About Me

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Education

• BFA – Painting & Visual Arts, Rutgers University
• BS – Accounting , Kean University

Mason Gross (Rutgers) is conceptual. I didn’t follow that.

Art, guitar, and the worlds are self-taught.

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Swimming

I began competitive swimming at age 9 and competed through age 14 after moving to a highly competitive community where swimming carried considerable pressure.

In 1989, at age 14, I competed at the YMCA Nationals in Florida.

At the meet, I broke the New Jersey YMCA 13–14 50-yard freestyle state record with a 22.09,

and swam 48.39 in the 100-yard freestyle which broke the record at FSPY, where I trained.

My 50-yard freestyle time in the 4-man medley relay was 21.78. which was faster than my 22.09 state record time.

Our coach was Craig Beardsley ,

who had held the world record in the 200-meter butterfly from 1980 to 1983.

The pressure of competitive swimming eventually led me to step away from the sport around age 15.

Below is the original 1989 YMCA Nationals meet record document and screenshots of my freestyle events.

The YMCA Nationals meet record shows my friends and I—all just 14 years old — competing against swimmers who were 16, 17, and even 18 years old.

If you look for age 14 in the meet record, you will find my friends and I representing FSPY, or Fanwood, NJ.

We traveled to competitions on the weekends for years in every season. Once I qualified for YMCA Nationals at age 14, preparation began with early-morning practice three days per week, followed by another practice after school every day.

This was a full-time job.

Our training combined weightlifting, sit-ups, push-ups, mile runs, and hours in the pool.

This was the reality. We were 14-year-old kids training under Craig Beardsley ,
who had qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but never got to compete because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics.

On July 30, 1980, he set the world record in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:58.21.

On August 22, 1981, he broke his own world record again, swimming 1:58.01. That record stood until 1983, only two years later.

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YMCA Nationals in Florida - 1989 - My Times at age 14