By Bond Brungard
Newburgh’s Aleksey Makarov, a senior, will compete in his final Section 9 championships this week at Valley Central in Montgomery. He has already qualified for the state meet in the 100-butterfly, and he has some unfinished business with the Goldbacks before the season ends.
“Since I was an eighth-grader, I wanted to break some school records,” he said.
Makarov wants to break a 29-year school record in the 200-individual medley, which currently stands at 1:51.46. And his best time this season record is less than 10 seconds off of that mark.
He also wants to break the 100-breaststroke records set two year ago by Josh Bryant, Makarov’s teammate before he graduated to swim for the University of Connecticut.
Makarov’s best time in that event this season is 1:01.47 on Feb. 2 when he won the OCIAA title this year, and less than 4 seconds off Bryant’s record of 57.60.
“We’ll find out when it happens,” he said.
Makarov was third in the 200-freestyle at the OCIAA meet in Washingtonville. Now he’s ready for his final postseason in Section 9 when the preliminaries get underway Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I am ready to explode.”
Newburgh finished third in the OCIAA meet and used that tournament to get swimmers in many events. The Goldbacks now head to the sectional championships with 11 double qualifiers or in more events and ready to focus on their specialties.
“They know exactly what they are swimming,” said Zach Williams, Newburgh’s coach.
And with that focus, Williams said the team has traditionally done some of its fastest swimming at the sectional championships.
“We have a pretty good track record,” said Williams, “and I expect this to be no different.”