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By Alex Frazier
New pool.
Plenty of new records.
When Souderton and North Penn get together, there’s no doubt a record or two will fall.
But 22?
Not only was it a testament to the caliber of swimming and diving between the two neighborhood rivals, it was also only the fourth meet in Souderton’s fast new pool.
Unfortunately for the Indians, it was their guests who were the recipients of most of those new marks.
The North Penn boys accounted for nine new standards in their 103-75 victory.
“It’s Souderton and it’s always exciting,” said Knights coach Brian Daly. “It’s not everyday you get a chance to swim in a brand new facility, so it’s exciting maybe to get a new pool record.”
Not to be outdone, the Maidens added another seven records to the totals in their 110-76 victory.
“It’s a great rivalry,” said North Penn girls coach Matt Weiser. “In the two years I’ve been coaching here, it’s been a great meet to be at. The success the two programs have had lately is awesome.”
Typical of the rivalry was the 200 and 400 freestyle girls’ relay races.
In the 200, North Penn’s Casey O’Neill and Souderton’s Chloe Thomas were duking it out stroke for stroke down the homestretch, with O’Neill touching six-tenths of a second ahead of Thomas. Both teams broke the pool record.
“It was a great finish for a tough race,” said Weiser.
Souderton got a measure of revenge in the 400 relay. The Indians’ Missy Doll hit the water a full body length behind O’Neill but caught her after the first 50 yards and cruised ahead to win by 2.08 seconds. Again, both teams broke the pool mark.
The story of the girls meet for North Penn was the second half: and the key to that was the performance of the Maiden divers, who swept the top three places. Both Ashley Liss (211.20) and Shauna Hannings (209.15) set records in finishing one-two.
“We have great divers,” said Weiser. “They always score us a lot of points in these kind of meets. After we got a big boost from them, it was all pretty much downhill for us.”
The Souderton girls won three of the first four events, but took only two of the last seven after diving.
“We were doing two points better than I expected at diving,” said Souderton coach Todd Bauer. “We came out of diving down 12.”
The Maidens’ Colleen Stiles had a great swim in the 500, almost singlehandedly breaking the Indians’ spirit. She won the event in a time of 5:20.68, which ironically enough wasn’t a record.
“The 500 was a rough swim for us,” said Bauer. “It didn’t work out how I planned.”
It turned out to be a momentum breaker.
“We had one bad swim and people started thinking about that bad swim,” said Bauer.
Stiles also went on to win the 100 backstroke in a record time of 1:02.55.
Weiser also complimented Sarah Hannings, who won the 100 breaststroke.
While Bauer was disappointed with some of his second-tier swimmers, he had no complaints about his studs.
Doll, Mariel Kush and Thomas all came through.
“All three of them just swam great,” he said. “They did exactly as I expected.”
Bauer even entered Doll and Kush in races they weren’t accustomed to. Doll swam the 200 freestyle, winning it in a record time of 1:57.01.
“She took care of business as expected,” said Bauer.
Just like Kush, who won the 200 individual medley in a pool record 2:14.56.
Without Doll in the 50 freestyle, it was Thomas’ turn to take over, which she did by beating North Penn’s Sam Deana by .27 of a second.
“There was a little pressure, but the girls from North Penn were pretty close to my time, so I knew I had to go out and give it my all so I could win the race,” said Thomas.
Thomas had a chance to go with Doll in the 100 free, where they placed one-two.
“I knew there was a girl who was pretty close to my time (O’Neill), so I definitely had to take it out quick and get in front of her and stay in front of her the whole time,” Thomas said.
“When you go to meets like this, you need to roll the dice and put your faith in your best swimmers,” said Bauer, “and our best swimmers did the job today. Some of the younger kids didn’t step up.”
The North Penn boys dominated the record board, setting records in two of the three relays scored.
“We were OK today,” said Daly. “We were a little sluggish out of the gate, but there were definitely some nice swims.”
One of those came from senior captain Sean McDonald, who won the 500 free, finished second in the 200 free and swam the anchor leg of the 200 freestyle relay that finished second (but with a pool record time) and the second leg of the 400 relay (which would have finished first in a record time if the Knights were scoring the event).
“It’s always fun swimming against Souderton,” he said. “Swimming, water polo - they’re always our biggest league rivals. We just tried to go out and swim our fastest times and improve, especially on our relays.”
Ironically, McDonald did all that after missing most of the week with a cold/flu.
“I was sick all week,” he said. “I only got to get in one practice yesterday. I ended up being able to go.”
And go pretty fast.
His time of 4:56.74 in the 500 was a lifetime best.
“I started feeling it at about lap 15,” he said, “but I was able to push though it.”
He was a little disappointed with being off his best in the 200 (1:50.28).
“I’ve been under 1:50, but I can’t complain, being out sick,” he said.
Souderton’s lone records came in diving with Ozzie Moyer racking up an impressive 283.65. North Penn’s Frankie Murray also broke the previous mark in placing second with 266.55.
“The guys just outclassed us,” said Bauer. “They’re at a different level right now. That’s OK. You swim teams like this to make yourselves better. We had some great swims on the guys’ side.”
One of those was from Chris Hink, who qualified for districts for the first time in the 50 freestyle. He finished fourth in 23.55.
In the 200 free relay, three records dropped, North Penn took the top two spots, while Souderton’s third place was also good for a record-breaking performance.
“We’re young,” said Bauer. “The bulk of our team is sophomores and freshmen. We’re working on it. We’re getting better. Every meet we’re swimming a little bit faster.”
Girls
North Penn 110, Souderton 76
200 medley relay—North Penn (Sam Deana, Sarah Hannings, Jan Ikeda, Mary Morris) 1:53.62*, Souderton, 1:57.01, North Penn 1:57.44
200 freestyle—Missy Doll (S) 1:57.01*, Casey O’Neill (NP) 2:02.14, Laureanna Zrada (S) 2:02.66
200 IM—Mariel Kush (S) 2:14.56*, Ikeda (NP) 2:17.86, Hannings (NP) 2:19.42
50 freestyle—Chloe Thomas (S) 24.80, Deana (NP) 25.07, Morris (NP) 25.58
Diving—Ashley Liss (NP) 211.20*, Shauna Hannings (NP) 209.15*, Heather Paolone (NP) 192.80
100 butterfly—Ikeda (NP) 58.68*, Kush (S) 59.86, Morris (NP) 1:02.86
100 freestyle—Doll (S) 53.69, Thomas (S) 55.01, O’Neill (NP) 55.53
500 freestyle—Colleen Stiles (NP) 5:20.68, Zrada (S) 5:31.76, Bronwyn Smith (S) 5:32.71
200 freestyle relay—North Penn (Deana, Hannings, Morris, O’Neill) 1:39.99*, Souderton 1:40.05*, North Penn 1:49.74
100 backstroke—Stiles (NP) 1:02.55*, Katie Patterson (NP) 1:04.88, Karlie Vogt (NP) 1:05.05
100 breaststroke—Hannings (NP) 1:13.55, Sarah Kesack (S) 1:14.87, Alyssa Tate (NP) 1:16.19
400 freestyle relay—Souderton (Erica Witoslawski, Kush, Zrada, Doll) 3:40.72*, North Penn 3:42.40*, North Penn 3:56.75
Boys
North Penn 103, Souderton 75
200 medley relay—North Penn (Peter Kolokithias, Tomas Gimenez, Jason Deana, Craig Hennessey) 1:41.81*, North Penn 1:46.24, Souderton 1:49.11,
200 freestyle—Jack Else (NP) 1:49.42*, Sean McDonald (NP) 1:50.28, Lee Stiles (S) 1:52.32
200 IM—Patrick Dunigan (NP) 2:04.57*, Kolokithias (NP) 2:05.14*, Sean Corcoran (S) 2:08.38
Diving—Ozzie Moyer (S) 283.65, Frankie Murray (NP) 266.55*, Tyler Wenzel (S) 233.60
100 butterfly—Deana (NP) 55.92*, Matt Ortlieb (NP) 55.99*, Jack Morris (NP) 58.82
100 freestyle—Else (NP) 50.20, Nathan Chesmar (NP) 50.80, Eugene Feeley (NP) 51.55
500 freestyle—McDonald (NP) 4:56.74, Dunigan (NP) 5:02.54, Elliott Miller (S) 5:04.93
200 freestyle relay—North Penn ((Hennessey, Else, Gimenez, Deana) 1:29.63*, North Penn 1:33.01*, Souderton 1:34.68*
100 backstroke—Michael Trout (S) 1:03.33, Nick Wieder (S) 1:08.29, Scott Jorgenson (S) 1:11.18
100 breaststroke—Corcoran (S) 1:03.99, Greg Smith (S) 1:09.67, Alex Paparella (S) 1:10.47
400 freestyle relay—Souderton (Michael Hay, Kody Veit, Miller, Stiles) 3:32.50, Souderton 3:55.29
(* indicates pool record)
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