Ben Vondrak, the Section IX breaststroke champion, pauses during practice on Monday, Feb. 22.
Only one of the five people in the high school pool on Monday afternoon had a reason to be there. Ben Vondrak was preparing for the state championships. Four of his teammates were with him, because they didn’t think Ben would want to practice all alone.
The Cornwall senior had a big weekend at the Section IX Swim Meet at Valley Central. He was fourth in the preliminaries for the breaststroke, but his time was fast enough to qualify for the state meet in Buffalo. In the finals, Ben swam in lane 6, a few lanes away from the top-seeded people in the event. As a result, he never saw them. He didn’t know his position in the race until after it was over, and he learned that he had won.
Ben attributes part of his success to a hip injury he suffered last year. It kept him out of the water, and gave him a chance to work with Coach John Pinckney. As Ben helped the younger swimmers, he learned a lot about his own technique.
“This has been a great year for Section IX swimming,” Ben observed during a break in practice. “After the Saturday meet, the bleachers were filled with state qualifiers [from a dozen different events].”
Few of them, however, could duplicate his experience. During the weekend, he lowered his breaststroke time by more than two seconds — and vaulted from 34th to 16th in the state standings.
Although Ben is the first Cornwall swimmer to win a section title since Dylan Burns in 2013, he’s not the first member of his family to qualify for “states.” His older sister, Cassie, did it as a member of a relay team when she was a sophomore.
Ben shied away from family comparisons, but modestly acknowledged setting a new school record. And what’s ironic is he set the record wearing a suit from Bluepoint Aquatics that was purchased through Dylan Hobe — the person who held the record that Ben broke.
Cornwall finished eighth in the team standings. Besides Ben, Ciaran O’Gorman, Joe Sullivan and Derek Luhrs each scored in two individual events, Kyle Washington became the first Dragon to score over 400 points in diving since 2002.
SECTION IX MEET
200 medley relay: Luhrs, Vondrak, Sullivan, Galeano (7) 1:42.58
200 freestyle: Ciaran O’Gorman (4) 1:49.74
200 medley: Ben Vondrak (3) 2:01.44
Diving (11 dives): Kyle Washington (7) 406.55
100 butterfly: Joseph Sullivan (9) 56.84
100 freestyle: Derek Luhrs (16) 53.07
500 freestyle: O’Gorman (5) 5:05.86
100 backstroke: Sullivan (12) 58.00
100 breaststroke: Vondrak (1) 59.13 (new school record), Luhrs (15) 1:06.62
400 freestyle relay: Justin Gagnon, Hwang, Jon. Gagnon, Soto (7) 3:57.26
