Top Sports Stories 2019: SWR's Louser dominates in pool

It may be a long, long time before Shoreham-Wading River produces another swimmer on the level of Jason Louser. Sure, there will always be the next great lacrosse or baseball player, but in a largely independent sport like swimming, truly standout athletes can be hard to come by.
Louser leaves behind an incredible legacy in the pool.
Competing in his final season for SWR, Louser dominated again at the state public school championship. It was his fifth state meet before beginning the next phase of his career at the University of California, Berkeley.
Before the state meet, Louser broke his own 2017 county record in the 500-yard freestyle at the Section XI Championships in February with a winning time of 4 minutes, 28.34 seconds. About 30 minutes later, he took first place in the 100 breaststroke in 55.54.
He was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Competitor.
Louser trained six days a week at the Nassau County Aquatic Center, his home away from home.
At the state meet, Louser set a pair of state records at his hometown pool in East Meadow. In his final high school race, he broke his own state record in the 100-yard breaststroke in 53.94. In his first race, he blew away the field in the 200-yard individual medley, winning in 1:47.98. He had set the state record in the preliminaries one day earlier in 1:46.00.
For the second year in a row, Louser walked off with the award for being the state meet’s Most Outstanding Competitor.
As his high school career wrapped up, bigger meets awaited the 6-foot-7 swimmer. In August, he competed in the 400 IM at the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary. He finished fourth, just one spot out of the bronze medal. His time of 4:16.66 in the finals was just three-tenths of a second behind third.
Photo caption: Jason Louser competes at a March competition. (Credit: Robert O’Rourk/file)