HIGHLIGHTS FROM JACK'S FINAL SWIM MEET OF THE SEASON:
SYRACUSE, NY (February 27-28, 2009) – In the second day of competition at the Upper New York State Collegiate Swimming Association (UNYSCSA) Championships, the Vassar College men’s swim-dive continued to rewrite Vassar’s record books, breaking two more school records to bring the total to five new records set in two days.
The Brewers again had a strong session in the morning preliminary trials, setting two new school records, and going on to improve those times in the evening finals. After finishing in what was then a record time of 1:38.74 in the morning, the 200 Yard Medley Relay team of junior Jeremy Shiman (Brookline, MA/Brookline), seniors Tom Liu (Staten Island, NY/Curtis) and John Alaimo (Blauvelt, NY/Tappan Zee), and freshman Jack Smart (Honolulu, HI/Punahou School) improved their time to 1:38.42 with a ninth place finish in the evening session. The time bested the previous time of 1:40.53, set in 2008 by Shiman, Liu, Alaimo, and junior Lars LaPann-Johannessen (Landisville, PA/Hempfield).
Vassar swam well in the 400 Yard IM, led by Alaimo’s eighth place finish in 4:17.42, with Smart placing tenth in 4:19.40, dropping his time from the morning session by an impressive four seconds.
“Considering all the elements it takes to go into a relay race, those records are hard to take down. "We haven’t had the combination of men to do that for awhile, so it’s great to break those old records,” said head coach Lisl Prater-Lee, noting that the 400 Yard Medley Relay team took down a 2003 record, while the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team broke a 13-year old record, set in 1996. “Breaking these records speaks well for where we are now. It took awhile for us to be able to get close to some of these records, and now we’ve smashed them.”
In the 200 Yard Breaststroke, freshman Jack Smart (Honolulu, HI/Punahou School) finished 20th in 2:15.90 with teammate Liu in 23rd (2:19.56).
“We feel like we’ve accomplished a lot,” said Prater-Lee. “We stood up against some very fast competition and we were competitive in that pool. More than that, it brought us together, and we’re leaving with an even stronger sense of team than we had before.”
