On May 27, 1948, the track team raced against St. Lawrence College of Kent, England despite being separated by nearly 3,500 miles. The teams competed simultaneously, on two different continents, and then compared scores by mail. The postmarked results revealed that the Blue & White had emerged victorious, 1,039 to 969, after taking 1st place in all five events: 100 yards, 880 yards, 12-lbs shot put, high jump, and broad jump. According to the September 1948 Stony Brook Bulletin, it was the first international meet of its kind.

Yesterday afternoon, our swim team brought the idea of that 73-year-old track meet into the 21st Century by competing in a virtual swim meet against the Hill School from Pottstown, PA. The 176-mile separation between the two campuses was closed by simultaneous livestreams from each pool and the instant sharing of electronic times. When the water settled, the Bears emerged victorious with a combined boys’ and girls’ score of 86-83.

The girls’ 200 medley relay team of Amelia Griffin, Kaitlyn Tse, Sofia Arrascue, and Ruthie Crane started the meet off with a bang by eclipsing the 2017 school record of 1:57.25 with a mark of 1:56.84. The quartet also earned victories in the 200 freestyle (1:45.09) and the 400 freestyle (3:54.63) relays. Individual winners for the girls included Crane in the 200 free (2:04.74) and 500 free (5:34.89), Griffin in the 100 free (57.02) and 100 backstroke (1:03.40), Arrascue in the 200 individual medley (2:27.61) and 50 free (28.90), and Tse in the 100 butterfly (1:06.31) and 100 breaststroke (1:10.97). Those four Bears single-handedly powered the girls to a 44-37 win over the Rams.

On the boys’ side, Robbie Fehrenbach earned wins in the 50 free (23.94) and 100 free (52.62) and helped Oliver Griffin, Hugo MacDonald, and Sam Specht to relay victories in the 200 medley (1:53.11) and 400 free (3:40.86). Markus Calero, Phillip Kong, Leo Brandenberg, and Nick Chung gave the Bears a clean sweep in all six relays with a victory in the 200 free (1:43.35).

_____________________________________________________________