North Penn swims past Souderton
FRANCONIA >> North Penn didn’t even really need a motivational speech, just a motivational word: Souderton.
“We wanted to swim fast for this meet, especially against Souderton. We always get riled up for this meet,” Knights senior Corey Smith said. “Any time we go against them — crosstown rivals, those meets have a little bit more edge to them, a little bit more edge than any other meet.”
Smith’s record-setting swim in the 100-yard backstroke personified the level of intensity that North Penn brought to a packed Souderton Natatorium on Friday afternoon. The NP boys earned a 116-70 victory and the Lady Knights prevailed 139-47, as both squads overcame strong competition from Big Red in a Suburban One League Continental Conference clash.
“I felt fast for sure. I came in not knowing what the record was (in the 100 back),” said Smith, who, with his time of 53.11, broke a six-year-old pool record (53.85), set by Central Bucks East’s Kevin Magee. “It felt good — we all swam great.
“I think, with what showed today, we have a great pace right now going into our championship meets.”
Smith would also swim to a victory in the 200 IM, touching in 1:59.97, and he began the afternoon by leading off the winning 200 medley relay, joining Harrison Friel, Nico Kountroubis and Ryan Yocum.
Friel was another double winner for the Knights (9-1, 6-0 conference), racing to first in both the 200 free (1:47.85) and 100 breast (1:00.74).
“Our kids decided they wanted to step it up and really race today,” Knights coach Jeff Faikish said.
“Certainly, we had some good performances — pretty much the whole team all over, from freshmen all the way up to seniors.”
Souderton Area was led by Cristian Musterait, who not only touched first in the 50 and 100 free, but he also cranked out the fastest split of the 200 free relay, anchoring Big Red to a win in 1:30.95.
It was quite a day for the Lady Knights’ trio of Megan Zartman (200 free/100 fly), Claudia Thamm (200 IM/500 free), and Kailyn Evans (50 free/100 back), who were each double winners as well as key members of the relays — Zartman helped the 200 free finish first, Thamm and Evans were on the winning 400 free to cap things off, and Evans also led off the winning 200 medley foursome to get things going for NP (9-0, 6-0 conference).
“As the meet went on, you started to see more and more time drops and records falling — that was cool,” said North Penn coach Matt Weiser, who saw his 400 free team of Thamm, Evans, Parker Schulz and Aimee Baur break a six-year-old record set by Parkland. “We only have two dual meets left so I think we’re in a great spot.”
North Penn closes out its conference schedule Tuesday with a home meet against Central Bucks South while Souderton hosts Hatboro-Horsham.
