It’s no wonder Hamilton West aquamen Connor Mackersie and Colin McCormick are so good. They come from Mercer County swimming royalty.
McCormick is the grandson of legendary Notre Dame head coach Henry DeSandre.
“He has had a big impact on my swimming career,” the senior said. “He has worked with me in the off-seasons, he has helped me with tweaking little things that are so small you don’t even think about it. But the small differences in the 50 free that he helped me fix helped me drop half seconds, which is huge in that race.”
Mackersie is the nephew of Mary Charbonneau; the cousin of Mary’s daughter Jordan Roland; and the sister of Kylie Mackersie. All three are former Hornet standouts who landed on the school’s record board.
“We used to go to a campground in Pennsylvania, there was a swim team there called Tiger Sharks, and my whole entire family used to swim there during the summer,” the junior recalled. “That’s what kick-started me into swimming. (Kylie and Jordan) were big factors and motivated me to do it for high school.”
This is Mackersie’s first season with the Hornets after stints with Robert Wood Johnson and Hamilton Aquatics. After trying wrestling at West, he has made an immediate impact on the medley relay and both free relays, and has also been stellar in individual events.
Through the Hornets 3-8 start, Connor had five firsts, three seconds and two thirds in the 100 back and four firsts, two seconds and three thirds in the 100 free.
McCormick also spent a few years in HAC, and is in his fourth season with Hamilton. Last year he finished 10th in the Mercer County meet in the 50 freestyle and is hoping for higher this year. Through Jan. 22, he had eight firsts, two seconds and one third in the 50, and three firsts, five seconds and a third in the breaststroke.
“They’re definitely the leaders on our team,” coach Jon Iorio said. “I can count on them to do any race we need them to. They show up every day. Colin’s really been a leader and honestly they’ve merged together really well to lead the team here.”
Their flexibility is a benefit for the coach as he does not need to pit them against each other in any event, allowing Iorio to max them out in scoring.
“It’s good to not have the strongest guys all do the same thing,” he said. “It helps me spread them out, and get more points for the meets. And in the relays they just kill it together.”
And they have been killing along with seniors Michael Killian and Iker Vera. The foursome have combined for six firsts, two seconds and two thirds in the medley relay, and Iorio mixes it up with them for the 200 and 400 relays.
Aside from swimming, their value comes in leadership. An example came in the Hopewell meet, when promising freshman Jackson Balog went from the 200 B relay team to swim anchor for the A team when McCormick was hurt. Rather than bemoan a 9th-grader crashing their party, the upperclassmen filled Balog with encouragement prior to the race.
“Jackson performed great and he was confident enough because of them and felt like he was ready because of them,” Iorio said. “They’re not like, ‘Oh you’re not a senior you can’t be in our relay.’ They’ll take a young kid on and that only inspires the kids below them to get better.”
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When it comes to Mackersie and McCormick, they do it in opposite ways.
“They’re both different and they bring different types of leadership,” Iorio said. “Colin has no problem speaking out, he’s always there at the end. For the (pre-meet) speech, he’s always there saying what chant we’re gonna do, and I expect Connor to do that next year. It’s Connor’s first year, he took a little time to settle in. But now he’s finding his feet with the team.”
In his first season of high school swimming after several years with club competition, Mackersie is finding it enjoyable.
“It’s a lot better,” he said. “I have all my teammates here. We all socialize during swim meets. In practice we push each other non-stop to make ourselves even better than we were the day before. It’s a lot better compared to club, where it’s nothing but individual and you’re trying to improve your time. It’s been a lot of fun meeting a bunch of people, making a lot of new friends.”
That being said, Connor realizes that club still serves a valuable purpose in making swimmers better. It may not have the same atmosphere but a participant will hone their skills, which is why Mackersie was happy to find McCormick on the Hornets when he arrived.
“It’s good to know there’s another club swimmer,” he said. “If I can’t do my part in the relay and I end up losing (my leg) I can always depend on him because he’s really fast and it helps a lot being able to depend on someone who grew up in swimming.”
Conversely, McCormick was happy to see Mackersie join the squad.
“That felt good,” he said. “I was a little worried going into this year not having my relay swimmers that graduated last year. We lost two good swimmers to both of our relays. With Connor coming in I knew we had a good backstroker.”
Despite never being able to practice in the West pool or have a true home meet in his career – Hamilton has competed at Steinert due to issues with its pool – McCormick has thoroughly enjoyed his time with the Hornets.
“Our freshman year was during covid so we lacked the competition aspect for a lot of our newcomers due to not having any in-person meets (they were all virtual),” McCormick said. “But we had a great time, I always had fun during practices and meets. The competition was there with our teammates and you’re pushing yourself to beat the person next to you. We had a really good swimmer, John Murray, he was fun to swim next to.”
As for his senior season, Colin is fairly happy with how things are playing out after suffering “a few mishaps at the beginning of the year.”
“I’ve been a little fluctuant with my times but I try to work hard in practice and out of practice doing more than I was before,” he said. “I’m trying to work on little things, shooting for big goals, trying to strive high to drive it home for the last couple weeks of my swimming career.”
Along with the 50 free, McCormick has high hopes for the medley relay team in the counties, as does Iorio and Mackersie. Connor is looking for a high finish in the 100 free and wants to break 55 seconds in that event. He hopes to qualify for states as a senior and will spend a few months back with HAC in order to prepare for his final high school season.
Iorio is just appreciative to have them on the team together for one year.
“They’re just very competitive,” the coach said. “Even when they’re racing each other in practice they always want to be better than the person next to them. Even though it is a team sport, swimming is very individual. That drive, that hunger to be the fastest will only make them better in the end.”
Not to mention the relatives who they learned the sport from.
Hamilton High West swimmers Connor Mackersie and Colin McCormick. (Photo by Rich Fisher.),
