North Penn boys, girls swim to impressive victories over rival Souderton
FRANCONIA >> From Haley Muth notching her first ever district cut in the 100-yard breaststroke to Andrew Dunigan grabbing his first ever in the 200 IM, all of the Knights seemed to be humming to a similar beat on Tuesday afternoon at Souderton Area.
“Mentally, we’ve really been doing well this season,” said North Penn junior Aidan Daly. “If one person on the team swims well then the entire team swims well.”
The Knights followed each other onto the record board, as North Penn swam and dove to an impressive 105-79 victory on the boys side and 127-57 win in the girls event to improve to a perfect 5-0 on the season, including an unbeaten 3-0 mark in the Suburban One League’s Continental Conference.
“You just gotta keep on focusing on what’s ahead of you,” Daly said. “We’re just trying to do as well as we can now so we can get to the big end of the season.”
Daly swam to a pool-record time of 4 minutes, 46.67 seconds in the 500 freestyle. He also won the 200 freestyle to start the individual events, which followed the Knights’ record-setting foursome of Ryan Hartmann, Sean Faikish, Noah Jamieson and Ryley Fein in the 200 medley relay.
Diver Bryce Hoch topped his own pool record on the board and the 200 free relay team of Hartmann, Derek Friday, Jamieson and Faikish also established a new standard to chase.
“Very strong meet,” Knights coach Jeff Faikish said. “It’s a rivalry — a lot of history between North Penn and Souderton. It’s always a tough meet coming into Souderton’s pool and racing here, but we love the competition.
“It makes the training worth it when you get to come here and have some great races.”
The North Penn girls 200 medley team also raced to a record, as Megan Zartman, Kailyn Evans, Claudia Thamm and Rosalinda Rivera cranked out a 1:48.33, and Thamm (100 fly, 57.73), Evans (100 breast, 1:05.97) and Zartman (100 back, 58.67) each set records individually.
Paige Burrell scored a 339.90 in the diving, also a new standard. In addition, North Penn saw its district roster continue to swell.
“It takes an awesome opponent like Souderton to get us to those district cuts,” Faikish said.
Big Red’s Cristian Musterait had another fast meet, winning both the 50 free and 100 free for Big Red as well as anchoring the first-place 400 free relay.
“I love going against North Penn,” the senior said. “It pushes me to become a better swimmer, gives me a great race for later in the year. I love going against them — they’re my friends even though we have a great rivalry.”
Top Photo: North Penn’s Noah Jamieson competes in the boys 200 medley relay with Souderton’s T.J. Yaglenski close behind during their teams’ meet on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017. (Gene Walsh/Digital First Media)
