End of the summer

The end of the summer is a bittersweet time. The return to school is both exciting and exhausting, but I try to focus on the former. I have now returned to Maine and classes have started. My time in NH was an incredibly rewarding challenge. I earned some valuable experience in a long course pool, and hope to return next year with a Senior Nationals cut time. I’ve made new friends and earned some cash money. Unfortunately, the last few weeks have been a motivational nightmare. With Seacoast not training and people leaving for college day after day I’ve had no one to swim with. I swam almost every day, but 2,000 yards hardly counts. It helped me retain a feel for the water, but hardly any conditioning. Fortunately, I have been lifting consistently and feel strong in the weight room.

The end of the summer means more exciting club, college, and high school swimming which I can’t wait to see.

In club swimming we have names like Caitlin Tycz, Liam Sullivan, Nate Samson and others. At the college level theres a class of talented swimmers beginning their first years. Emma Waddell, David Smallwood, and Eric Delmonte will all be strong swimmers at their future colleges.

At UMaine, one of the strongest freshman classes has joined the ranks. From Virginia, Cameron Young will be a powerful asset in the backstroke with a career best time of 1:52.9. Also a backstroker, at 52.8, Maine swimmer Lucas Adair will be making waves for the black bears. Another former Maine swimmer transferring from UMass Amherst, Nick Sundquist will be strongly impacting the freestyle events. Sundquist was 1:41.9 in the 200 freestyle as a senior in high school. Sundquist is also a talented backstroker and over the years I’ve won and lost races against him. After the last two years of being almost alone in the backstroke at UMaine a new class has come in that dominates in the event. Not only will I have multiple training partners over the next few months, but for the first time I may have some serious competition in the stroke. I welcome the opportunity to become faster and encourage my teammates to be faster.

Here’s to exciting club, high school, and college seasons!

Matthew England

About Matthew England

Matt is a former Bangor High School swimmer and currently swims for coach Susan Lizzotte at the University of Maine. He holds team records for the Bangor Hurricanes, Bangor High, and the University of Maine. He is an exercise science major for the class of 2016.