Souderton Area swims past CB West

FRANCONIA >> The 200-yard freestyle is intimidating to some, but for Souderton Area’s Amber Rogers, there is practically a welcome mat at the starting blocks.

“A lot of people hate swimming it. I don’t mind it, I think because I’ve swam it since my freshman year,” the senior said, “so I’m more immune to it. But it is a really hard event, because it’s too short to pace but too long to sprint. You just have to go all out the entire time.

“(In the final 25), I think it just comes down to heart. It’s not really whether or not you feel your muscles can carry you, it’s more of like ‘I need to do well, I need to finish this last half lap, head down and go.’”

Big Red, led by Rogers, went 1-2-3 in the 200 free, as part of an impressive showing Tuesday afternoon in a dual-meet sweep of Suburban One League Continental Conference rival Central Bucks West.

The Big Red girls won 119-67, while the boys, improving to a perfect 7-0 (3-0 conference), were 125-61 winners in their match-up with the Bucks.

“It was a really fun meet because we had some close races, but we could also play around with the lineup a little bit to have people swimming different events,” Rogers said.

The Souderton girls (5-2, 2-1 conference) got off to a winning start in the 200 medley relay, as a team of Ariana Crossgrove, Emily Hodges, Clara Burrell and Lauren Harkins touched first in 2 minutes, 3.72 seconds.

Souderton would go on to get a pair of individual wins from Hodges (200 IM/100 breast), Jennifer Rogers (50 free/100 fly) and Ariana Crossgrove (100 free/100 back), while Cristian Musterait (200 free/100 free), Storm Krader (200 IM/500 free) and Brendon Loux (100 fly/100 back) were the big winners on the boys side.

Sisters Amber and Jennifer Rogers swam the final two legs of the 400 free relay for Souderton, joining Ariana Crossgrove and Ali Kurlak to outrace West.

“(The Bucks’ Collette Strong) was right next to me and we finished with almost the exact same time,” Amber Rogers said of the third leg. “A lot of times, I’m doing my best to stay ahead or get back ahead so that my sister can finish it off and not have to make up too much ground.”

Jennifer Rogers did the rest, touching in 3:57.42 to cap things off for Big Red.