Blazer boys beat Barons at first swim meet

DEC. 3, MARTIN LUTHER KING SWIM CENTER—

The Blair swim team began their season this Saturday with a non-divisional swim meet against the Bethesda-Chevy Chase (BCC) Barons. The Blazers, in Division II, swam a hard meet against the Division I Barons and ended up with a split score, with the boys' team claming a slim victory of 89-82 and the girls' losing with a score of 74-92. Because the meet is non-divisional, the official score will not factor into divisional records.

Both Blazer teams started off strong in the Medley Relay, where the girls took first place and the boys placed second, third and fourth. The Blazer boys then battled against the Barons for every point, and the two teams were never further than seven points apart. Sophomore Yang Yang took first place in the 200 Free, where he set a new Blair record by swimming a 1:47.60. He later broke another school record in the 500 Free, finishing with a time of 4:50.71.

Blair won four of the five freestyle events with sophomore Eddie Tang's first-place victory in the 100 Free, senior captain Tyler Wilchek's first in the 50 Free and the relay team of Yang, senior captain Bryan Erikson and juniors Matt Ludington and captain Robert Feasley taking first in the 400 Free Relay. In addition, junior David Vuong took first place in the 100 Back. These victories combined accounted for 32 points of Blair's score.

The girls' team missed victory by a narrow margin of 18 points, mostly due to two major losses. In the 200 Free, the Barons blasted past the Blazers, sweeping the event and taking 13 of the 16 points available. Later on, the girls' diving team dove exhibition only, meaning their dives did not get scored. Consequently, BCC took all 10 points for the event.

The Blazers had four first places in addition to their medley win. Senior Diana Frey took first in the 50 Free, narrowly followed by junior captain Sally Chang, who took second. Freshman Melanie Snail earned an easy victory in the 100 Back, followed immediately by senior captain Kelsey Dean's first in the 100 Breast, where she had over a four second lead. The team also took first in the 400 Free Relay with a team of Frey, Chang, senior captain Anna Chiplis and sophomore Elissa Fischel. These victories, however, were not enough to pull Blair's score up, and the team went home with a narrow loss.

Coach David Swaney, however, was pleased with the overall meet. "I think we did pretty well [for the first meet]. A lot of people got good times, especially for the start of the season." He was especially proud of the girls' score, as the team has been struggling for the last four years. "The girls did great," he said. "It was close." Swaney added that since the meet is non-divisional, "It's just for times." Both teams were missing many juniors and seniors due to the SATs being administered that morning.

The Blazers' next meet is at the Olney Swim Center on Saturday, Dec.10 at 9:15 a.m. The Blazers will be facing their first divisional opponents of the season, the Quince Orchard Cougars.