On land and water, Jesse gets the numbers right

This week, the spotlight is on Warwick Valley High School junior Jesse Abramson, a standout on the outstanding Wildcats swim team, who captured First Place in both the 200 and 500 free events at the OCIAA Division II Championships on February 19. What makes this achievement all the more impressive, is that Jesse also carries multiple honors classes in his academic schedule.

Everyone had a sense that big things were coming from Jesse when, very early in the season, he broke the pool record for the 200 free. When he medaled at the Section IX meet, his time in the 200 free was yet another school record.

While we’re talking about numbers, let’s talk about Jesse’s love of them... in the classroom.

While he is extremely dedicated to his sport, Jesse also maintains great grades while taking on a set of classes that challenge and inspire him. At the moment, his schedule includes AP US History, along with Honors Chemistry and Trigonometry. Jesse said his favorite area of study is math.

“I feel like I understand math a little better than everything else,” he explained. “I’m also taking statistics this year, which I’ve been liking a lot.”

Jesse said he can definitely envision mathematics fitting into his future. A career ambition of his is to possibly go into real estate. Multiple generations of the Abramson family have been in the field, right up to today.

“My uncle is in real estate now,” said Jesse. “My grandpa does it. My great grandfather did it, and I just find it really interesting.”

As a junior, Jesse has already begun thinking about where his academic and athletic interests might lead him for college.

“I really want to go down south, either FSU or University of Florida,” he said. Jesse paid a visit to FSU to attend a swim camp and liked the campus and facilities. He said could see himself as a Seminole, adding, “That’s the dream, at the moment.”

Jesse is proud of his workout routine, which he sticks to for maintaining his health and striking a good balance between academics and athletics. Jesse does, however, admit that swimming on top of studying doesn’t allow much time for anything else.

“I do different workouts at the gym every day, Monday through Thursday,” said Jesse about his weekly routine. “Friday is my day off from the gym, but I have swim practices every Monday through Saturday. After school it’s varsity practice here, then my second practice from 6:00 to 8:00.”

That second practice is with the club team he competes for, the New York Sharks. So, to recap, that’s a day that starts at 5:30 a.m. and ends after 8:00 p.m., bookended with workouts of one variety or another.

“On Sundays,” he added with a smile and shrug, “I have nothing.”

Jesse said that swimming has taught him valuable lessons that he tries to carry over into other areas of his life.

“Definitely, leadership! Being on a team, it’s like everyone’s one big family, and sometimes people need to take on certain roles,” said Jesse. “Cheering everyone on during meets instead of sitting on the bench. And sometimes stuff can get hard, but I’ve learned it’s really about staying positive.”

This weekend, Jesse travels to the 2022 New York State Public High School Athletics Association Boys Swimming & Diving Championships at Ithaca College. He is the only swimmer who has made state times in both the 200 and 500 free.

Next week, Jesse will compete in a team challenge with the Sharks. A couple weeks after that, the team is off to Tampa for its own championship meet. Despite all of the anticipation, Jesse said he likes to stay focused on improving his own personal bests.

“I really want to go 4:35 in my 500,” he said. “That would break the school record by almost 10 seconds. Then I want to re-break my own 200 free record. It’d be nice to drop that by two seconds.”

That’s not to say that Jesse hasn’t “done the math” regarding the competitive field and his outlook for this weekend’s state tournament.

“The fastest 500, I’m pretty sure, is about 4:30, but that swimmer isn’t swimming at states,” said Jesse. “I don’t know, hopefully maybe mine will be up there.”