Top Sports Stories 2018: SWR swimmer a double state champ

For a school that doesn’t actually feature a swim team, Shoreham-Wading River is home to one of the top swimmers for his age in the nation.

That would be standout senior Jason Louser, who’s committed to continue his athletic career at the University of California, Berkeley. In June, the website Swim Swam ranked Louser as No. 13 on its boys’ top-20 list for the Class of 2019.

It’s been a banner year for Louser, who as a junior in March won the 200-yard individual medley at the New York State Championships in his home pool at Nassau Aquatic Center in East Meadow. His time of 1 minute, 48.20 seconds designated him as an All-American. He came within 33/1,000ths of a second of breaking the Section XI record set by Justin Plaschka in 2014.

“I wasn’t expecting a state record because I do have another year to go for that but I knew that to win that event I had to go out faster because [Ward Melville’s David He is] a better back-stroker than I am,” Louser said after the meet.

He wasn’t done yet. He also won the 100-yard backstroke in 55.07, again earning All-American honors.

Louser earned the opportunity to compete at the 2018 U.S. Winter Nationals against some of the top swimmers in the nation. He swam the 400 IM and finished second in 4:23.99. He was 3.84 seconds behind 2016 Olympian Jay Litherland. The competition featured other Olympians such as Katie Ledecky, Jacob Pebley and Simone Manuel.

Louser swims for Long Island Aquatic Club.

In August, Louser won the 400-meter IM at the Speedo Junior National Championships in Irvine, Calif. His time was 4:18.59.

Photo caption: Jason Louser of Shoreham-Wading River. (Credit: Bill Landon)