Just like a year ago, it took Wenjun "Happy" Chang '18 all of one meet to add his name to the Wilbraham & Monson Academy record books – again.
In the season opener for the WMA Swim team, Happy established a new mark in the 100-yard butterfly, touching the wall in 53.42 seconds in a meet against Kingswood-Oxford School.
"It was OK, pretty good," Happy said. "It's a good time but I know I can do better if I improve my turn, definitely by a half second. I'm capable of breaking the school record so I will try to do it next time."
Happy smashed the pool mark of 55.07. He narrowly missed the school record of 53.08, which he set at the New England Prep School Division III Championships in March.
"It was great," Coach Dan Moran said. "It was a pool record. He stayed under the water well. He has some room to improve: his last turn he was a little long going into the wall. But it was good and it was consistent. He's now shown in several meets he can do 53 (seconds) consistently so hopefully he makes a breakthrough and goes 52 and we'll see what happens when the end of the year comes down."
"I had a good preseason and I did a 53.8 so I can definitely drop it under 53," added Happy, whose long-term goal for the season is to swim the 100 fly in less than 50 seconds.