Qualifies for nationals after strong showing at USS State Meet
By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
The Southern Lakes Conference (SLC) Swimmer of the Year award was announced on March 2 and for the second straight year, a Whitewater athlete was on the receiving end of it. Jonathon Zimdars, then a senior, won it last season and now Benny Liang, a senior, earned the award this season.
Liang talked about the person who has helped push him the most as a swimmer over the course of his career and the fellow award-winning Whippet came up.
“We [Zimdars and I] were basically training partners for about three years,” Liang said. “Every time I raced against him or competed against him in practice I would always give it my best. He always pushed me because he was always faster than me. We were both very competitive and neither of us wanted to lose to the other, but that helped us push each other to be the best.”
This past season, Liang didn’t have Zimdars by his side as the former Whippet had graduated, but Liang dominated his signature and favorite event – the 100-yard breaststroke – at the state meet once again. A year ago as a junior, he had taken home the title at state with a time of 59.07.
Fast forward to this season, and Liang finished with a time of 58.64, besting his previous state-winning time and capturing his second straight title in the event. Liang said when he looked at his splits immediately after racing; he thought he had swam the race poorly.
The senior said he was relieved to find out he won, though, knowing that his toughest competitor was in the lane next to him and Liang had beaten him out. Along with his second-straight 100-yard breaststroke title, Liang swam in the 100-yard butterfly as well and finished in third with a 52.28. The Whippet had proved he wasn’t just a one-trick pony.
“This year I was actually really surprised [I had won the SLC Swimmer of the Year award] because I thought a swimmer from another team would have won it since he won more conference titles at the meet,” Liang said.
Liang also competed in the 200 medley relay with three of his teammates and the quartet finished in 15th-place with their time of 1:46.33, which was faster than their initial seed time.
When mentioning he had thought his split times were slow for the 100-yard breaststroke, despite winning state with his time, Liang had fair criticism. This past weekend, Liang swam in the USS State Meet, a competition in which his head coach, Joan Domitrz, described as a meet that all the best swimmers in Wisconsin go to compete in each age group.
There, Liang had the opportunity to qualify for the national meets in Orlando, and the senior did just that. In his favorite event, Liang swam a second faster than he did at the state meet, furthering his point of believing he had swam it poorly earlier.
Liang will be competing in the nationals meet in Orlando next week in the 50, 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events, the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly events.
