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FAIRBORN — Growing up in Japan, Micah Belew spoke almost no English even though his Japanese mother was an English teacher and his father was an American.

"I wasn't at zero," Belew said. "But I pretty much was starting out there."

Hard to tell now that he's a junior at Wright State and a member of a swimming team that has several foreign students, most of them recognizable by their accents.

Belew sounds like he grew up in the Midwest, although he moved to Buffalo, N.Y., from Japan as a 15-year-old, then to Houston, Texas, where he went to high school.

The last two years he was in Fort Pierce, Fla., at Indian River Community College, which is where he was recruited by Raiders coach Sion Brinn, a British-accented Jamaican.

"It is unusual," Belew said of his international trek. "When foreign students come here (to the U.S.), it is difficult. But I wanted to swim in the U.S."

Belew points out Japanese swimmers have done well internationally lately, but that wasn't the case when he was growing up. Because his parents — his father was military — didn't want to leave Japan, he had to go by himself, first living with his father's friends in Buffalo, then moving with his swimming coach to Houston.

Struggling at first with language barriers, Belew eventually became an honor-roll student.

On the swimming side, he was part of a Texas state championship team and two Indian River national junior college champion teams. He was the 2005 JUCO champ in the 200 freestyle.

This season, Belew has posted WSU's second-best time in the 100 backstroke and third-best time in the 200 freestyle. He also has the best time — along with Rafael Candido, Warren Thompson and T.J. Collins — in the 800 freestyle relay. Candido, by the way, is from Brazil, Thompson from South Africa and Collins from Fairmont High School.

The swimming teams (men and women) leave today for their annual trip to Largo, Fla. They will mostly train there, but also compete against the University of Tampa on Saturday.

Hammock honored

Women's basketball senior Tyanda Hammock was last week's Horizon League player of the week after averaging 18 points and eight rebounds in games against Toledo and Longwood. Against Toledo, a WSU loss, Hammock scored 22 points with 13 rebounds and five steals.

She is the team leader in points, rebounds, assists and steals. The Raiders host Eastern Michigan at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157

or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.