Preps

Looking back, swimmer's talent couldn't be ignored

Jose Crescimbeni is headed to the Olympics but wants a state title with Calvary Christian.

By JOEY KNIGHT, Times Staff Writer
Published October 25, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Brian Casella | Times] Calvary Christian senior Jose Crescimbeni, 17, is on the Peruvian swim team for the 2008 Beiing Olympics. He qualified for the 200 butterfly at the Pan-Am Games in the summer.

TAMPA - Ruth Crescimbeni says she remembers the conversation, at least a dozen years old by now, nearly word for preposterous word.

A female coach at the prestigious Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club - on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. - had been teaching Ruth's 5-year-old son, Jose, the butterfly, which seemed apropos in itself. In Jose, the coach saw a chlorinated dynamo in its larval stage.

She told Ruth as much.

"He was almost 6 and she was like, 'I'm going to tell you right now, he's going to be an excellent butterflyer,'" Ruth recalled. "At that point I laughed. In the back of my mind, I was like, 'She doesn't know what she's talking about.' To me, he was a baby.

"Here we are; he turned into what she said."

Indeed, the career of Jose Emmanuel Crescimbeni III has, in aquatic terms, hydroplaned from Point A to Point B, which in this case stands for Beijing.

A 17-year-old Calvary Christian senior known by most as Emman, he has qualified for the 2008 Olympics in the 200-meter butterfly as a member of the Peruvian national team.

"It's hard to believe it," Ruth says, "but it's really happening."

At times, the odyssey has been far more bizarre than blissful.

Emman - bona fide Olympian and University of Florida commitment - still hasn't won a state high school championship. He missed the postseason altogether as a junior and, until about three weeks ago, appeared in danger of missing today's Class A, Region 3 meet in Fort Myers.

Fred Lewis, Crescimbeni's year-round coach at St. Petersburg Aquatics, can only chuckle when asked about the gaping hole in Emman's otherwise sparkling resume.

"Emman Crescimbeni," Lewis says, "is the fastest swimmer you've never heard of."

Tough lungs, tougher luck

Born in Maryland and raised in the bay area, Emman, 17, earned an Olympic qualifying time 2:01.09 in the 200 butterfly semifinals of the Pan-Am Games in Rio this summer.

Months before, he received dual-citizenship status from the Peruvian Consulate in Miami. In March, he was believed to be the United States' only 16-year-old to compete in the FINA Aquatics World Championships in Australia.

The Olympic achievement served as the culmination of miles upon miles of laps in the pool, not to mention his burgundy Mitsubishi Eclipse.

A Holiday resident, he rose well before dawn six days a week this summer to make the 36-mile drive from his house to St. Petersburg's North Shore Pool in time for 6:15 a.m. workouts with Lewis.

Former Jesuit star Tommy Wyher was a frequent carpool companion. When they arrived at the pool, they typically engaged in 45 minutes of weight training or medicine ball work before getting a toe wet. Afternoons featured another two-hour pool workout.

"That's an awful lot of dedication," Lewis said. "I mean, extreme dedication."

Such commitment spans roughly a decade; Emman joined Lewis' club in May after spending eight years with the Clearwater Aquatic team, defying a rich Crescimbeni soccer heritage. His dad, Jose, played for Peru's junior national team. An uncle played in the World Cup.

"I used to play soccer when I was younger," said Emman, whose parents were born in the Peruvian coastal city of Callao. "I guess it's just like, the more competitive side for me, because you're swimming for yourself. It's more like an individual sport than a team sport. It kind of challenges yourself, too."

It was through year-round training he learned how to maximize the physical assets - elastic lungs and fullback thighs - on his 5-foot-7 frame. To watch Emman compete in a butterfly event is to observe a clinic in lung capacity and legwork.

In short-course races (the 100 butterfly at the prep level), swimmers can remain under water up to 15 yards off each wall. Emman, his legs churning like bronze pistons, utilizes every yard, resulting in fewer required strokes above water.

"When you're swimming under water you can kick faster than you can swim on the surface," Lewis said. "Emman is not the tallest swimmer in the pool, but when you look at his body structure, he has by far the strongest set of legs."

As a Calvary Christian freshman, he qualified for the Class A meet, finishing eighth in the 100 fly and 12th in the 100 back. At the following season's state meet, he placed second to Wyher, now a University of North Carolina freshman, in both events.

The anticipated rematch between the two at the 2006 state meet never materialized. During the '06 regular season, Emman said, he swam in only two meets - two fewer than the minimum amount required by the Florida High School Athletic Association.

"It was my first year coaching," Calvary Christian coach Steve Hunt said. "I didn't read the rule book enough to know that was the case."

Emman wasn't notified until getting a phone call from Ruth while at the Atlanta airport, where he had flown in after an international meet in Chile.

"It was kind of bad," he said. "When I came back from Chile, I got back on a Monday. We had districts that Tuesday. So I came back Monday and went to practice ... thinking I was going to swim and then I found out I couldn't swim."

Hunt suspects Emman would have placed second to Wyher in the butterfly, but believes he would have had an excellent chance at a state title in an individual medley race, where he previously had posted one of the state's fastest times.

"Ask my wife. I was really, really devastated by it," Hunt said.

"I was a high school swimmer (at Clearwater in the mid 1970s) who made it to state, and I know how important it was to me. And I know how important it was to him because being a junior last year, college coaches were starting to look at him and that's the No. 1 place they start."

That was only the first in a disheartening sequence of logistical pitfalls. The first passport Emman acquired from the Peruvian Consulate was invalidated upon the discovery his middle name had been spelled "Manuel," forcing his dad to make another excursion - 600 miles on the nose, round trip - to Miami to correct the error.

Then, this past regular season, Emman competed in five meets - one more than the required minimum - but only after three scheduled meets were canceled (one due to weather).

Now, Emman and his coach can taste exoneration.

Beijing can wait

Today, Emman enters the region meet as the top seed in the 100 fly and backstroke, and the pivotal leg on two Warriors relay teams. His district-winning times in the two events (49.87 seconds in the fly, 51.39 in the backstroke) were - by far - the state's fastest in Class A.

Barring further dry-land misfortune, he should easily prevail at regionals, then advance to the state meet a week from today in Orlando.

Until he procures a state championship medal, he insists, Beijing is a world away.

"It's my senior year, I'm trying to do everything possible, do everything I can before I graduate," he said. "That way I can just have it on my resume."

Joey Knight can be reached at (813) 226-3350 or jknight@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 24, 2007, 23:21:30]