Congratulations to Garrett Towne for being awarded Con Ed Scholar Athlete of the Week

Badger Swimmmer, Garrett Towne, was selected to be the Con Ed Scholar Athlete of the Week for the week of January 15, 2018. Congratulations Garrett!

As reported by the Hackley School

Hackley swimmer Garrett Towne ’18 has been chosen as the Con Ed Scholar Athlete of the Week for the week of January 15. Garrett has been on an incredible streak of late breaking multiple records and swimming times giving him the status of All American.

Garrett recently set school records in the in the 100 Back (49.19), 100 Fly (50.00), 100 Free (47.66) and 200 Medley Relay. His 100 Back time was an automatic All American time and his 100 Fly is an All American consideration time. Garrett has served as boys team captain this season, leading the team to a numbe of new school, pool and league records.

Garrett’s honor was announced on WHUD on Friday, 1/19, and his photo and article appeared in the Journal News on Sunday, January 21st. You may have heard Garrett’s interview with Rich Leaf at WHUD at www.whud.com.

How Eddie Reese Turned Texas Men’s Swimming and Diving into the Best Program in the Nation

Article by Chris O’Connell posted on The Alcalade

Inside the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, a white-brick building on the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Red River Street, waves of calm permeate the House that Eddie Built. A sea of crystal-blue water gently laps over the gutter of the pool and trickles back down. In its reflection two enormous steel fans silently rotate, like a pair of octopi performing a synchronized swimming routine on the ceiling. Every minute or so, the sound of flesh smacking the water breaks the silence, as divers practice on the far side of the pool.

At 3 p.m., the swimmers begin walking in, some of their faces familiar from atop 2016 Olympic podiums in Rio like Townley Haas and Joseph Schooling, the then-21-year-old who took down Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly for the Singapore national team.

Once the pool is filled with more gold medalists than most countries, a 76-year-old man, the John Wooden of the pool deck, enters. He’s wearing a black T-shirt, khaki shorts, and black and white tennis shoes with white athletic socks poking up over the tops, an unassuming ensemble for the most decorated swimming and diving coach in modern history and the most successful coach to ever wear the Longhorn logo. He looks like your grandfather — and he literally is if you’re Luke Bowman, one of the 31 swimmers in the pool — if your grandfather was capable of winning NCAA titles in four consecutive decades, including the last three straight.

READ THE ARTICLE

Maftuna Tuhtasinova 4 times medalist at Asian Championships

Badger Swimmer, Maftuna Tuhtasinova, participated in 9th Asian Championships as part of Uzbekistan National Team.

She swam the 50m, 100m, 200m back as well as 200m free with my PB 2.08 and took holme 1 Gold and 3 Bronzes.

Congratulations Maftuna!

A Story of Success

Badger Swim Club is very proud of the accomplishments of Alumni Jeff and Will Powers. Both father and son are Badger alum and have been an integral part of the Badger community for many years. The work Jeff is doing with Float Hope is inspirational and we wish him luck.

READ THE ARTICLE ON THE FLOAT HOPE WEBSITE

Founder’s son William Powers swam his way to Georgetown

Float Hope’s founder Jeffrey Powers 5th child William Powers started his freshman year at Georgetown University having been recruited for swimming but being accepted early based on academic merit… while not financially disadvantaged William chose to swim at age 10 after waking up from a coma a year earlier. William’s swimming miracle became a catalyst for the charity’s founding says Jeffrey Powers.

“With my 5th child I got a swimmer by default after Will was struck by car driven by a drunken driver and in a coma for nearly a week at age 9 …not only shearing his right femur & left tibia and suffered a traumatic brain injury to the frontal lobe of his skull. Thanks to doctors at Children’s Specialized Hospital in NJ where he spent many months William eventually returned home and began the race against time that all TBI patients face to recover quickly with the hopes of healing before the clock stops… Will was determined to beat it and swimming helped.

William started swimming with kids half his age at Badger Swim Club but swam with passion despite his limited endurance (impairment from the TBI). William’s positive outlook on life was jump-started with his newfound sport, a process of learning, liking and then loving competitive swimming. Swimming on a team embedded character, discipline and new goals that helped him recover. After “almost losing William”… we learned how close a family must be and how important it is that we support each other. For the first time I witnessed the enormous benefits swimming and how it allowed my child to grow physically and succeed mentally against almost insurmountable odds.

William’s continued progress in high school revealed to us what swimming might do for the thousands of Indian River youth “without means” who have no chance to swim on a team only if they could be gifted swimming as a “life-skill.” Since Indian River County was #1 in income disparity we felt it could only work if we engaged young children and gifted the sport to children without means. Along with Coach Barlow and McClain we started Float Hope not only to advantage kids to swim like my son… but to enter and succeed in high school with confidence, discipline and self-esteem. My hope is for these kids to “win in life” by attending a 4-year college of their choice and bring leadership and passion back home to our community and the neighborhoods that are desperate for more role models.

Float Hope’s mission is to instill the confidence in kids so when they enter high school they burst their school doors open with confidence. Float Hope’s children are passionate and beginning to develop a positive view of themselves because by age 13 kids begin to understand clearly how others perceive them…so it must be embedded in their DNA year round while they are ages 6-11. To do that requires a year round commitment to a sport that is life changing. Swimming can do that. Swimming competitively is a life skill unlike any other”…says Jeffrey Powers the founder of Float Hope.

Applications due for for USA Swimming Scholastic All American program

Attention Swimmers: Applications are due by August 15, 2017

SCHOLASTIC ALL AMERICA PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
Application Process open June 1- August 15, 2017

2016-2017 ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

    • Grade completion requirement – applicant must have completed 10th, 11th, or 12th grade GPA Requirement – minimum 3.5 GPA for the current academic year.
    • A=4, B=3, C=2. If numerical grades are used, the following scale will be used unless the school’s letter grade conversion is given on the transcript: A=90-100; B=80-89; C=70-79.
    • Honors, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and dual credit college level academic courses will earn one half (.5) extra Grade Point. Grades for academic subjects only are calculated – history/social studies, English, mathematics, sciences, foreign languages, arts (visual and performing), computer sciences. A grade lower than a C in an academic subject will mean automatic rejection of the applicant. Grades for non-academic courses will NOT be calculated – band, choir, health, driver education, physical education, and any other class marked non-academic on a transcript.
    • There will be no special status designation for a 4.0 GPA other than for a national champion who also has a 4.0 GPA.

POOL REQUIREMENTS

  • Applicants must have swum an individual pool time equal to a 2016 Winter Junior qualifying time in any individual event during the SAA qualifying period (August 16, 2016 – August 15, 2017) with qualifying times in SWIMS – list of times are posted on the USA Swimming website. A qualifying time will be available for selection from the SWIMS database during the application process. Only ONE time is necessary and only ONE application is necessary.
  • Disability or Open Water Requirements (for athletes without pool requirements
    2017 Deaflympics– July 18-30, 2017, Samsun, Turkey
    2016 Can-Am Open – November 25-27, 2016, Miami, FL
    2017 Speedo Can-Am Para Championships – Mar 31-Apr 2, 2017, Windsor, ON
    2017 Open Water National Championships – May 19-21, 2017, Castaic Lake, CA

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Congratulations to Coach Dominick Galimi!

Congratulations to Coach Dominick Galimi who was recently inducted into the Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Hall of Fame!

Celebrating his 20th season as the leader of the Fordham Prep Aqua Rams where he has led his swimmers to six New York State overall titles, eight New York State Catholic School championships, and eight CHSAA championships in the past 10 years. The team has been nationally ranked nine times in the Top 10 NISCA ratings during his tenure as head coach, going as high as fifth on the prestigious ranking system. Individually, five Fordham Prep athletes attended the 2016 Olympic Trials; four alumni and one current team member. Over 20 swimmers have achieved All-American status while swimming for Coach Galimi at Fordham Prep.

Coach Galimi is a long time Badger Coach and an integral part of our organization. Those who are lucky enough to work with him, know he brings professionalism, knowledge, and composure to the pool deck, and is an outstanding role model for all swimmers, coaching them to be the best they can be, in and out of the pool.

Congrats!

Sectional Recap: 8 Gold, 19 National Meet Cuts, No Relays

In a rare late SCY season appearance, Badger Swim club took a small group to Speedo Sectional Championships at Ithaca last weekend with a single goal: swim fast and make cuts. This meet was for the swimmers, and John decided to forgo entering relays to allow the kids to focus on the task at hand. The results were outstanding. Badger swimmers won 8 Individual golds, one silver and four bronze medals. Leading the charge, were Andrew Babyak, Carly Cummings, and Quinn Scannell. Over the course of the weekend, 19 national level cuts were made: 7 Winter Juniors, 4 Summer Juniors, 3 Winter Nationals, 3 Summer Nationals, and 2 US Open. Due to caliber of the swims, we are considering bringing the whole team next year. Due to the caliber of individual swims, this small sectional group placed 8th in the meet (without relays).

We had impressive performances and many personal bests from Andrew Babyak, Maria Burtseva, Jared Copeland, Carly Cummings, Christian Farricker, Kim Jogis, Alexa Lantin, Haofeng Liu, Jack Loveless, Liam Loveless, Jalen Ramjohn, Mary Rotenberg, Paula Scanlan, Quinn Scannell, Asher Stukelman, and Garrett Towne. Complete results can be found at this link.

Some swims of note include:

Andrew won the 1000 with a time of 9:13.09 and qualified for Summer Juniors at NCAC. He followed up with a win in the 500 and 1650. His time of 15:26.79 earned a Winter National berth.

Quinn won the 200FR and 200BK. Her time of 54.67 earned 2nd place in the 100BK and a Summer Junior cut. And, after three other junior cuts spread throughout the weekend, Quinn ended the meet with a 1:57.00 in her win of the 200BK. It was her first US Open cut of the meet. Quinn also won the female High Point award for the meet.

After qualifying for Open Water Juniors, Christian headed to Ithaca with a goal of making Juniors in a pool swim. He earned his first Junior cut in the 400IM with a time of 3:57.25. He later missed the 200FLY Junior cut by .01 with a time of 1:51.60.

Not to be outdone, Carly had a great meet. She won three events: 400IM, 200BR, and 200IM, and her times of 4:12.63 (400IM), 2:12.18 (200BR), and 1:58.77 (200IM) were all Summer National cuts and put her in the mix for an amazing summer.

Akira Lomvardas high point winner at JOs

Congratulations to Badger swimmer Akira Lomvardas coming out of Junior Olympic Championships a champion. Akira was the 11-12 boys high point winner with 156 Points, edging out his competitors who were all in close chase with 155 and 154 points respectfully.

Akira won the 400 IM (4:29.84) and 200 Butterfly (2:04.47). He set a new JO meet record and Metro record in the Prelims with a 2:03.78, and the 100 Butterfly (56.88). Akira also took home medals in the 50 Butterfly 2nd (26.21), 200 Breast 2nd (2:24.65), 200 IM (2:07.59), 200 Freestyle 4th (1:58.76), 500 Free (5:16.10), and 200 Back 4th (208.74).

Junior Olympic Championships was filled with great swims by many Badger swimmers, tons of fun and a great deal of team bonding took place.

Badger Swimmers made Waves at Numerous Meets over Weekend

These past few weekends you would be hard pressed to find a meet without a Badger Swimmer in it. Badger Swimmers are competing at every level, with success individually and as a team.

Badger Swim Club was represented at 10 meets over the past few weekends including:

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  • Arena Pro
  • NY State Boys High School Swimming and Diving Championships at Eisenhower Park
  • Metro 8 Under Champs at Felix Festa
  • American Short Course Championships in Austin Texas Moved to San Antonia (Small Pool Issue)
  • PAC-12 Championships Men and Women

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  • 2017 New England Division I Prep School Championships Boys and Girls
  • BIG10 Championships
  • Ivy League Championships Men and Women
  • Colonial Athletic Association
  • New England Small College Athletic Conference

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New England Prep School Championships

Badger Swimmers Will Powers, Keegan Drew, Christian Farricker and James Simone reached a team high 3rd place finish for Brunswick School Swimming and Diving Team.

William Powers: 1st 500 Free (4:38.97) 6th 200 Free (1:43.65) 5th 400 Free Relay
James Simone: 2nd 500 Free (4:39.67) 7th 200 Free (1:44.02) 5th 400 Free Relay
Keegan Drew: 5th 200 Free (1:43.18) 7th 100 Free (47.02) 5th 400 free Relay
Christian Farricker: 2nd 200 IM (1:53.18) 4th – 100 Fly ( 51.57) 5th 400 Free Relay

The ladies of Greenwich Academy stole the spotlight at the New England meet with the Team Title aided by Badger swimmers, Paula Scanlan, Diana Tromontano, Quin Scannell.

Paula Scanal: 1st 200 Medley Relay, 8th – 100 Free (53.66), 5th – 100 Back (58.28)
Diana Tramontano: 4th – 200 IM (2:10.74) 7th – 100 Breast (1:07.84)
Quin Scannell: 1st: 200 Free (1:48.01) 1st – 500 Free (4:55.66) 1st – 200 Free Relay

All American Short Course Championships

Carly Cummings had no issues with the pool change with wins in the women’s 200 & 400 IM’s 1st – 200 IM ( 1:59.13), 1st – 400 IM ( 4:13.44), 5th – 100 Breast (1:03.11), 6th – 200 Fly (2:00.99)

New York State High School Championships

Led by Badger assistant coach, Dominick Galimi, Fordham took home the 2017 NY State Boys High School team title. Congrats to Fordham, and all the Badgers who represented their respective high schools in this meet.

Andrew Babyak: (New Rochelle/ Bronxville) 10th in 200 Free (1:41.33), 1st in 500 Free (4:26.26), 3rd in 200 Free Relay, 3rd in 400 Free Relay

Jared Copeland: (Fordham Prep) 19th in 200 IM (1:58.73), 24th in 100 Fly (52.81), 4th in 200 Medley Relay

Spencer LaFata: (Fordham Prep) 7th in 200 Free (1:40.86), 2nd in 500 Free (4:29.62), 4th in 200 Free Relay, 1st in 400 Free Relay

Aristides Speres: (Fordham Prep) 11th in 50 Free (21.22), 8th in 100 Free (46.38), 4th in 200 Free Relay, 1st in 400 Free Relay

Haofeng Liu: (Scarsdale High School)50th in 200 Free (1:47.76), 21st in 200 Medley Relay, 31st in 200 Free Relay, 17th in 400 Free Relay

Jack Loveless: (Fox Lane High School) 32nd in 200 Free (1:45.95) 10th in 500 Free (4:42.24)

Liam Loveless: (Fox Lane High School) 15th in 100 Breast (59.30)

Not to be outdone by the current Badger Swim Club athletes, our college swimmers have not been slacking off…

Stanford University

Junior Patrick Conaton and his teammates celebrated a back to back PAC-12 Championship this past weekend. 4th- 200 Back (1:41.04), 12th – 100 Back (47.24), 20th – 50 Free 20.15

Indian University

Junior Oliver Patrouch & Sophmore Jack Collins aided their team in the Big10 Team Title for Indian University’s 25th BIG10 TITLE .
Collins: 7th – 1650 15:03.75 20th – 400 IM 3:53.95 26th – 500 Free 4:24.93
Patrouch: 24th – 100 Free 43.82 18th – 100 Fly 47.45 36th – 50 Free 20.04

Williams College

Seniors Colin Hogan and Dan Needham put their work in to a NESCAS Team title.
Hogan: 2nd – 200 IM ( 1:50.08), 4th – 400 IM (4:01.60), 4th 200 Back (1:49.44)
Needham: 8th – 500 Free (4:46.40), 16th – 1650 Free (16:29.68), 200 Free (1:42.99)

William & Mary

W&M swam their way to Dual Team Titles in the CAA conference with the Men winning its third title in a row and the Women their Second in a row. W&M ‘s success was helped by senior Joe Eiden, freshman Ian Bidwell, & sophomore Maria Oceguera.
Joe Eiden: 4th – 50 Free (20.32), 2nd – 100 Free (44.25), 1st – 200 Free (138.28)
Ian Bidwell: 3rd – 500 Free ( 4:26.70,) 4th – 1650 Free ( 1537.91), 8th – 400 IM (405.18 / 3:55.65 Prelims)
Maria Oceguera: 2nd – 500 Free (4:52.14), 3rd – 1650 Free (1650.53) 3rd – 200 Fly (2:01.27)

University of California-Berkeley

Freshman Anina Lund swimming for the Bears of Berkley performed well with 21st – 1650 Free ( 16:48.45), 21st – 200 Free (1:47.77) and 30th – 500 Free (4:51.64).

Dartmouth

The Badger Trio of Joe Bernstein, Josh Hendell and Caroline Poleway swam at the Ivy Championships.
Poleway: 23rd – 200 Back (2:04.02), 24th – 200 Fly (2:06.16), 23rd – 100 Back (56.77)
Bernstein: 22nd – 1650 Free (16:04.17), 21st – 1000 Free (9:32.10), 24th – 500 Free (4:32.24)
Hendell: 15th – 1650 Free (15.41.21) 13th – 1000 Free (9:18.64), 23rd 500 Free – (4:32.60)

University of Buffalo

Senior Charles Barry Competing at the Mid American Conference Championships was 4th – 500 Free (4:26.15), 5th – 400 IM (3:53.33), and 5th – 1650 Free (15:33.37).

University of Notre Dame

Junior Richard Mannix competed for the Irish at the ACC meet with impressive swims, wining the B Final in the 500 free with 4:19.24 (Prelims 4:18.83) 19th – 400 IM 3:49.20 and 6th overall in the 1650 Free (15:07.47).

Keep an eye on swimming

In closing, we all know that basketball has March Madness. But let us not forget the Wars of Swimming that take place over February and March. Congrats to all the Badger swimmers who make us proud this past weekend!

Next up the Junior Olympic Meet, Eastern Zone meet and NASA Single Age Group Championships. Go Badgers!

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