onto the block for my race, he started screaming, ‘Go Taco!’ I had a great race.”
Brown says she was “definitely not a distance swimmer” before her freshman year, but she’s seemed like a natural to her opponents in those events the last few years.
That was tested at last year’s state meet when she got a rip in her suit right before the finals began and had to switch into an older suit.
Moments later, she helped the 200 medley relay to a third-place finish.
“You definitely have to have good lung capacity and good training (to compete in distance),” said Brown, who also helped the 400 free relay finish runner-up last winter. “It takes a lot of training. The distance swimmers usually do more yardage, and we keep up our distance pace for long durations, which really helps our endurance during the race. From a mental standpoint, you have to be really tough and confident, thinking, ‘I can do this.’ I’ve done longer in practice.
“One of my old coaches used to say that what you do in practice is what you do at meets. In practice, we’d do long distance events and I’d think about how to pace it during a meet, so I’ve tried to do that every day in practice. In a meet, when it came to it, I wouldn’t have to think about it as much. One of the big sayings is get ahead and stay ahead. It’s a confidence thing.”