Neuqua Valley’s Alex Parkinson has a long way to go to match his sister. But he earns one thing she didn’t.

Neuqua Valley junior Alex Parkinson received a lot of advice from his coaches before the biggest race of his swimming career.

But the message that meant the most to him came from his older sister, Maxine, who swims at SMU.

“My sister was a really big influence on the entirety of my swimming career,” Parkinson said. “I followed her into swimming. Right before the meet, she was texting me some encouraging words.”

Maxine Parkinson was a standout on the Neuqua Valley girls swimming teams that won state championships in 2018 and 2019. She won 10 state medals, including a pair of relay state titles, but she didn’t win an individual title.

“My sister is a really fast swimmer,” Alex Parkinson said. “It kind of made a slight bit of a friendly sibling rivalry. We encourage each other a ton because of it. We know what each other is going through when we’re preparing for it.”

Parkinson added to the family resume in a big way on Saturday, when he won the 500-yard freestyle at the state meet at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont. He is the first Neuqua Valley swimmer to win the 500 and the first boy from any Naperville school to do so.

It was a tremendous accomplishment for someone who isn’t as muscular as the typical distance swimmer and wasn’t an elite prospect until recently.

“He’s got a unique stroke,” Neuqua Valley coach Chad Allen said. “He takes a million strokes. If you watch him in practice, you’re probably not thinking he’s a state-level swimmer.

“But then you get him to do certain things. We have him train a lot different than a typical distance guy, so he did a lot of 25s and 50s on short rest, and it works for him.”

Parkinson swam on the junior varsity team as a freshman but has risen quickly. He finished 11th in the 500 as a sophomore before making another huge leap this season.

But a state title wasn’t necessarily on his radar until Friday, when he finished his preliminary race in 4 minutes, 29.28 seconds — a school record. He had the second-fastest time behind Barrington sophomore Luke Bucaro on Friday.

“I dropped a lot of time (Friday),” Parkinson said. “My goal for the entire season was beating Aiden Dunn’s old time, which is a school record. … I did that, and (Saturday) I just went into this with the mindset of I’m just going to give it all I’ve got.”

Parkinson did that, finishing in 4:29.39 to edge St. Ignatius junior Charlie Tracy by 0.04.

“The first half felt really good,” Parkinson said. “My coaches helped me with going out fast in the second and third 100 so I can make a space that’s very hard to close, and just maintained that to the end.”

Allen said Parkinson swam the race exactly as instructed.

“We really wanted him to push the pace and make those other guys uncomfortable because a lot of people have a really good back half,” Allen said. “His back half can hold his own, but I’d say there are a few guys that have a little more speed, so he swam it perfectly.

“He’s had a heck of a year for us. I’m super happy for him.”

Parkinson said the 500 title does give him some bragging rights over his sister, although he’s got a long way to go to match her overall record.

“When I first got into swimming at Neuqua, there was a joke about how my end goal was to get my name on the record board more times than my sister,” Parkinson said. “Her name is still up there on the relays.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.