By JENNIFER CHANCELLOR

For the Independent

Dylan Macabitas has been competing for a decade, but he still remembers his first swim meets. When he was “that small, chubby kid with the big, flappy goggles” — and needed his mom to walk him to the blocks.

“I told her ‘I’m too young; I don’t know what to do’,” he said of his 6-year-old self, “so she would bring me up there.”

Now a sophomore at South Kitsap, Macabitas is just fine with her watching from the stands. He’s got this.

After a dominating performance in the 100-yard backstroke at the West Central District III meet that resulted in the Wolves’ first district title in more than a half-decade, Macabitas is headed back to this weekend’s state championships.

“I’ve worked so hard to get here,” he said, “and am blessed with everyone supporting me.”

Macabitas enters today’s preliminaries seeded ninth, in 54.77 seconds. Newport junior Dave Makhervaks has the fastest time in Class 4A, 51.89.

But South coach Cliff Rousell has “total confidence in his ability” and believes that Macabitas will end up on the podium this year.

“There’s never any question about whether he can succeed; he will succeed,” he said. “He’s done a lot of it this year, and it’s going to continue. It’s not over yet.”

In 2014, Macabitas, then a ninth-grader at Cedar Heights Junior High, was the Wolves’ lone state swimmer, finishing 17th in the 100 backstroke in 55.84 — one spot out of the consolation finals.

At districts, he just missed qualifying in the 200 individual medley, placing seventh in 2 minutes, 08.31 seconds. The top six competitors in each event advanced.

Macabitas, who also swims for the Puget Sound Swim Club, said that swimming is the one sport he has always loved.

“It’s the one sport I can use my whole body in, and I love the water,” he said. “I love swimming, and (success) just came along with it.”

Macabitas said that growing up, his best strokes were the butterfly and then the freestyle, but he was drawn to the unique components of the backstroke.

“I love getting under the water,” he said. “And you can breathe whenever you want.”

Rousell said that they have spent two seasons working on his underwater skills, “and that’s where he’s blowing everybody up.”

“Sixty percent of your race is underwater if you can make it, and he’s learned how to make it fast.”

Macabitas, who has a 4.0 grade-point average, also is involved with choir and musical theater. And not surprisingly, the boy who loves water wants to become a marine biologist.

“Oh yeah,” he said in reference to having good lungs. “I’ve built them up over the years.”

Senior co-captain Andy Straavaldson said that Macabitas is the most naturally gifted athlete he has ever seen.

“It just seems so effortless to him,” he said. “He can do anything and be automatically gifted at it — it’s ridiculous.”

He added with a laugh, “He could go into politics if he wanted to.”

But there are more pressing things to think about first — like swimming on the state’s biggest stage. In addition to the backstroke, Macabitas also will swim on the Wolves’ 200 medley relay, ranked 20th in 1 minute, 45.22 seconds. The Wolves also will have junior Yoshi Iwakawa swimming the 100 breaststroke. He is seeded 17th with a time of 1:02.15.

“I wasn’t lonely,” Macabitas said of being the lone Wolf last year. “I got there by myself and I was proud to represent my team, but this year it’s awesome to have even more people to represent our school.”