By Phil Jensen

Special to Las Positas Athletics

 

There probably aren't many California community college swimmers who have worked on a ranch, let alone stopped swimming for multiple years.

But that's the life that Zach Zauhar-Kurr was leading in Arizona before coming back to California and eventually enrolling at Las Positas College in 2023. Now he's one of the top swimmers in California, ranking first in five events in the April 8 3C2A state rankings: the 200-yard freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 200 individual medley and 400 IM. He is also ranked second in the 100 butterfly.

"He is a fun, competitive kid who loves to race," said Las Positas coach Jason Craighead about the 21-year-old. "He's talented, but he has the combination of talent and work ethic. … His development over the past year has been exceptional."

But Zauhar-Kurr was far from pools after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. After swimming a number of different events for years with the Alameda Gators club and San Leandro High School, his athletic career, like many, crashed to a halt in March, 2020.  

"My times over the summer were really fast, and it looked like it would be a really strong year for me," said Zauhar-Kurr, who was a senior at San Leandro and graduated from the school online in 2020. "After that, I moved to Arizona and stopped swimming for two years.

"My uncle had a ranch in Arizona and he said, 'Do you want to work on the ranch with me?' I said 'Sure'", said Zauhar-Kurr, who lived in Arizona for a year-and-a-half. "I thought that was it, I wasn't going to be a swimmer again."

Zauhar-Kurr, who said he "was pretty much a city boy going into the country," continued working out with weights six days a week while working on the ranch. Besides taking care of cows, Zauhar-Kurr and his brother also warmed up horses for around 30 minutes before neighbors practiced rodeo barrel-racing. 

"I learned to ride horses then. … I caught on pretty quick," said Zauhar-Kurr. "It took me about two, three weeks to be really comfortable."

Zauhar-Kurr remembered the day when his life took another turn. He was sitting in his room when his mom told him she was going back to California.

"I was like, OK, I thought it would be a good idea for me to go back to school," he said. "Swimming wasn't in my mind quite yet."

But once he moved back to the East Bay and started working at a 24 Hour Fitness in San Leandro, he eventually started thinking of swimming again.

"I was kind of trying to figure out where to go. I was going to go to Ohlone and join their swim team, but the coach said he was retiring,"  Zauhar-Kurr said. But the coach advised him to check out Las Positas and said it had a great coach. 

Zauhar-Kurr had started swimming on his own in the spring of 2022 and joined the LPC team a year later. 

"It was definitely hard … but I noticed I was a lot stronger from working out with weights," he said. "I got a PR in my 200 IM about a month into swim season."

"We didn't go all-in last year, just focused on a few races," Craighead said. At the state championships, Zauhar-Kurr was third in the 100 breaststroke, fourth in the 200 breaststroke and ninth in the 200 IM. 

"I thought I was going to do way better at state, but I got sick a week before state started," Zauhar-Kurr said. "I was completely out of it." 

A breakthrough meet for Zauhar-Kurr was this season's Santa Rosa Invitational on March 21-23, when he won the 200 IM (one minute, 50.64 seconds), the 400 IM (4:00.91) and the 200 breaststroke (2:03.08) with team records and personal bests that lead the state. He also holds a team record for the 200 butterfly (1:51.80).   

Zauhar-Kurr said that his goals this season are "to try to win state in the 200 IM and 400 IM and have PR's." 

That competitive spirit was alive since after he started swimming at 8 years old. But it wasn't there right away.

"I hated the water. I never wanted to get in. … When I got comfortable enough, I was insanely competitive. I always wanted to be first to the wall," he said.

Most likely, he will be first to the wall in races to come. The Coast Conference championships are April 18-20 at College of Marin, and the state championships are May 2-4 at Orange Coast College.