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Montgomery Blair High School's Online Student Newspaper
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Jan. 15, 2005

Blazer swimmers split meet against Sherwood

by Kristina Yang, Page Editor
JAN. 15, GAITHERSBURG AQUATIC CENTER--

Squeezed into a tiny building and containing only six lanes, Gaithersburg Aquatic Center is a small, shallow and "slow” pool compared to many of the county's larger facilities. Despite the drag of the slow pool, however, the Blazers swam a solid meet against the Sherwood Warriors. The boys' team defeated Sherwood 100-73, boosting their season record to 1-2; the girls' team fell 47-121 to an overall record 0-3.

Sophomores David Vuong, Robert Feasley and Matt Ludington and freshman Yang Yang led Blair's boys to a strong start with a first-place finish in the 200 Medley Relay. The Blazer boys then went on to take victory in every event except the 50 Free, scoring plenty of second- and third-place finishes to rack up even more points along the way.

Despite the slow pool, in fact, the Blazer boys performed extraordinarily well in several events. Senior co-captains Ari Halper-Stromberg and Patrick Detzner, junior co-captain Tyler Wilchek, and junior Bryan Erickson came close to a Blair record in the 400 Free Relay, and Yang's 4:59 time in the 500 Free represents one of Blair's best times in that event since the 2003 graduation of all-Met swimmer Ian MacKinnon. Led by freshman Sam Bullard-Sisken, the Blazers also swept the 100 Back by more than a length.

The Blazer girls swam a strong meet as well, but Sherwood's girls' team proved relatively stronger than its boys' team as the meet progressed. In contrast to the results of the boys' events, Sherwood took first in every girl's event. Juniors Anna Chiplis (100 Fly) and Kelsey Dean (500 Free) and seniors Kendra Williams and Karima Tawfik (100 Breast) won Blair sixteen valuable points by taking second-place in their respective events. Most of the Blazers finished third or fourth, however, and Sherwood ultimately claimed the meet.

Blair's swimmers weren't the only ones who did well against the Warriors; junior diver Sam Silsbee also had a strong performance, scoring in the 5.5-6.5 range on all four of his dives. Silsbee finished the diving event with 129.5 points, easily taking the victory over his Sherwood opponents. Junior Sarah Janesko also dived well despite her relative inexperience with the sport, finishing third in the girls' division.

The Blazers' next meet will occur at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 22. The meet will be hosted by the B-CC Barons at Montgomery College's Takoma Park campus.

Discuss this Article

  • varun gulati on January 15, 2005 at 11:56 PM
    go blair swim & dive!! nice job, everyone.
  • helpful on January 16, 2005 at 9:04 AM
    should that be squeezed at the beginning?
  • halpful on January 16, 2005 at 9:04 AM
    ...and THE G A C
  • Ariel Halper-Strombe (View Email) on January 16, 2005 at 11:37 AM
    The pool was not slow because of its "drag". It was slow because it was very shallow and the walls were made of slippery tiles that make it difficult to push off of. Calling the pool the Gaithersburg "aquatic center" is quite a compliment. The Gaithersburg dump is more appropriate. The county should stop scheduling meets at this sorry excuse for a pool. Also, I would like to add that Matt Ludington, Bryan Erickson and Martin Opsahl swam very well.
  • Katie on January 16, 2005 at 11:47 AM
    Matt Ludington is a sophomore and Sarah Janesko is a junior.
  • ana's palimino's stalker on January 16, 2005 at 4:47 PM
    GO ANA!!!! UR THE BEST SWIMMER!!!- u kno who this is ~~~~T~~~~
  • corrections on January 16, 2005 at 6:55 PM
    Kelsey Dean and Sarah Janesko are both juniors.
  • WC! on January 16, 2005 at 11:32 PM
    WHERES ERICA NOWAKS PROPS MAN?? YOU GO GIRL!
  • robert feasley on January 17, 2005 at 12:50 AM
    Yea it was kind of a dump. Plus i dont think the locker rooms could have been hotter. But then again, we performed pretty well even with everyone being sick and all. This is a good sign for the rest of our season
  • frinend on January 17, 2005 at 2:05 AM
    GOOOO ANA ....................

    GOOD JOB
  • cant swim on January 17, 2005 at 1:17 PM
    YAY kelsey....you are going to be even better next year!
  • divefan on January 18, 2005 at 11:59 AM
    Way to go, dive team!
  • daluter (View Email) on January 18, 2005 at 9:52 PM
    Boys were awesome once again. Even though the girls lost, I feel as if they were much better than last year. The thing I worry about is that the girls team will experience losing by the same margin every meet since we are facing a really good B-CC girls team and a sort of descent Whitman girls team. On the other hand, the boys are good, but not good enough to cream a Whitman or a B-CC by 60 to 70 points. That's why I think that if we don't start paying attention to are girls team a lot more, we may get demoted to Division II, even if the boys are among the best in the county. I believe that this girls team deserves to, at the bare minimum, finish better than their 18th or 19th(I don't remember the rank, but it was pretty embarrasing) finish @ county's. I would say a top 15 finish is possible if we have the right lineup and we start having our "average" level swimmers step up.
  • ANAS BUDDY!!` on January 19, 2005 at 7:18 PM
    GO ANA, GO ANA, ITS YO BIRTHDAY!!!...HOORAH ANA!!....TAKE VICTORY OVER BCC!!!!....YOU CAN DO IT!!!.....(and good luck everyone else!)..lol~~~~ANA ...you know who this is...
  • Marteki on January 20, 2005 at 6:26 PM
    hey ana

    have fun
    go ana
    u will win
    GO ANA Go
  • Ana Firend on January 22, 2005 at 1:29 PM
    hey ana

    have fun
    GO ANA GO ANA Go

    GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

    do u kno who this is...................
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