Jackson boys making waves this winter
BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer

JACKSON - The Jackson High School boys swim team is quietly making a statement in the A South division.

With victories already posted over Southern and Brick Memorial, the Jaguars face a key week coming up with meets against divisional opponents Brick and Toms River South.

Currently, Jackson is 5-1 overall and 2-1 in A South. With a pair of wins this week, the Jaguars could be 4-1 in the division and find themselves jockeying for second place.

"No question this is an important week for us," Jackson boys coach John Pelano said. "With two divisional meets on our schedule, we have a chance to improve our standing. It will be a solid test for us. We'll need to come out strong and continue to try and drop times."

Jackson's only loss came against Toms River North, one of the elite teams in the Shore Conference. The victory over Southern was a definite stepping stone for the Jags, although Pelano likes to keep both triumphs and losses in perspective.

"It was a quality win for us over a quality opponent," Pelano said of his team's 92-78 win over Southern earlier in the season. "But we need to focus on our team getting better. We can't worry about what other teams or doing or how fast some of their swimmers may be. We concentrate on our times and make them as fast as we can. If we do that, the rest takes care of itself."

Jackson's latest win came over Colts Neck. The Jags boasted three double winners in registering a resounding, 126-43, win.

Taylor Brink, Jason Leonard and Eric Skurka all captured two individual events as Jackson rolled with little resistance to its fifth win of the season.

Brink won both the 50 and 100 freestyle events. He posted a winning time of 23.99 seconds in the 50 and later returned to take the 100 in 53.02.

Leonard posted a time of 2:08.36 in taking first in the 200 free. He won the 500 free in 6:03.44. Pelano was impressed with Leonard's effort. He shaved four seconds off his time in the 200 and 10 seconds off his finishing time in the 500.

"Those are two significant drops in time," Pelano said. "Those are two grueling events. He has become one of our leading point scorers so far this season. I feel he still has plenty of room for improvement in those events. He'll only get stronger as the season plays out."

Skurka won the 200 IM in 2:26.78 and captured the 100 butterfly in 1:04.37. Travis Lapi won the 100 backstroke in 1:18.30.

Jackson cleaned up in the relay events as well. The quartet of Skurka, A.J. Saker, Ryan Van Woeart and Brink took the 200 free in a time of 1:48.81.

In the 200 medley relay, Leonard, Van Woeart, Alex Carpenter and Saker had a winning time of 1:58.96.

The team of Alex Miller, Chris Spall, Mark Ramundo and Dennis Wojtasek captured the 400 free in 4:04.57.

In addition, Wojtasek qualified for the Shore Conference meet for the first time by taking second place in the 100 free with a time of 57.90.

"It was a solid performance by all," Pelano said. "Of course, we still have plenty of work to do. This week is huge for us."