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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Badger welcomes Doug Towne as the Swim Club GM

Badger is pleased to announce the appointment of Douglas Towne to fulfill the role of General Manager of the Badger Swim Club.

A longtime Badger, dating pre 1980, Doug has a singular understanding of Badger’s traditions, and its present goals.

He will be overseeing all aspects of Badger’s swim programs.

Doug’s mandate is to identify ways to “make Badger better”.

Besides his experiences as a Badger swimmer and parent, Doug has been an integral part of Swim Across America, the NYAC’s swim team and is a coaching member of USA Swimming.

Badger welcomes Yousun Nam to the Badger Swim Team

Badger Swim Club is pleased to welcome Yousun Nam to the Badger Swim Team for the Spring season.

Yousun joins us from Seoul, South Korea. Yousun is the first Korean ever to make it to finals at the Olympics where she finished 7th overall in the IM 400 back in 2004 in Athens, which was only 4 years before Park Tae-hwan became South Korea’s first Olympic champion in Beijing. Yousun is the only Korean swimmer, other than Park, to have made it to 4 Olympics (2000, 2004, 2008, 2016).

With uncertainty about how much time she has left of her career as a swimmer, Yousun wanted to make sure to try everything she could within the time given, and the first on her bucket list was to train in the United States.

Yousun said that she didn’t know much about Badger, but had heard about Coach John Collins in swimming books, articles and knew of his success as a US National Swim team coach. She trusted him because of all this and was welcomed by Badger with open arms.

I am very honored to part fo the Badger family and am having the best time of my life as a swimmer, so far! -Yousun Nam

When asked about the difference in her training experience at home and here in the US with Badger, Yousun said, “When I look back on how I trained back at home, in Seoul, I think I let myself hold back, letting my age become an excuse. I used to train only 5~6 sessions a week, about 90 minutes tops per session. I would swim 5000~6000m per session, which isn’t that much, but the intensity was quite high. I made sure I swam at least 20% of the program at full race pace everyday.”

Youson says that “Coach John has encourage and motivated me that I can be better than I ever was before, and I believe him! It feels like the first time I fell in love with the sport, and I want to make the most out of this opportunity in every way possible.”

The entire Badger community welcomes Youson and is happy she will be with us for the next several months.

Akira Lomvardas – Break Metro 12/U Boys 200 Fly Record

Fast swimming continues to come from the Junior Team at Badger, with a New Metro Record.

Akira Lomvardas, set out to break the 12/u Boys 200 Fly record of 2:04.78 held by Tavis Siebert and he touched the wall this past Sunday with a time of 2:04.09. Congratulations to Akira, keep up the great work.

Great things coming from Akira and his fellow Age Groupers at Badger.

Dr. Tobie Smith appointed to USADA Board

Congratulations to Badger alum, World Champion and Badger Swim Club Board member, Dr. Tobie Smith on being appointed to the USADA Board of Directors.

As reported by Michael Lawrence, IRC Chair and Jim Sheehan, Board Chair:

World Champion and former US National Team member Dr. Tobie Smith has been named to the USADA Board of Directors. Tobie’s nomination was carried forward by Ron Vanpool through the USOC NGB Council process, replacing Don Gambril who has served the maximum number of terms permitted.

Dr. Smith graduated (and swam) at the University of Texas followed by medical school at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. She received her Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and practices family medicine and is currently Medical Director for Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore, MD.

She has been a World Champion (25k, 1998), National Champion (1500, 400), NCAA Champion (1650, 1994) and carries the distinction of completing a solo crossing of the English Channel. In addition to her professional and athletic achievements Tobie has previously served USA Swimming as a member of the FINA Task Force investigating athlete safety following the death of Fran Crippen.

Ron Van Pool will have a more complete report at our upcoming meeting. Congratulations to Dr. Tobie Smith and thank you to Ron Van Pool for successfully shepherding this nomination through the USADA process.

Coach John Collins honored at Lehman Leadership Awards Dinner.

This annual fundraiser honors distinguished Lehman College alumni, friends, and leaders in the greater community. Coach John Collins gave a powerful speech at the ceremony that focused on hard work and discipline as core components needed to achieve high levels of success. He then reflected on some of the hard working swimmers whom he has trained who have achieved the highest level of swimming success and become Olympians. In this speech he said “It all starts at Lehman.”

The Badger Swim team has been training in the Lehman APEX Pool since 1995. Countless Badger National champs have trained here along with Olympians Christina Teuscher, Jenny Thompson, Rick Carey, Lea Loveless Maurer, and most recently Cody Miller.

See pictures and Read More on the Lehman website!