Conestoga’s Brendan Burns breaks 3 Garnet Valley pool records
Conestoga swimmer Brendan Burns broke three Garnet Valley pool records in the Pioneers’ 100-73 win Monday.
Burns, Evan Zhou, Oliver Brown and Owen Neuman set a new mark of 1:48.41 in the 200 medley relay, breaking the previous mark of 1:52.15 set in 2015 by Garnet Valley. Burns then broke Haverford’s Shane Ryan’s 2012 record in the 100 fly (57.17) with a blistering 52.41. He followed that up by breaking Garnet Valley’s Ivan Michalovic’s 2014 record time of 58.05 in the 100 back with a new mark of 53.66.
Burns made headlines earlier this season when he swam the second fastest 200 fly SCY by a 15-16 year old in US swimming history with a 1:42.94 at the 2017 Winter National Championships at Ohio State University. That time is second only to Michael Phelps’ national 15-16 age group record of 1:42.10 set in 2002. Burns added the fourth fastest time in the 100 yard fly (47.62) and the 14th fastest 200 yard IM (1:47.20).
Conestoga girls stand atop Central League
The Conestoga girls swimming team (8-0) defeated previously unbeaten Garnet Valley (6-1) by a score of 103-81 Monday.
Conestoga girls’ coach Rob Kirkby said, “Garnet Valley has a young and very talented team. They are especially deep in freestylers so we knew depending upon the lineups on both sides, this meet could go either way. The dual meet winner would walk away with a scoring advantage for Centrals (Central League Championships) where the league champ will be decided.”
Conestoga started off the meet with a 1-3 finish in the 200 medley relay with Sophia Poeta, Alex Marlow, Madison Ledwith and Lauren Diehl getting the win. Ledwith then picked up a win in the 200 free, holding off a late charge by GV’s Catherine Weaverling. Conestoga’s Nia Goddard and Ava Collin picked up third and fourth to start building the Pioneer lead.
Marlow won the 200 IM, just ahead of GV’s Amy Townend and Alexa Hipp, while Louise Hay and Katherine Abele secured fourth- and fifth-place points. In the 50 free, Conestoga’s Julie McFadden, Joyce Fung and Diehl finished 3-4-5. Conestoga swept the diving with Julia Semmer, Jaime Semmer and Phoebe Hutton finishing 1-2-3 for a 10 point swing to regain the Pioneers’ momentum.
Stoga’s Ledwith won the 100 fly (with a pool record clocking of 1:04.49), with Allison Yuan and Lucy Wydeven finishing third and fifth. Poeta held off Erley to win the 100 free and Stoga’s Katherine McFadden and Fung placed third and fourth. In the 500 free, Conestoga Nia Goddard, Caroline Pawlow and Collin placed 2-3-4. Poeta, Wydeven and Yuan went 1-4-5 in the 100 back, and Marlow, Abele and Hay went 1-3-4 in the 100 breast to seal the win.
Ledwith, a senior co-captain, said, “This was our fourth swim meet in four days and we were missing a great sprint freestyler, Caroline Famous. So we really had to gut out this one. Every point mattered. We’re happy for the win and know it will be even tougher for us next year given Garnet’s young talent.”
