Sophomore swimmer Jeff Rapp came up big for the Bombers at the Don Richards Memorial Invitational hosted by Rochester Institute of Technology last weekend.

Rapp took first place in the 400-yard individual medley, while finishing second in both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events. As the anchor for the 800-yard freestyle relay team, Rapp, teamed with sophomore Antoine Connors, freshman Christopher Cadwell and junior Steven Croucher, finishing third in the event. Despite being limited in practice by inflammation in both shoulders, Rapp has won five individual events and contributed to multiple relay teams.

Assistant Sports Editor Andrew Weiser sat down with Rapp to talk about his continued individual success and working through injuries this season.

 

Andrew Weiser: What is the most significant change for you from last year, now competing in your sophomore season?

 

Jeff Rapp: When picking schools, I wanted to pick a team where I could be one of the top guys, so I came here. My results from last year were what I expected, in being a contributor to the team, scoring points and helping out. This year is pretty much the same thing, still scoring a lot of points and still helping out.

 

AW: What runs through your mind when you are standing on the blocks, waiting for the race to start?

 

JR: Just waiting for it to be over. Knowing who I’m swimming against, what they’ve done already, what I need to do, what the other guys on my team are doing, who else I’m racing against, what place do I need to take and just going for best times — every time.

 

AW: As someone who swims backstroke, is that stroke something you rely on when you compete in individual medleys?

 

JR: I used to be a distance freestyler, until my shoulder started hurting too much. So I flipped over to backstroke, and I’m not too bad at it. I’m mainly an IMer because I was always trained in all four strokes. But I feel that in the backstroke, I can pretty much take it easy during the IMs, so I just keep up with everybody else and then do what I can during the other strokes.

 

AW: How does your mentality change when swimming anchor in a relay, compared to swimming in an individual event?

 

JR: I love it and I hate it. Love it because it’s all up to the anchor to finish. You’re the one that stops the clock. If you’re behind you have to catch up; if you’re in front you have to hold on. Compared to an individual, it helps because you have to watch three quarters of your race before you get in, but I like anchoring just because of that pressure. It gets me going faster.

 

AW: Is your shoulder injury something that has affected you before this season?

 

JR: I’ve been dealing with it since my junior year of high school, but it acted up around Puerto Rico last year. I got back and I couldn’t swim for almost a week. It hurt to open doors, I couldn’t hold my books — it was debilitating to my everyday life. So this year I kind of got proactive on it and started doing rehab and limiting myself to yards to slowly, gradually make my way back up toward the end of the season. Some things I can swim through; some things I can’t.

 

AW: Do you and the team train differently when you go to Puerto Rico over Christmas break than you do here in Ithaca?

 

JR: We can swim doubles here; we can swim doubles there. Water is water. Just being in that environment, and that you are flying five hours away to train, you can leave your schoolwork behind and just know that you’re there to train and that’s it.

 

AW: What is the most important thing you keep in mind while swimming to stay focused on the competition?

 

JR: Just to know that I’m there to be racing. There’s nothing else that should be in my mind at that time. Step on the blocks — I’m there to finish my race and do the best I can. If I win, awesome, if I don’t, awesome — I have two more races afterwards.