Time is such a valuable concept. One second can make or break a situation. In swimming, whether one breaks a record or not can be determined by 100th of a second. Senior Max Hardart, an accomplished member of the Hackley swim team, had a record-setting season. In a December meet against Trinity, he set a school and Ivy League record in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:41.82. On January 21, 2022, in a meet against Horace Mann, he set a school and Ivy League record in the 200 Individual Medley, with a time of 1:51.72.
Max worked hard to be able to reach these achievements. Swimming is a very physical and time-demanding sport. He typically swims six to eight times per week with his practices lasting between one and a half hours to two hours. He also has to do strength training outside of the pool in order to be properly prepared for specific events.
“It’s a difficult sport to train for, but I’ve gotten accustomed to the lifestyle, and the results are often very rewarding,” Max said.
Swimming for a high school team is very different from swimming for a club team.
“Since my first year on HVS in 2017-18, I’ve been teammates with so many awesome people, and made friendships and memories I’ll never forget,” Max said.
One of Max’s favorite parts of being on the Hackley swim team is being able to watch his teammates improve in the pool over the course of the season. Although, the best part of the swim team, according to Max, is watching the team connect together outside of the pool and having the outside connections reflect the energy increase on the deck as the season progresses. Max feels that the energy at the Ivy league champions is electric and Hackley always brings their best swimming in February.
Although this is his final year at Hackley, Max has goals for swimming in the future. His first goal is to finish his Hackley career in the strongest way possible as a competitor, as a teammate, and as a captain. He would love to make his name and the school as a whole more frequent on the record board.
“Looking forward to next year, I’m elated to be a member of the Brown Men’s Swim and Dive team in the fall, and hope to represent both Brown and Hackley well in my performance,” he said.
Another of Max’s dreams is to qualify and compete at the U.S Olympic trials in 2024. He is hopeful that his experience and hard work will propel him to accomplish this dream.