Lone WCS swimmer sam conrad swarms to stunning success
Wesleyan Christian School’s Sam Conrad swims in an earlier season meet. Conrad won two gold medals at the Class 5A state championships. Conrad, who graduates in May, is headed to the Marine Corps. Conrad also swims for the Bartlesville Splash Club.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
March 6, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
“I am only one, but am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
— Edward Everett Hale
A Wesleyan Christian School swimmer understands exactly what Mr. Hale meant.
With won exception — Sam Conrad did it all for the one-man Mustang swim team.
Did it all as in record 100 percent in gold medals — two for two in 2023 and 2024. And two-for-two in 2025.
Now the odyssey is done. After being the lone flag bearer this past season for Wesleyan Christian School, Conrad is set within a few weeks after his high school graduation to march off to the Marine Corps.
Wesleyan Christian School’s Sam Conrad won two gold medals at the Class 5A state championships. Conrad, who graduates in May, is headed to the Marine Corps. He also swims for the Bartlesville Splash Club.
PHOTO PROVIDED
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But the impact of what Conrad achieved — even with no Mustang teammates around him — should serve as an inspiration for generations of local swimmers yet to dip their toes in competition.
Conrad spent the last few years sculpting his body, sharpening his skills and strengthening his body to prepare for the rigors a champion must endure.
“I think he really focused … on just getting stronger,” said his mom and WCS swim coach/sponsor Kimberly Conrad. “He spent more time in the weight room, started eating better and doing the stuff athletes need to do. … It paid off in really good ways.”
Like, as mentioned, dominating the state meet — and most regular season competitions — in his two individual events.
During the 2025 Class 5A state meet in February, Conrad burst to the gold medal in the boys 200m individual medley (1:59.95) and in the boys 100m butterfly (:51.16). In the latter event he missed setting a new state record by about a half-second.
In 2024, Conrad won the boys’ state titles in the 100 breaststroke (:59.68) and the 200 individual medley (1:55.94).
Conrad is eschewing a chance to swim in college in order to become one of Uncle Sam’s Finest.
“A lot of people did ask, ‘Why don’t you go to college?’” Conrad said. “I would say this last year in making my decision it put a lot of strains on a lot of relationships in having to choose what a lot of people wanted for me and what I wanted for myself.”
Conrad looks forward to the hands-on training (working with jets) the Marines will offer him.
“They’ll pay me to learn skills,” he said, adding he could later in life use military benefits to attend college.
Whatever roles determination, attention to detail, a grueling work ethic and mental/physical toughness play in developing a good Marine, Conrad brings to the table from his swimming pursuits.
“He has been a Splash Club swimmer forever,” Kimberly said, referring to the nationally-renowned Bartlesville-based competitive swim club. “I really think Sam has been one of the hardest workers in the pool. The most impressive thing to me is that he’s worked hard.”
Wesleyan Christian School’s Sam Conrad swims in an earlier season meet. Conrad won two gold medals at the Class 5A state championships. Conrad, who graduates in May is headed to the Marine Corps. He also swims for the Bartlesville Splash Club.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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Conrad has trained regularly with the Splash Club and the Bartlesville High School swim team.
Some might consider him a de facto member of the Bartlesville team — in fact Kimberly credits Splash Club/Bartlesville head coach Chad Englehart and Englehart’s staff as Conrad’s actual coaches.
“Chad and the Bartlesville swimmers have been so generous,” Kimberly added.
The statement Conrad was a one-man team is a bit misleading.
At all the meets, the Bartlesville athletes cheered on Conrad at meets as fully and excitedly as if we were one of them.
Conrad considers Bartlesville High swimmers his friends both in and outside the pool.
But Kimberly said she and her husband supported Conrad’s decision to remain in school at Wesleyan Christian even though other former WCS swimmers transferred to Bartlesville.
Conrad zeroed in on more than winning his senior season.
“For the most part I put emphasis on having fun and enjoying the people I met there, and just seeing how fast I could do on my times,” he explained.
Conrad displayed his blazing speed and unconquerable mindset during the 2025 state meet.
In Monday’s qualifying round in the 100m butterfly, he surged to a time of :51.71 — almost 3 seconds faster than his seed time! In terms of swimming, that's an incredible leap of progress.
The next — in Tuesday’s final — he improved by another half-second to touch the wall in :51.16 — just an eyelash away from breaking the state record (:50.64).
What was even more amazing was the fact Conrad chose the butterfly at all.
After all, he was the defending state champion in the 100m breaststroke.
But Conrad is not one to choose the easy path.
“This year he kind of surprised us in swimming the butterfly,” Kimberly said. “He’s been a breaststroker for years. … He kind of switched up his main stroke.”
“For the past few years I liked doing the breaststroke but I was seeing little progress,” Conrad explained.
As a beginning swimmer years before he had specialized in the butterfly and decided to return to it for his senior season.
Perhaps if one doesn’t take a promising chance after careful calculation, life might lack the thrill of hard-fought achievement.
Conrad knows the exhilaration of extending effort to the full extent to his potential — and finding that extra something that separates the One from the timid crowd.