Stevens’ “junior’ breaststroker Simas Jarasundas talks about his NCAA Division III Championship in the 100 breaststroke, and how appreciative he is of the NCAA atmosphere.
Jarasundas comes from the great breaststroking tradition in Lithuania, though he’s also done some training in the Netherlands, and really caught the country off-guard with his 100 breaststroke National Championship. He says that he’s actually a better 200 breaststroker, so watch out for him in that final after placing 4th in prelims in 2:00.60. Williams’ Paul Dyrkacz is the top seed in 1:58.83, and he won’t be easy to beat.
Thanks to SCAC Sports for putting together these great interviews at the DIII National Championships. Follow them on Twitter at @SCAC_Sports.
Coach Thornton is right.
I’m a Dutch friend of Simas and I can assure everyone that Simas did not go to New York for the swimming.
He went to NY for his education and to get some interesting life experience. As it turns out he’s getting more than he hoped for, after only a couple of months of intensive training.
He’s most certainly not a hired gun. He studied, trained and worked at a suit store in the Netherlands to save money so he could go to the US. He had no social life here in the Netherlands and did not have enough time to compete seriously in swimming. He actually had a really hard time here.
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So a foreign exchange student shouldn’t be allowed to participate in NCAA athletics?
Your borderline xenophobia is embarrassing.
FYI – this kid is 4-5 years younger than the American born 400 IM winner
Do you really think that he would be on that foreign exchange if it was not for the swimming? I have lived overseas 10 of my 53 years and continue to travel on business and vacation, so I think your xenophobia comment is misplaced. Just have a discussion with swimmers on a team that have brought in a mid-year stud and you may understand my comment better.
You couldn’t be more off base in your ‘hired gun’ accusation, and I don’t appreciate your attempted discrediting of our program here at Stevens.
Why have a discussion with the swimmers when you can just ask me, his coach? Give me a call or send me over an email (all public information) and I’ll be happy to tell you about a guy who hasn’t trained with a team in over 2 years and decided to partake in a foreign exchange program at a Division III school for his last semester of University.
-Brad
In response to Micah, I think he has every right to take advantage of the NCAA opportunities while he’s studying here.
Also, this meet has been really interesting on the men’s side. It’s the first time in ages that there’s been so many teams battling for the top spots, and it’s making for really dynamic competition. Really fun to watch it unfold.
I really take exception to the “hired gun” approach of bringing in foreigners for one semester. Seems to be unfair to other kids that have been working the whole season. He will never give back to the school in the future. I truly wish the NCAA would put limitations on the use of foreigners when so many US kids would love to have a chance to develop and contribute on the Collegiate level. Many of the foreign males are older.
I completely agree, but division 3 doesnt give money so hes technically not taking away from anyone is he?
very true re D3! I guess I am thinking more D1 which is done by some schools to bring in a guy mid-year. With two former D1 swimmers in our family, I heard about this issue quite a bit from them. The US swimmers do carry a degree of resentment.