Chico High’s Mason Winzenz leading Panthers’ swim team to success in senior season | Prep Athlete of the Week

CHICO — Throughout the last decade, the Chico High boys and girls swim team has been a dominant force in the Northern Section. For the last four years, one Chico High boys swimmer has made his mark as one of the strongest swimmers in the program’s history.

Chico High senior Mason Winzenz has been an All-Eastern Athletic League swimmer and First Team at the Masters meet his first two seasons with the Panthers (unable to compete his freshman season due to the pandemic), and is on his way to a third straight his senior season.

At the Panthers’ most recent meet Sept. 20 against Shasta, Winzenz won took first place in the 100-yard butterfly and 500-yard freestyle, and was a part of teams that took first place in the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Due to Winzenz’s success throughout his swim career as a Panther, he has been named this week’s Chico Enterprise-Record Prep Athlete of the Week.

Winzenz’s boys swim team has remained unbeaten in both duals and championships since 2021, and Panthers head coach Dene Ehrhart said Winzenz has been an integral part of the winning A relays each year.

“Mason Winzenz is a quiet leader. He doesn’t talk much about it, he (just) gets in the water and works hard,” Ehrhart said. “His races are some of the most difficult in high school swimming. He swims the 500-yard freestyle, which is 20 laps, and he does it at a race pace. He can swim whatever the team needs him to, and he does it with grace.

“Mason is always one of the first swimmers in the water even at 5:30 a.m. His work ethic is second to none.”

Winzenz says his favorite stroke is the butterfly, due to the technical challenges it provides. However, when asked about his strongest stroke, both he and Ehrhart said it is definitely the distance freestyle events. Winzenz said he can lock in at a consistent speed and continue on seemingly effortlessly.

Winzenz and his family have been a part of the Chico swim community since he was 3. He began with the MiniJets, part of the Chico AquaJets. He is the second in his family to excel as a swimmer at Chico High, as his sister McKenna Winznez excelled as a Panther before graduating in 2019.

Winzenz believes the key to his growth in the pool in nearly 14 years as a swimmer has being coming to practice, participating, staying consistent and most importantly having fun.

“Swim as much as you possibly can,” he said, “and have the mental drive to be there and enjoy it.”

Winzenz believes that having fun and constantly tweaking whatever can be with the aim of becoming the closest to perfect possible has been key.

“Mason has always been a quiet and thoughtful athlete. He listens carefully to stroke instruction and incorporates it into his swims,” Ehrhart said. “He worked hard to get to where he is today. His passion and commitment to swimming has not changed. That determined little boy has turned into a persistent young man.

“Above all, it has been exciting to experience Mason coming out of his shell, to witness his leadership with the team emerging.”

Winzenz said swimming has impacted his high school career tremendously. It has given him a perspective on team-building and being there for teammates, therefore being there for classmates.

“Being part of something bigger than yourself, which I think is just perpetuated by club swimming, and just part of a team that works, breathes and swims together,” Winzenz said. “It definitely opened up a new social world, which I’d never been exposed to.”

Winzenz hopes to continue swimming at the collegiate level, saying he would love to pursue his forte of distance freestyle.

Outside of the pool

In addition to Winzenz’ performance in the pool, he has made his mark as a Panther outside of the pool as well. His senior year, he was chosen as the Chico High Drum Major, and he has also been involved with the architecture and engineering program at Chico High all four years. Winzenz’s junior year, he won the California State Championship in Architectural Drafting, went to the national competition in Atlanta and finished eighth in the nation.

Winzenz is a part of the Butte County Department of Behavioral Health Prevention Unit’s Athlete Committed program. Athlete Committed’s website says the goal is “to promote athletic excellence and reduce underage drinking.”

In addition to his work with Athlete Committed, he is also part of the Impact Mentoring program, whose website says “matches high school role models with junior high school protégés in a cross-age mentoring experience. During the session, protégés set academic and personal goals and receive coaching from their mentors on ways to achieve those goals.”

Winzenz played baseball, basketball, volleyball and soccer growing up, but none stuck with him quite like swimming.

“For me I just love the water. There is something quite special about swimming that you don’t really find in any other sport, even some of the racing sports like track or cross country,” Winzenz said. “Yes you’re competing against other people in the pool with you, but it’s also a very individual sport in terms of its very individual towards yourself. Your biggest competition is the clock, rather than the person right next to you.”