Fair Haven's Connor Jaeger Wins Silver in 1,500-Meter Freestyle

Fair Haven, NJ - Congratulations, Connor Jaeger! Fair Haven's own Connor Jaeger won a silver medal Saturday night in the 1,500-meter freestyle. He also set a new America record in the race, which is known as an incredibly grueling event, swimming it in 14:39.48. This was quite an accomplishment, because Jaeger came in sixth in the same race four years ago at the 2102 London summer Olympics.

Jaeger, now 24, is a 2010 graduate of Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High and the high school held a watch party for him Saturday night, reports Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect. The 2000 Olympics bronze medalist swimmer Tom Wilkens was there and he let some of the kids try on his bronze medal. Wilkens is from Middletown and is a graduate of Christian Brothers Academy. He won bronze swimming the 200-meter individual medley.

Jaeger is the son of Fair Haven Councilman Eric Jaeger and wife, Bernadette. He has a sister, Dana. And he told the Detroit Free-Press that he never swam the 1,500 meters at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High because, in part, he actually thought about quitting swimming entirely at the time, to focus on his school work.

"I'm embarrassed about that," he said. "I don't think I was actually ever going to quit, but I would think about it. I was never doing poorly in school, but I wanted to make sure I was doing good in school and other things like that. I wasn't sure if it was for me."

“The idea was just to get him swim lessons so we could go to the beach club and he wouldn’t drown,” his mom, Bernadette Jaeger, told Patch back in 2012.

Jaeger swam for the University of Michigan after graduating from Rumson-Fair Haven. A 2012 Patch file photo of Jaeger