Freshmen make Lions formidable force in Ivies

When men’s head swim coach Jim Bolster said goodbye to his graduating class last year, he knew the program was losing some serious talent. Among those seniors were Adam Powell and Hyun Lee, each a major point winner, Columbia record-holder, and individual Ivy League champion.

However, he saw no need to despair.

“Arguably, we lost two of the greatest swimmers in the history of Columbia swimming and diving in Adam Powell and Hyun Lee,” Bolster said. “And I wouldn’t say any one individual in the freshman class has stepped up and filled that role and that’s not something I was expecting, but sort of by committee, collectively, they have.”

It doesn’t hurt, for instance, that Stanley Wong—a sprint freestyler and breaststroker from Orangeburg, N.Y.—broke some of Powell’s high school state records.

“Coming from the same state and same section, I never actually competed against Adam, but I would always see his times,” Wong said. “Actually accomplishing it made me realize that I can swim at his level. So coming here, to the school he graduated from, it gives me motivation to live up to how he swam here.”

Coach Gordan Spencer also weighed in on the parallels between the two sprinters. “Stanley is faster coming in than Adam Powell was when he came in as a first-year,” he noted. “It’s going to be interesting to watch Stanley’s progress over four years.”

In addition to his performance on the state level, Wong won the 50-yard freestyle at the 2011 NSCA Junior National Championships. He isn’t the only rookie making major contributions to the Lions’ sprint group, though. A Yardley, Pa. native, Daniel Gosek stands at an intimidating six-and-a-half feet, which gives him a hard-to-beat extension and an immediate advantage in races.

“He works very hard. He’s been top three in the 50 in just about every one of our dual meets,” Bolster said. Besides just the 50 freestyle, however, Bolster stressed Gosek’s versatility, which should be an asset come Feb. 23, the date of the Ivy League Championships.

According to Bolster, Gosek’s talents in the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke set him up to be a possible point winner in those races as well. In the championship format, each swimmer can swim in three individual races.

“You’d like to have them score in three events, not just swim in three,” Bolster said. “Dan has that potential ... I think he’s going to create a stir at Ivy Championships, or certainly has that ability.”

Yet another freshman with potential to place in his rookie season came to Columbia by way of Canada. Omar Arafa, an Egyptian native who moved to Toronto in the middle of his junior year of high school, currently owns the third-fastest 100 backstroke time in the Ivy League—and he only recently turned 17.

Despite his age, the precocious swimmer has a mature outlook on his career, not to mention big aspirations.

“Jim was a big part of the reason I came to Columbia,” Arafa said of his coach. “He made me confident that coming here was the right choice, that I would improve, that I would make all of the goals I had in mind, and I just felt at home.”

Among those goals is Arafa’s ambition to swim in the Olympics. Because of his origins, Arafa could potentially compete for either Canada or Egypt.

“I think that’s something that’s in the back of his mind and he certainly has the potential to get there. If he stays healthy and continues to work hard, it’s sort of the natural evolution,” Bolster said.
Micah Rembrandt, a freshman from Longmeadow, Mass., dives off the springboard, not the blocks. Rembrandt, who prefers the one-meter event, has managed several first-place finishes in dual meets thus far this season.

“Micah has proven himself to be very competitive this year,” said head diving coach Gordon Spencer. “Just a tremendous work ethic. And his acrobatic skills, his explosiveness are very high as well. ... He’s an incredibly hard worker, he’s a great listener, and he’s doing everything he can to get better.”

Rembrandt, who started diving when his mom signed him up for a class when he was young, tries to keep things in perspective. “I’m not overconfident,” he said. “I know what kind of diver I am and I’ve had a pretty good season so far, and I’m just hoping to maintain and improve upon what I’ve done.”

At this point in the season, the swimmers’ focus on Ivies is inevitable. After all, as Bolster points out, it’s the freshman class’s real chance to prove itself.

“So far they’ve done a very nice job, but we still have a ways to go in the season,” he said. “Really, the defining aspect of the year will be how they do at their championship meet. But we’re very excited to have them.”

That’s not to say Bolster doesn’t weight his words with a bit of pride.

“I think that a lot of the swimming recruiting journals rated the recruiting classes and I think they gave Princeton and Harvard A’s and Yale A-, and they gave us a B+. I’ll take that, but I take that as a challenge and I’d like these guys to be an A+ when it’s all said and done.”