Closing out his fourth and final year on the GBS varsity swim team, senior Jon Salomon is not only an All-American swimmer, but also a leader and inspiration amongst his fellow teammates, according to junior Sam Salganik.
Next year Salomon is continuing his swimming career at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, a D1 school, where Salomon hopes to exceed even his own high expectations, according to head coach Keith MacDonald.
According Salganik, Salomon is a leader to the team and encourages his teammates to do their best and stay focused on the meet at hand.
“I think the team definitely comes to me for questions,” Salomon said. “I have a lot of experience so they ask me questions about small stuff, like ‘Where am I supposed to go?’ and ‘What am I supposed to do?’”
Salomon first became interested in swimming when his older brother introduced him to the sport.
“I watched him for about three years,” Salomon said. “I saw how much fun he was having and the competitiveness of the sport, and then decided to try it.”
Getting to this point in Salomon’s swimming career was not easy, Salomon said. Last year at the State finals, Salomon placed fourth in the 50-Yard Freestyle and seventh in the 100-Yard Freestyle. Salomon was also a part of the fifth place 200 Freestyle Relay and the seventh place 400 Freestyle Relay.
According to Salomon, the state finishes reflected his training during the season.
“This was something I had worked for the entire year,” Salomon said. “So that was rewarding beating those records.”
According to MacDonald, Salomon has been setting records at South since freshman year and continues to do so as his swimming career at GBS comes to an end.
“It is really great to see how far he has come,” MacDonald said. “His desire to achieve success is very good, and he is extremely dedicated to the sport.”
As a senior, Salomon reflects on being named one of the best swimmers in the state and an All-American swimmer as well.
“It is a proud moment seeing that all my hard work has paid off, and that I have accomplished what I have trained for,” Salomon said.
According to Salomon, his final hopes are to lead his team to state and do better than he did last year.
“My goal this season is to place as high as we can at state,” Salomon said. “We are going to try […] for a trophy, so top three.”
According to junior Tommy Hagerty, Salomon’s times have improved from last season and he is trying to take the number one spot in the state.
“All of this began when I was nine years old,” Salomon said. “I’ve been swimming for a long time and I have always had the dream of swimming in college.”
According to Salomon, signing with The University of Wisconsin- Madison will take his career to the next level.
“It’s awesome to go to the school I wanted to go to and represent the university on a national level,” Salomon said.
On Friday Jan. 3, Salomon’s hard work paid off in the team’s meet against their CSL rival New Trier. Although they lost the meet, the team won 8 out of the 12 events. According to Salomon, the team will have a better shot at beating New Trier at the conference meet.
“A big moment for me was beating New Trier’s top 100-Yard Freestyle guy, who is one of the fastest swimmers in the state,” Salomon said. “It was a great race and amazing to win in front of everybody on senior night.”
Not only will Salomon leave behind his records, but his presence will be remembered all the same by his teammates, according to Hagerty.
“I knew I was going to get better, but I did not think I would be this good,” Salomon said. “It has been a great season, and I am going to miss my team the most.”
