Manalapan's Harvey wins county swim title
Brave wins by .01 second
BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

There's a reason that swimmers spend countless hours in the pool working on their technique.

When a swimmer is tired, the first thing to go is their technique, their form, and it can cost them precious time. In a race, that's the difference between winning and finishing up the pool.

Manalapan's Ryan Harvey is a swimmer who pays attention to those details, and it made the difference for him Saturday. By just .01 of a second, the sophomore won the Monmouth County championship in the 100-yard breaststroke.

"I went all out pushing as hard as I could," he remarked. "I kept focus on my technique."

It allowed him to touch the wall in 1:05.14, just a blink of an eye ahead of runner-up Michael Connor of Rumson-Fair Haven (1:05.15) at the Monmouth County Championships held at the Ocean County YMCA in Toms River.

Harvey, who started in lane six, followed the progress, as best he could, of top seed Miles Kuras of Neptune, who was two lanes over.

"I took a peak at 50 yards and I was kind of behind," he said. "On the last lap, I had a little lead."

Harvey knew better than to let up now that he was in the lead. Not being able to keep track of everyone in the race, he pushed all the way to the wall. It's a good thing, because out of his sight, Connor was making a big move on the last lap, almost catching up to Harvey. But it was the Brave who touched first. Kuras would finish third (1:05.98).

Shortly after finishing his race, Harvey looked up at the scoreboard clock and saw his name on the top.

"It's really cool," he said of the county championship.

There was no easy path to his win.

"Just hard work and a lot of technique drills," Harvey explained.

Before winning his 100-yard breaststroke race, the Brave placed eighth in the 100 butterfly. It wasn't the greatest confidence booster for him, but he didn't need it. The times he had been swimming in the 100 breaststroke told him he was a contender.

"I thought I would have a chance to win," he said. "When I saw the time of the top seed, I knew that I had done 1:05 before."

Harvey's win and eighth-place helped the Brave boys finish 15th (43).

Had it not been for a change of mind, Harvey wouldn't be a county champion today. Although he has been swimming since he was 6 and is a member of the YMCA of Western Monmouth County squad, last winter, he was playing basketball for the Manalapan freshman team. After talking to friends and teammates, he decided to give high school swimming a go and he has no regrets.

"It's been a lot of fun," he said. "I like the swim meets."

In dual meets, Harvey can put his versatility to use swimming all four strokes - freestyle, butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke - for the Braves. Dual meets will dominate the remainder of the month.

Next month, Harvey will take aim at adding a Shore Conference title to his resume when he returns to the Ocean County YMCA for the conference championships scheduled for Feb. 9-10.