High yardage equals success for Amherst boys swimming
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Amherst Central freshman Paul Timmel should be a top 200 and 500-yard freestyle swimmer. Timmel is a co-captain. File photo

While most high school swimming coaches believe total immersion is the best style to help one’s team, Amherst Central’s Chris Connor has an old-school approach that has never failed.

“I still believe in hard work and (high) yardage,” said Connor. “That’s why in meets that count at the end of the year our boys excel.”

Connor said normally, teams swim about 5 to 7,000 yards in practice. Amherst swims 7,000 yards at the minimum and max out at 10,000. It’s a philosophy he learned from former East Aurora coach Tom Fahrenholz, who he swam for from 1989 to 1993. Fahrenholz won 36 division and 10 sectional titles from 1967 to 2004.

“We train our swimmers for aerobic endurance first, then we build a foundation of speed and quality,” he said. “I’ve found that it pays off quite a bit. That’s why we seem to be a breeding ground for distance swimmers.”

The swimming philosophy is why Amherst has excelled at postseason meets in recent years. Last year, Amherst sent only four swimmers to ECICs and the Section VI Championships and took fifth and tenth overall, respectively. Most of the Tigers’ finishes came in distance events, including graduate Steve Rois, who won the 500 free and took second in the 200 IM at sectionals.

Two of those four swimmers, captains senior Ryan Menasco and freshman Paul Timmel, return. Menasco was close to qualifying last year for the New York State Championships in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle. Connor said Menasco has already surpassed his 50 free time from ECICs and sectionals in the team’s first league meet this season, a 69-29 home loss on Dec. 5 against Starpoint.

Connor said he expects Timmel, who won the 200 and 500 free against Starpoint, to be a top swimmer in both events at sectionals and be close to the state cut time in the 500.

Other returning Tigers include freshmen Allen Dengler, Nathan Chau, and Ian Blochwitz, sophomore Marshall Davis and junior Harrison Singer.

Dengler already qualified for ECICs in the 100 butterfly and 500 free with personal best times against Starpoint. Connor expects Chau to qualify for sectionals in the 100 fly and backstroke, Blochwitz at ECICs in the 100 and 200 free, and Singer and Davis in any 50 to 500 free distance event at ECICs and sectionals, respectively.

New to the team are freshmen Justin Jenkins (50, 100 free), Ben Swiatek (free, back), Devin Finan (breast, free), junior Stephen Arlington (breast, free) and senior Ian Johnson (free, back).

Perhaps the team’s best kept secret is seventh grader Jacob Hofmar Glennon, one of the top 11-12 age Western New York swimmers. Hofmar-Glennon, who also swims for Tonawanda Titans Swim Club, can swim the back, free and IM events. This past weekend, he competed at the STAR Invitational, an ultra competitive swim meet featuring teams from all over the Northeast.

Against Starpoint, Connor said Hofmar-Glennon won the 100 back pretty handily, defeating a Starpoint junior and sophomore. He also took second in the 200 IM.

Connor said his relay teams are up for grabs but his strongest core group consists of Hofmar Glennon, Timmel, Menasco and Singer in the 400 free relay, Hofmar-Glennon, Arlington, Timmel and Menasco in the 200 medley and Timmel, Menasco, Hofmar Glennon and Davis in the 200 free relay.

Amherst moves from a large school to small school classification and will compete with the likes of Eden, East Aurora, Cleveland Hill, and Tonawanda, who they swam on Tuesday but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press.

“I’ve never seen a more competitive group of small school teams,” said Connor.

Connor said he expects his team to win between eight to ten meets and surprise squads at the end of the season.

“I think some teams are not expecting what we’ve got and we’re looking forward to that,” said Connor. “Our team goals are to qualify all swimmers for ECICs and place as high as we can, then qualify as many from ECICs for sectionals. We want our kids to shine at the end of the year rather than during dual meets during the year.”

“I probably have one of the most inexperienced teams based upon meet experience and age level but I believe in the next two years, Amherst will become a swimming powerhouse because all the freshmen will become seniors,” he added.

All of Amherst’s home meets are at Sweet Home High School. They still practice at Amherst Middle School. Connor said while having a home meet at Sweet Home allows him to decide what type of scoring they want, a disadvantage is they other teams can score diving points. Amherst does not have any divers because the middle school pool does not have a diving board.
  Amherst Central 2006-07 Schedule
12-15 Eden..................................... 6:30 p.m.
12-19 at Pioneer............................ 4:30 p.m.
1-2 Springville .................................... 5 p.m.

1-5 at Cleveland Hill .................... 4:30 p.m.
1-9 Cheektowaga ............................... 5 p.m.
1-12 at East Aurora........................... 7 p.m.
1-16 South........................................... 5 p.m.
1-19 at Maryvale ........................... 4:30 p.m.
1-26 Lackawanna............................... 5 p.m.
1-30 Depew.................................... 6:30 p.m.
2-2 at Alden ................................... 4:30 p.m.
2-17 ECICs at Clarence - warm-ups - large
schools 9 a.m., small schools 1 p.m.

2-22 Section VI Championships at Sweet
Home, swimming warm-ups.............   TBA
2-23 Section VI Championships at Sweet
Home, diving warm-ups ....................   TBA
2-24 Section VI Championships at Sweet
Home, diving and swimming finals.   TBA
  *All home meets are at Sweet Home High
School.
e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com