Blair boys swim circles around Swarmin' Hornets

JAN. 21, MONTGOMERY AQUATIC CENTER -

The boys' swim team pummeled Damascus today, beating the Hornets 112-59 and continuing their undefeated winning streak to give them a record of 4-0. The girls' swim team suffered from a near exact reversal of the score, losing 56-113, for a 1-3 record, causing a split meet that has become commonplace for the Blazers.

For the third time this season, the boys' took and maintained the lead throughout the entire meet. Blazer boys outscored the Hornets in all but two events and were never less than 10 points ahead of Damascus. The boys took eight first place victories, the most this season.

The boys led off the meet by taking an easy victory in the 200 Medley Relay, where sophomore Eddie Tang, juniors David Vuong and captain Robert Feasley and senior captain Tyler Wilchek won by more than seven seconds. Wilchek also took first in the 50 Free and 100 Free. Sophomore Yang Yang earned two individual victories for the team in the 100 Breast and the 200 IM, where Yang won by less than a second.

Senior diving captain Sam Silsbee set a Blair record for diving with a score of 141.25 points, enough to earn him first place by over 22 points. Blair went on shortly afterward to sweep the 100 Back, with Vuong taking first place in an easy Blair victory. The boys' team finished off the meet with another first place win, in 400 Free Relay where Feasley, Yang, senior captain Bryan Erickson and junior David Goode swam a close race against the Hornets.

While the boys' team took an easy victory against Damascus, the girls fought tooth and nail for every point in what ended up being a disappointing meet. Hornet swimmers grabbed both first and second place in the majority of the events, causing the Blair girls to have no chance to make up lost points.

The girls' team began the meet strong, with a team of freshman Melanie Snail, sophomore Franny Blume and seniors Diana Frey and captain Kelsey Dean taking first place in the 200 Medley Relay. This was one of only three victories the girls had in the meet, with Dean taking an easy victory in the 500 Free, where she lead by over 54 seconds, and junior Christie Lin taking a first in the 100 Breast.

According to coach David Swaney, Blair was at a disadvantage during the meet because many of their top swimmers are on a club team that had a meet earlier that day. "Everyone was tired because they had swum at the January Open meet for RMSC," he said. Approximately 15 of Blair's 63 swimmers swim for RMSC.

Swaney was impressed with the improvement of his swimmers during the season. "David Goode is doing phenomenally well," he said, also commending Lin for her first victory on the Blair team. Swaney added that Snail was only .03 seconds off the Blair 100 Back record, a record that will likely be broken before the end of the season.

Blair's next meet will be against Magruder at the Takoma Park campus of Montgomery College on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 1:00 p.m.