A victory in backstroke
Halfway through the 100 meter backstroke at the meet against Agoura High School, Jason Lu, freshman, looked at the scoreboard and knew it was going to be a close race. Lu then saw his teammates cheering him on from the side of the pool, sped up his pace, and finished the race in a record of 55.43 seconds, breaking the previous school record of 55.50 by 0.07 seconds.
In 1976, Evangelos Koskinos, a senior at the time, set the previous school record for the 100 meter backstroke. “(The old record) would have been a tapered time at the end of the season,” Mike Giles, swim coach, said, “Jason did it in a dual meet, so it’s really spectacular.”
At the Ventura County Championship meet, five weeks before the record-breaking race, Lu finished the 100 meter backstroke with a time just short of the previous school record. It was then that he realized he had a shot at setting a new one.
“I knew what the record was and I knew I wasn’t going to swim (the 100 meter backstroke) in Marmonte league or CIF so I had to break it at a dual meet,” Lu said. Leading up to the swim meet against Agoura High School, Lu focused on improving his backstroke, knowing it would be one of his only chances to break the record.
Lu continued to practice with the same intensity all the way up to the meet, deciding not to taper, meaning he did not lower the distance he was swimming in practices in order to be less tired for the meet.
Despite being on taper before he swam in the Ventura County Championships, Lu felt he could get the time he wanted at the meet against Agoura High School without slowing down his training.
His coaches and teammates agreed with his decision. “I already know he’s really good at swimming, so I knew he didn’t need to (taper),” Mattheus Thielemann, freshman, said.
“I think he’s just one of those guys that’s able to really focus, lock in, (and) gets inspired by competition,” Giles added.
Before the race, Lu’s unofficial best time was under the record. “I expected (to finish) pretty much right around the record,” Lu said, “(I) knew if I had a good day and it was good circumstances then I could probably get it.”
On April 23, Lu had his chance to break the record at the dual meet. After completing the first half of the race, Lu glimpsed at the scoreboard and saw that his time was about 27 seconds, and in order to beat the record, he would have to finish the rest of the race in about 28 seconds.
“He definitely cranked it up on the second half of it because he was falling behind,” Thielemann said.
Lu completed the final lap of the race, breaking the 39-year-old record. “It’s just sort of a token of my hard work,” Lu said.
“As incredible as it is, it’s just one in his collection of great swims that he (has) put out this year,” Giles said.
Despite the accomplishment, Lu thinks he could have done better if he swam the 100 meter backstroke in the CIF meet. However, Lu qualified at the league finals to swim the 200 meter Individual Medley as well as the 500 meter freestyle in CIF, the only individual swimmer from Newbury Park to make it to CIF as well as the only one to move on to the final round. Thielemann believes that Lu has a shot at breaking these records in the future as well.
Lu explained that though he plans to continue swimming in the future, he does not expect to do it professionally. However, he hopes to one day make it to the Olympic trials.
“I recognize with a lot of our great athletes that it’s tremendous when they’re incredible leaders out of the pool as well as in the pool,” Giles said. “(In) his future, he can do whatever he wants.”
