North Penn impressive in wins over Souderton
TOWAMENCIN >> When Ryan Hartmann dove off the blocks for the 100-yard butterfly, he was very quickly the best in the pool.
And the Knights’ senior very nearly put forth the best performance ever in that event in the history of the Rick Carroll Natatorium.
“Honestly, it felt pretty good. I think I just had a good lunch basically. And a good feel I guess,” Hartmann said happily after Tuesday’s dual meet with rival Souderton Area. “(To nearly get the record), it’s kind of shocking.”
Hartmann’s fast swim was emblematic of the Knights’ overall performance, as North Penn packed several impressive performances into its Suburban One League Continental Conference battle with Big Red.
“I think our team is at a great spot right now,” said Hartmann, whose time of 51.79 seconds in the fly was within 24 hundredths of a second of the pool record 51.55, swam by North Penn grad Jason Deana. Deana would earn All-America honors at North Carolina State and was a 2016 Olympic Trials Qualifier.
When all the points were counted up, the North Penn boys had earned a 98-79 victory over the Indians and the NP girls were on the winning side of a 96-80 decision.
During the long month of January, fast times are about as hard to come by as sunshine, but the Knights are pushing through the fatigue.
“The beautiful thing is that at this point in the season, they’re starting to figure out how to swim fast tired,” Knights coach Jeff Faikish said, “which makes it even more special when we rest at the end of the season.
“Because if they know what to do when they’re body feels heavy and they’re tired, when they rest and they have energy, they’re gonna feel like they’re swimming over the water and not through it.”
Ryley Fein won the 200 free and the 100 free, Hartmann took the fly and the 200 IM, Derek Friday won the 50 free and Aidan Daly was fastest in the 500 free.
“We swam very well today,” said Faikish, whose teams improved to 3-0 in the conference. “I’m very proud of the team. We had a lot of kids dropping time in some pretty big chunks.”
Daly, Sean Faikish, Hartmann and Fein won the medley relay in 1:36.62 to get things started.
“The relays looked really good today,” Daly said. “We’re kind of (faster than our average), whis is good for this time of season. Especially with our training cycle, because we really haven’t gotten much rest.
“So for us to go those times is pretty big.”
Parker Schulz was a double winner for the North Penn girls with victories in the 200 and 100 free, diver Paige Burrell continued her excellence on the board, and Maureen Boland Bintner notched an automatic district cut in the 500 free, winning the race in 5:23.79.
For the Souderton boys (2-1 conference), Wesley Ahart (diving), Storm Krader (100 back) and William Leyland (100 breast) all won their events, and the Big Red girls (2-1 conference) got first-place swims out of Hailey Freed (100 back) and Clara Burrell (100 breast).
“They’re fast and they’re deep,” Souderton coach Rob Faccenda said of North Penn. “We had some good swims and we had some swims that I would have hoped were a little bit better, but overall it kinda was what we expected it to be.
“This was a good meet for us. Sometimes you need to be humbled a little bit and that’s what makes you better. And I’m hoping that’s what’s gonna happen here.”
