Miata Henderson bound to throw up more strong performances for trojans at state swim meet this weekend

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Two high school state championships, two NCAA titles, an Olympic Games gold medal and 11 NBA championships. You think maybe late Celtics great Bill Russell cared about winning?
It meant so much to Russell that shared that before taking the court for every game he threw up.
Think maybe Chesterton High senior swimmer Miata Henderson, two-time defending 500-yard freestyle sectional champion and reigning 200 free sectional champ, cares about performing at her best?
“I thought I was going to have a terrible day,” Henderson said after having a great day at the Hobart sectional, winning Event No. 2, the 200 free in 1:53.18, winning Event No. 8, the 500 free in 5:06.37, and swimming the last leg of the winning 200 free relay, Event No. 9, with a 23.57 split, easily the fastest of anyone in the race.
When she explained why she thought she was going to have a “terrible day,” Henderson did so with the directness and upbeat energy that the most successful comedians bring to their jobs. And then the words that spilled out of her mouth accentuated her comedic presence.
“I puke at every single meet, and today I didn’t puke, so I was like that’s a sign that maybe I was going to do bad,” Henderson said, without even trying to be funny, but how can you hear those words and not laugh?
“It’s like my nervous tick,” she said. “The boys made me a special trash can and I bring it to the meets.”
For the second year in a row, Valparaiso’s Whitney Anderson, a long-distance star on land and in water, did her best to take Henderson down, only to settle for second place.
“I thought she was going to beat me at first,” Henderson said, again guessing wrong and swimming right. “She was right on top of me when we were first doing it, and then around Lap 11 or 13 I pulled away.”
Seeing Henderson able to follow her sectional efforts with swims in Indy after having last season’s state experience scratched by COVID-19 has all the Chesterton swimmers in an even better mood than tapering put them all in. Well, cutting back distances in practice has that impact on most anyway.
“I like when we do longer practices,” Henderson said. “I’m one of the people who gets sore when we taper.”
Henderson’s settled stomach was but one reason she said she didn’t think she was in for a good swim at the sectional meet.
“My back was hurting, so I went to the trainer. My hips weren’t aligned so they tried to pop it and it wouldn’t pop. So I got heating pads and then after practice I got ice and then I got stimulation,” Henderson said at the sectional. “And then today I had to go in before the meet and get stimulation and heat pads.”
Henderson more accurately predicted the team’s performance than her own.
“I think I knew we were going to win, but I didn’t think I was personally going to do well,” Henderson said.
The bigger the stage, it seems, the better she performs. She’s a seriously talented, committed swimmer and she also has a gift for cutting the tension for everyone around her.
“I think she’s very funny,” said junior Lux Mountford, who leads off the 200 relay that Henderson anchors. “She’s very adamant on her opinions, and I really love that about her. She really speaks her mind. She says what everyone else is thinking.”
Courage, another key trait for any successful comedian. Stage fright? Clearly, Henderson knows how to channel nerves into successful performances. Hecklers wouldn’t bother her because she would agree with them and then leave them laughing all night.
“Miata doesn’t care what anybody thinks,” Mountford said, then backed that up with three words. “The puke bucket.”