The Boys Varsity New Lebanon/Berlin Swim Team competed at the NYS Sectionals in Shenendehowa on Friday February 14.
Sophomore Matt Kluck competed in the 50 Freestyle in his first year and freshman Liam Buckenroth competed in the 500 Freestyle. Both Matt and Liam teamed up with Winter Exley, Braydan McMillian, Riley Schwartz and Cody Dunton to compete in three relays.
Matt hit a qualifying time of 26.5 about mid-year but struggled to come close to his qualifying time the rest of the year due to various colds/flu. Matt was finally healthy for sectionals and it showed. He hit a personal record by dropping half a second in his individual race. Matt wasn’t done there, in the 200 Freestyle relay he dropped nearly a full second from his qualifying time going 25.6. In the 100 Freestyle relay he dropped 4 seconds going 1:00.20.
Liam Buckenroth hit a new qualifying time in the last meet of the year. He dropped three seconds from his time to qualify and he dropped another second at sectionals. He also dropped a second in the 400 Relay recording a 1:06.29.
The relay teams did an outstanding job in that they all dropped time. The Medley relay (Winter Exley, Matt Kluck, Liam Buckenroth, Bryadan McMillan) dropped more than 2 seconds from their seed time. The 200 Freestyle (Winter, Cody Dunton, Liam, Matt) dropped four seconds and the 400 Freestyle (Liam, Riley Schwartz, Winter, Matt) dropped nine seconds.
What a great way to end the year!