Bronx Science dominates swimming competition

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It certainly hasn’t been pool weather lately.

But in the basement of DeWitt Clinton High School, there is a four-lane oasis that the neighbors from Bronx Science are using to dominate the competition.

On Monday, the Wolverines’ boys swim team cruised to a 51-40 win over Hunter College High to remain undefeated this season through six meets. Bronx Science won the first eight events, rendering the last three meaningless in the final margin.

Team captain Noah Pan won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:11.65 and the 500 freestyle in 5:34.05. He was part of the 200 freestyle relay team that won in a time of 1:38.12.

The atmosphere was loud during the meet, as the sound reverberated off the walls of the relatively cozy environment. But one noticeable happening though the din were phones being used to record all the races. Pan, who will swim for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute next year, has been using film study to aid his teammates’ strokes.

“I’m trying to improve everyone’s technique using video analysis, because that’s how I got fast,” he said. “We’re looking to compare our technique to professional swimmers like Michael Phelps and [five-time gold medalist from Australia] Ian Thorpe.”

The strategy is working. Bronx Science has dominated this season, winning each of its meets by at least 10 points. Today, the Wolverines will face their toughest competition, as they will swim against a Stuyvesant team that has knocked them out of the city playoffs in the semifinal round for the last two seasons. Stuyvesant is also the only team to beat Bronx Science in the regular season for the last three years.

“I think we have a good shot,” Pan said about finally overtaking their main rival. “It depends how the lineups shake out. I feel like we’re really starting to improve and we’ll see how it works out.”

Lineups are an integral part of meets because coaches can only use a particular swimmer for four events — either two individual events and two relays or three relays and one individual event. Bronx Science coach Steve Warman is a retired teacher with more than 30 years of coaching experience. Now that he has more free time as a retiree, Warman said he often tinkers with mock lineups to try and maximize his team’s talent against stronger opponents.

He’s also constantly looking up times from other meets on the PSAL website.

“Every single minute,” Warman said about checking the Internet. “I watch the other schools and see who’s doing what.”

Warman, who is 63 but looks much younger, said the kids are what keep him young.

“They’re top-of-the-line kids,” he said. “Extremely smart. If they get lower than a 90, they’re highly upset. It’s academics first and then swimming, and the results are showing.”

On Monday, the results showed in the form of four different individual winners and two sets of relay teams. 

Junior Clyde Huibregtse won the 100 (53.75 seconds) and 200 freestyle (1:57.54), senior Michael Shumikhin took the 50 freestyle in 24.17 seconds and sophomore Matthew Pan, Noah’s brother, won the 100 butterfly in 1:01.13. The 200 medley relay team of juniors Dennis Chu and Matthew Pan and freshmen Peter Lam and Jacob Charney-Beck touched the wall in 1:52.72. The 200 freestyle relay team of Noah Pan, Huibregtse, Chu and Shumikhin won in a time of 1:38.12.

Bronx Science, DeWitt Clinton, Noah Pan, Chris Mascaro

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