Swim and Dive captures combined second place at divisionals

GERMANTOWN INDOOR SWIM CENTER, Feb. 9 –

Blair's swim and dive team placed a combined second out of six teams in the Division II championship meet last Saturday, losing first place to the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons. The boys' team, which finished its season undefeated, captured first place with a final score of 500 points, while the girls tied Magruder for fifth with 274 points.

For the Division II championship meet, each of the six teams sends its top three swimmers in each event. At the most, one swimmer may compete in two events and one relay. "You have all the reliable, really good people, and the seedings told us where we would place," said senior co-captain Yang Yang, commenting that the meet yielded no surprising results. "We placed in everything we were looking at."

As usual, the boys placed first in the 200-yard Medley Relay – this time with the team of junior Andrew McGehee and seniors Eddie Qian, Sam Bullard-Sisken and Yang Yang swimming 1:41.24.

The sheer depth of the boys' team propelled them forward to their first place. In the 200-yard Individual Medley, Yang and sophomore Jeff Lin took first and second respectively with 2:01.93 and 2:03.13, and senior Andrew Kannan placed fifth.

The girls did not win as many points, but individual swimmers pulled best times and impressive finishes. Junior Melanie Snail took fourth in the 200-yard Freestyle, and sophomore Allison Arai placed sixth in the 200 IM. Freshman Laura McGehee won an impressive second place in the 50-yard Free with a time of 26.7 seconds.

The boys racked up points in the 100 Butterfly, with Bullard-Sisken taking first with 54.63, and senior co-captain Tim Peng and sophomore Nate Hukill placing fourth and fifth respectively. In the 100 Backstroke, the boys also grabbed impressive finishes, with Bullard-Sisken, Andrew McGehee and Peng taking second, third and seventh respectively.

Dominating in the 100 Breast – the event that the team sweeps on a regular basis – Qian, junior Will Sheperdson and Kannan took first, third and fourth respectively.

The girls also held their own, with Arai placing fourth in the 100 Breast with 1:11.22 and sophomore Molly Branson taking sixth with 1:12.13.

The boys ended their part of the meet with an exciting 400-yard Free Relay – the team of Lin, Andrew McGehee and seniors Yang and Christoff Visscher placed first with 3:24.25, a mere .41 seconds before Blake's second place team.

Coach David Swaney was pleased with the overall performance of the team. "We had great swims, a lot of best times, and close finishes that we pulled out," he said.

The MCPS Championship meet will be held Saturday, Feb. 16 at the Martin Luther King Swim Center at 8 a.m.