Archive: Sports

The Lansing Community Aquatic Team (“LCAT”), the Southern Tier’s leading swim team, was awarded Bronze Medal Club status as well as Level III Club Recognition by USA Swimming, the nation’s governing body for swimming. The LCAT swim team, now in its 18th year and more than sixty-five swimmers strong, proudly calls the Lansing Public High School pool its home.

The USA Swimming Club Excellence Program is open to all of the nation’s more than 5,000 swim teams. The LCAT team is among only 200 swim clubs nationwide to have earned Gold, Silver, or Bronze Medal designation for excellence in 2011. Club Excellence designation recognizes the nation’s leading swim teams, noted for their exceptional, national-level swimmers.

USA Swimming’s Club Recognition Program assesses a broad set of criteria, including coach credentials and experience, parental volunteer efforts, community outreach, and swimmer development. Earning USA Swimming’s Level III Club Recognition status recognizes the LCAT’s significant progress and development over the years both in and out of the pool. LCAT swimmers benefit from a wonderful cadre of experienced and nurturing coaches, headed by Bob Terry and Reed Dewey, both Lansing Central School District teachers.

As the LCAT team has grown over the years, so too has the level of parental involvement, which includes an incalculable number of volunteer hours. Finally, LCAT swimmers do more than swim. The club structures opportunities for swimmers of all ages to engage with and contribute to the larger community. Recent LCAT initiatives include volunteering at Loaves & Fishes, community food banks, a donation campaign to supply families in need with basic necessities, a drive to supply United States Military personnel in Afghanistan with entertainment items, and drives to supply children with shoes.

LCAT swimmers range in age from six to twenty-three and in ability from novice beginners to New York State champions, Senior National and Olympic Trial qualifiers. Past and current LCAT Senior-level swimmers compete at the collegiate level, are frequently among the areas most heavily-recruited student-athletes and compete for highly sought-after college scholarships. These youths routinely earn Scholastic All-America honors from USA swimming. Recent LCAT high school graduates swim – or will swim - for University of Buffalo, Buffalo State, Cornell, Geneseo, Ithaca, Amherst, Dartmouth, North Carolina, Western Kentucky, and Wright State.

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