Swim Team Takes Down Bryam Hills and Already has Eyes on the States

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On Wednesday December 18, the John Jay Fox Lane Thundercats dove into the pool with Byram Hills PVW at Westchester Communiy College, and not only took the meet by a score of 99-84, but a number of the swimmers settled matters for the upcoming state championships in March of this year.

Up first for the home team, Thomas Brown of the John Jay Wolves will ride the wave in the 100 Meter Fly. “I qualified by a very good margin,” he said of his first place finish.

The senior swimmer wasn’t done either. Along with Aidan Polese, Henry Dauterman and Spencer Grayson, the 200 Medley Relay team took first place and also qualified for the state tournament.

Fox Lane’s Grayson doubled down too. First in the 100 meter freestyle, his 48.70 first place time makes up for not reaching the states last year. “This year I got it done early, it feels pretty good,” said Grayson, who also took first in the 50 meter and 100 meter Freestyle races.

Dauterman there as well, he’s not far off from a daily double. The 200 meter free relay of Ryan Loveless, Jack Tsai, Patrick Polese and himself are currently one second short of qualifying for the state tournament. “We need to work on our start out of the gate, and our transitions, and we’ll defintely have it in the bag by that time,” said Dauterman.

First in the 100 meter breaststroke, Dauterman has company in the individual winner’s circle. “It’s my race,” said Patrick Polese after his first place finish in the 200 meter backstroke.

It’s the uniqueness of the race that appeals to him. “You are not coming off the blocks, and it’s really dependent on the underwater turns,” said the Fox Lane swimmer.

The main challenge being that the swimmer cannot see the wall upon the approach. Using the flags and counting the number of strokes, he said, “The turns and the rolls definitely make or break the event, and it is just one of things I turned out to be pretty good at.”

The same goes on this day for Ryan Loveless in the 200 meter individual medley, and his second place finish in the 500 meter was an even better development. “I am someone on the team that does a lot of distance swimming. So I’m training for it, and today I qualified for the states,” said the Fox Lane student.

As a result, his mind is set at ease for the rest of the year. “I really get to cruise now,” Loveless joked.

In the same boat for the 200 meter medley relay, Aidan Polese is close to the wire with his second place finish in the 200 meter freestyle. “I was .17 seconds off the state cut,” said the Wolf, and he thinks it’s just a matter of skipping the 200 meter medley before his next try.

Finally, Finn Egan took on the marathon of the 500 meter, and the youngest on the team, the eighth grader got a lesson in endurance. “After the first one hundred meters it hit me right in the gut,” said the sixth place finisher.

But the Fox Lane Middle School swimmer was far from complaining. “I’ll take the beating every single day, because the race improves my swimming abilities,” Egan concluded the day.

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