Fifty meters is just an inch or two over 164 feet, and Fort Myer Swim Team member Jay DeLancey needed just a second or two to travel the 1,640 inches in historic time.
The 15-18 year-old division swimmer became the first male to break a FMST individual record this season and the first to take down a boy’s individual record in four years when he breezed to victory in the 50-meter backstroke at the Fort Myer Officers Club pool complex the morning of July 14.
Team-wise, the Squids improved to 3-1 in Colonial Swimming League red division action with a 257-187 victory over the visiting Franklin Farm Froggers.
The Franklin Farm meet was highlighted by the expansion of the FMST record book and a relay event where two records fell during the same swim. After the Squids jumped to a 56 to 34 lead after the freestyle portion of the meet, DeLancey took assault on the 20-year-old, 50-meter record. His two-length-of-the-pool backstroke sprint produced a :28.74 time – a half second better than the previous mark set by Perry Keating on July 1, 1982.
“He has found a way to strike a balance between being a regular teenager and having a crazy work ethic,” said FMST head coach Kristina Dorville. “When he wants to do something, he’s doing it. He came into this meet ready to swim. He really wanted to break some records this weekend. He demolished that [backstroke] record.”
DeLancey was also a part of the record-breaking 200-meter 15-18 medley team of Patrick St. Pierre, Francisco Rodriguez and Michael Emanuel who swam home in 1:59.22. The relay event not only witnessed a new FMST team record, but a Franklin Farm mark was also broken. The Frogger team of John Shebat, Jeremy Wood, Ryan Moore and Christopher Piller also provided a record-breaking pace, finishing in 1:59.00, in one of the most drama-filled races of the meet.
“That was the second weekend in a row [the 15-18 Squid team] broke the record,” Dorville said of her 200-meter medley quartet. “That was an awesome race. The caliber of swimming in our 15-18 age group across the board of the division is just outstanding. Michael Emanuel, who was the finisher in the freestyle [leg], had a great race. We went into his leg behind, he caught his kid, and if the race was a few more yards, we would have had it.”
Eight-year-old multi-record breaker Ana Beauvais continued to trounce FMST records as she shattered her own two-week old mark in the 25-meter butterfly sprint. Her latest :18.68 clocking beat her June 30 record swim by six-tenths of a second.
The busy morning was punctuated by 1-2-3 clean sweeps and first and second place tandem finishes which multiplied the Squid lead. In all, the Fort Myer swim team produced four 1-2-3 clean sweep finishes and 10 1-2 tandem finishes. Clean-sweep 1-2-3 finishes were posted by boys’ 9-10 year old division 50-meter backstroke swimmers Jack Mowery (1st in :43.14), Vincent DiLeonardo (2nd) and Thanos Zervos (3rd) and the eight and under girls’ 25-meter backstroke entrants Claire Mowery (1st in :23.68), Adeleine Rogers (2nd) and Caitlin Tramontozzi (3rd). Additional Squid 1-2-3’s were produced in the girls’ 11-12 year old 50-meter race (Isabel Mowery, 1st in :34.87; Caroline Emanuel, who was 2nd and Anna Hill, 3rd) and the 9-10 year old 100-meter intermediate girls race produced a Fort Myer sweep with Gabriela Ousley-Naseman placing first in a time of 1:34.71 while Ellen Wales was second and Amy Tramontozzi was third.
Multiple winners of individual female races were Beauvis, who won four individual events, Isabel Mowery, Jessica Green, Katherine Emanuel and Caroline Ousley-Naseman. Claire Mowery, Erin Bell, Belinda Vu, Gabriela Ousley-Naseman and Meghan Brophy also won individual races.
Boys who won multiple races were DeLancey, Jack Mowery, Jack St. Pierre and Greyson Devine. Kai Green and Thanos Zervos also posted individual victories.
For more FMST meet photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbm-hh/.
