William Tennent and Quakertown swimmers are highlighted as well as the American Conference’s top performers.
National Conference
Panthers’ spirit is strong -This year’s William Tennent girls’ team is very small in numbers.
But according to junior Shannon Battis, the spirit is strong.
“You have to make it work as best you can,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of people, so we know we’re not going to win many meets, but we always give 100 percent and we cheer for each other and do our best to motivate each other.
“You don’t have to have a lot of people to have a good program and we have that. Everyone gets along and we’re a close group, so to me it’s a good team.”
The boys’ team is bigger and more competitive.
“It is frustrating, especially when the boys are having a really close meet and we’re getting killed but we look past that and cheer the boys on and they support us too,” Battis said.
She sees brighter days ahead.
“I think next year we’ll be a lot better because we have a lot of girls coming up,” she said. “So this year our goal is to just hang in there and next year we’ll be getting reinforcements.
“We graduated people and this year we didn’t get a lot of new people in, but that is just something that happened this year. It’s not a sign that the team is in trouble.”
At last year’s conference championships, she finished third in the 500 freestyle and fifth in the 200 individual medley. She also anchored the fourth place 200 freestyle relay and led off the fifth place 200 medley relay.
At the District One Class AAA meet, she qualified in two individual events, finishing 26th in the 500 and 38th in the 200 individual medley.
“My 500 has really improved this year,” she said. “I’m hoping to break the school record this year, and I think I can do it. If not, I’m a junior so there’s always next year.”
The current Tennent record for the 500 freestyle is 5:15.37,set in 2009 by Meghan Forlini.
Continental Conference
Panthers on the rise - Quakertown is improving by leaps and bounds.
After going nine years without a win, the boys’ team has two victories, beating Upper Perkiomen, 92-53, and Moravian Academy, 87-80.
The Panthers were in the hunt for a third win, losing by just three points to Saucon Valley.
The team is under two new coaches in Scott Woods and Brett Wimmer. Wimmer was actually on the team the last time the boys won a meet, when he was a sophomore in the 2004-05 season.
“We have more people this year and that’s making a difference for us,” said sophomore Chris Cowan. “We won those two meets mainly because of numbers. We finally have enough guys to fill out two relays and most of the individual events and that’s making a difference for us.
“It’s definitely a good feeling to be competitive in meets.”
There are no seniors on the team so everyone will be back and Cowan is optimistic.
“Hopefully we’ll pick up a few more people,” he said. “I’m looking forward to next year. The freshmen we have on the team now will be bigger and better and as long as we keep improving, we’re doing good.”
This season will reach its crescendo at the conference championships.
“We want to announce our presence there this year and make a dent in the standings,” said Cowan, who also plays volleyball for Quakertown.
“I’m probably going to swim the 200 and 500 freestyles, which are my regular events, and also the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. My goal for myself is to continue to drop time.”
Cowan has been swimming competitively for six or seven years after beginning with lessons at the YMCA.
“It’s a good sport,” he said. “I liked it right from the beginning and I stuck with it.”
He would like to swim in college and major in engineering, perhaps mechanical or aerospace.
American Conference
American Conference swimmers excel - Upper Dublin has its fair share of top times on the paswimming.com Top 50 list. The list is compiled by paswimming.com from meets submitted by coaches throughout Pennsylvania.
Michael Jensen is ranked fifth in the 100 butterfly with his time of 50.92. He is also 10th in the 200 freestyle (1:43.10) and 24th in the 200 individual medley (1:58.77).
Christopher Devlin is eighth in the 200 freestyle (1:42.80), 11th in the 500 freestyle (4:43.73), 19th in the 200 individual medley (1:58.28) and 36th in the 100 freestyle (48.77).
Copper Tollen is 35th (1:02.75), Allen Tang is 38th and Devon Polak is 48th (1:03.53) in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.94).
Ogden Leyens is 42nd in the 500 freestyle (4:53.19).
The 200 medley relay of Jensen, Devlin, Stephen Williamson and Tollen is 12th (1:29.48) and the 400 freestyle relay of Devlin, Leyens, Scott Luttman and Jensen is 15th (3:18.07).
For the girls, Jenna Johns is ranked 13th in the 100 freestyle (52.84),19th in the 100 butterfly (59.09), 21st in the 200 freestyle (1:56.28) and 28th in the 50 freestyle (24.88).
Sam Wheatley is ranked 30th in the 100 freestyle (54.40).
Casey O’Neill is 33rd in the 200 freestyle (1:57.70) and 34th in the 500 freestyle (5:16.73).
The 200 freestyle relay of Wheatley, Corey Johnson, Megan Paris and Johns is ranked 16th (1:42.08) while in the same event, Wheatley, Paris, O’Neill and Johns are ranked 25th (1:42.67).
The 400 freestyle relay of Wheatley, O’Neill, Paris and Johns is 12th (3:41.92).
For Plymouth Whitemarsh, Hannah McGee is ranked 46th in the 100 freestyle (54.98) and Ray Sellers is 49th in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.54).
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