After Four Straight B's, Gilman Swimmers to Strive for A

Shortly after the Gilman swim team won its fourth consecutive MIAA B conference championship at Loyola Blakefield on Feb. 12, Greyhound coach Ian Brooks said the team is ready to again test the waters in A conference competition.

In a conversation last week with Brooks and some of the school's swimmers, the coach said the team did not fit into either classification when it moved from the A to B conference four years ago.

"At the time we dropped down, we hadn't won against one of the A conference teams in three years," Brooks said.  "We knew we would probably beat all of the B conference teams fairly handily."             

And the coach was correct.  Gilman won three of four dual meet championships and swept all four B conference championship meets in which it competed, this year topping second place Archbishop Spaulding 401 to 232 in the seven-team meet.

Brooks feels that a strong junior class this year will put the Greyhounds in a position to compete at the A level next season.

"I think we can move back up and not be bottom of the barrel," he said.  "There will be five teams in the conference and I think we have a really good shot to be third, and maybe inch our way toward second."

Michael Morrow, one of the juniors who will help form the nucleus of next year's team, agreed.

"We won't be the worst like we used to be in A conference," the backstroke/individual medley swimmer said.  "We'll probably be around the middle, but we expect to move up over the years."

Robbie Schuetz, a junior who swims freestyle, attributed this year's success to a lot of hard work in the approximate 5,000 swimming yards of daily practice.

"We go through physical cardio workout, get out heart rate up and blood flowing, and then work on sprinting and work on our stroke technique," Schuetz said.

John Durham, a senior and one of the team's three co-captains, noted each practice is different, with the coach mixing in different sets.

"Mr. Brooks takes a couple of his favorites each practice," the freestyle and relay swimmer said.  "He has a nice variety and it definitely makes a difference."

Durham, who is segueing to the baseball diamond for the spring season, looked at his role as co-captain as one of comic relief.

"I like people to laugh and I like to have fun, so I feel like that is my role."

Austin Dase, another senior and co-captain, viewed his role as setting the pace and making sure everyone knows what's going on.

"We talked before meets; sometimes the guys draw a little motivation," he said.  "Basically, we're a team.  We're captains so we can represent the team but we don't do anything super special."

Dase, who also plays lacrosse, placed emphasis on the entire mind-body experience that is a hallmark at Gilman.

"Each season, academics; each season, athletics," Dase said.  "It is a way of making a more well-rounded person.  It is part of the complete experience, to be able to go to school all day and then to participate in any sort of athletics."

Dase was one of four Gilman breaststroke swimmers who placed in the top five in the 100-yard event at the conference meet where Gilman swimmers won eight of the 11 races.

Muhammad Hudhud, a sophomore, won with a time of 1:02.38.  Dase placed third in 1:06.98, followed by teammates Will Meadows (1:09.63) and Chuckie Knudsen (1:09.78) in fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Greyhounds swept the three relay events, setting school records in the 200 yard medley (1:41.00) and the 400 yard freestyle (3:18.00).  Junior Jack Pollack, who termed the records as "really cool and exhilarating," joined Morrow, Hudhud and Schuetz to etch their names in the school record book.  Durham, seniors Nathaniel Byerly and Drew Tucker, and junior Peter Ahn won the third relay event, the 200 yard freestyle in 1:38.24.

Gilman won three of the four individual freestyle races, taking the 50 yard, 100 yard and 200 yard events.  They grabbed second and third in the 500-yard race.

Schuetz (22.34) and Tucker (24.43), who is the team's third co-captain, finished one-two in the 50 free with teammates Ryan Stevens placing sixth (25.06) and Durham in 12th (27.73).

Schuetz also won the 100 yard free in 49.56; Ahn (54.92) placed fifth, Byerly (54.94) sixth and Durham (56.89) in 11th.

Pollack took the 200 freestyle, touching the wall at 1:45.72.  Meadows, a junior who also competed on the school's victorious indoor track team, placed fourth in 1:58.13.  Tucker (2:04.60) finished eighth and Peter Cooke (2:11.79) touched in for 10th place.

Pollack (4:47.31) came in second in the 500 free, followed by sophomore Jacob Drossner in third (5:11.67).  Anuj Khandelwal (5:53.48), a sophomore, finished sixth with junior George Bouloubassis (6:32.80) in eighth.

Gilman backstrokers finished one-two for the Greyhounds' eighth win of the meet.  Morrow won the event in a time of 55.87, followed by sophomore Sam Zunkeler at 57:85.  Khandelwal (1:04.89) placed seventh and sophomore Andrew Liang (1:09.95) finished 12th.

Greyhound swimmers placed two-four in the other two events they did not win.

Morrow came in second in the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 2:02.46.  Zunkeler placed fourth in 2:11.03, followed by teammates Drossner (2:14.04) in sixth and Ahn (2:23.93) in eighth.

Hudhud's time of 52.81 in the 100 yard butterfly was good enough for second; Byerly (1:00.21) finished fourth.  Cooke (1:05.82) and Stevens (1:10.67) finished nine-ten.

"It was top-to-bottom one of the best championship meets my teams have ever had," said Brooks, in his 11th year as swim coach.  "We took 19 guys to the championship, and every single guy who was there scored in every event."

The coach cited the personality of the team as a reason for the success.

"They get along so well as people—not necessarily as athletes, as swimmers, but just that they are really a good group of kids that work hard and enjoy being here with each other and enjoy supporting each other."

Morrow noted the support does not come only from within the team.

"It's nice to get crowd support," Morrow said.  "A lot of the Gilman guys come out and support us after they finish their sports.  That's really encouraging."