The Frewsburg/Falconer/Jamestown/Southwestern swimmers and coaching staff pose for a photo after a record-setting at the NYSPHSAA Championships at Ithaca College on Saturday. Photo courtesy of Frewsburg Central School Facebook Page

ITHACA — In 47 years on the pool deck, Frewsburg/Falconer/Southwestern/Jamestown head coach Bruce Johnson knows that momentum can change from day to day or even from event to event.

So although the quintet of Conner Dean, Miles and Grady Moore, Landon Frederes and Daniel Peterson had swam so well in the preliminaries at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Championships on Friday, Johnson was taking nothing for granted when he arrived at Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium on the campus of Ithaca College on Saturday morning.

“A million things can happen,” Johnson admitted, “and most of them are not good.”

As it turned out, he was right.

Kind of.

The Bears weren’t “good” in the finals … they were GREAT.

The teens swept the three public school relays — the 200-yard medley (1:31.28) and the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:23.85) were both new state records and All-American times; and the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:04.73) was the third All-American clocking.

“The whole idea of putting together relays that fast was never in my normal thought process,” Johnson said. “It’s hard to fathom. I never thought we’d go that quick. We just kept getting a little faster and a little faster. They wanted those relays so bad. … It was electric.”

Combine that with Dean’s win and All-American recognition in the 200-yard individual medley (1:48.79); and Miles Moore’s second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle (20.58), which earned him All-American consideration, it was quite a day for the public school team champions and their coach, who called the accomplishments “overwhelming.”

“I’ve had a lot of other really good groups, strong swimmers and I thought, ‘It’s never going to be better than this,'” Johnson said, “and then along comes another group and we’re able to merge together and they just beat it.”

For the record, Frederes, Dean and the Moore twins swam the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay, while Peterson joined Dean and the Moores in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

“Any of those five you don’t need to coach them,” Johnson said. “The best thing you can do is stay out of the way and, hopefully, challenge them in workouts to do the best they can do. I kind of look at high school as all sprinting and that’s what we do in practice is all sprinting. We sprint probably more than any other team in the state, I guess.”

Johnson admitted that it “would have been nice” to beat St. Anthony — a Catholic school — in the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relays, but was quick to add that, “We pushed them and they pushed us.

“They were the best races of the meet.”

The post-meet celebrations were pretty special, too.

“A couple of the guys — Grady in particular — put his arm around me and thanked me,” Johnson said. “It’s just the little things. … Conner came up and gave me some words of encouragement.”

Johnson, who is assisted by his wife Nancy, Glen Shoup, Ian Moore and Mitch Simons, has plenty to look forward to in the 2025-26 swim season, too. While he’ll lose Dean and Peterson to graduation, the other three swimmers — the Moores are juniors and Freders is a sophomore — will return for a likely return trip to states.

Johnson sure has the blueprint for success moving forward.

“Everything has got to be just perfect,” he said, “and it was.”