Upper Dublin boys, North Penn girls swim to victory
TOWAMENCIN >> A flood of pool records propelled the Upper Dublin boys to a 97-89 victory over rival North Penn, while the North Penn girls, putting on a dominant performance, were 106-72 winners over the Cardinals at a packed Rick Carroll Natatorium Thursday night.
Two of the best programs around, it was a district preview in December, as both squads kept turning in fast swims as well as high scores up on the board, putting on an impressive display in front of a spirited holiday crowd that included friends, family and alumni from both rival schools.
“We swam well. We swam — for the most part — to what we were capable of,” said Cardinals coach Geoff Scheuer, whose team set a half dozen pool records in the non-conference matchup. “We have a great group of seniors. We seem to have waves come through (certian years), and this senior class is one of those waves. If they do what they’re capable of, it could be a pretty good season.”
One of those swimmers, Michael Jensen, got the evening started with a pool record in the 200 freestyle, touching in 1 minute, 38.54 seconds. He would go on to swim a record split in the 200 freestyle relay, going 20.39, as well as setting a pool record in the 100 backstroke with a 49.51 and helping the 400 freestyle relay to a record time of 3:11.37.
“This is just a fun, exciting meet. It’s turned into a good rivalry,” said Scheuer, whose team has battled back and forth with NP for District One supremacy for the past decade. “This is fun. This is definitely something to build off of and be excited about.”
The Knights (2-1), winners over St. Joe’s Prep and Council Rock North earlier this year, battled to the early lead over the Cardinals.
“They had some studs come through for them at the end of the meet. It’s a great battle back and forth between two teams that understand the history of the rivalry but are also very friendly with one another,” said Knights coach Jeff Faikish, whose team got a sweep in the diving, led by Ian Boland Bintner.
The North Penn girls (2-0) touched first in the opening four swims of the night, including the 200 IM, where Kailyn Evans went 2:07.45 to take top honors.
Evans also led off the winning 200 free relay, and Megan Zartman (500 free), Aimee Baur (200 free/100 free), Marie Yacopino (diving) and Leah Brown (50 free) also contributed wins for NP.
“As a team, we love swimming against Upper Dublin,” Evans said. “That’s one of our biggest meets of the year. And we came in, and we were like ‘we gotta get this. We gotta go out there right from the start.’ And we did.”
