Souderton races to wins over Pennridge on Senior Night

FRANCONIA >> On the way to piling up 300 points on the diving board Friday evening, Wesley Ahart nailed his front two and a half pike.

“I felt like I got good speed and went in the water pretty clean,” he said gladly.

Big Red’s undefeated senior would later dive back in, for the 400-yard free relay.

“I got to swim a race,” Ahart said with a smile, “so it’s always exciting to do something new.

“It was a good race. I tried really hard — it wasn’t the fastest but I was pretty tired from it. It’s really nice to see the good sportsmanship and we were going against the juniors, so it was nice to go against each other, nice for team bonding.”

Big Red brought it all together for a pair of wins on Senior Night, as the Souderton girls prevailed 118-64 over the Rams and the Souderton guys were 104-74 winners over Pennridge.

Ahart, scoring a 300.85 to help Souderton sweep the diving (Kyle Creachen was second, securing a District One spot, Joe Hurst third), improved to a perfect 8-0 this winter.

“I still wanna fix up my more difficult dives — reverse two and a half and inward two and a half — just so I can get them clean and more high scoring,” he said. “But overall I’m pretty happy with where I am right now.”

The same can be said for the Indians as a whole, who improved to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.

“The kids swam well and we had a lot of fun,” Big Red coach Rob Faccenda said. “That last relay, we had a lane each of seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshman — that was cool.

“We’re pleased. We have one more conference meet on Monday (vs. CB West at CB South), we get to swim Upper Dublin next Friday, which is gonna be tremendous competition for us, so we’re really looking forward to both meets and finishing the year strong.”

Several seniors stood out for Big Red, with Michael Dechert taking the 50 free and 100 free. Jenny Rogers won the 100 fly and Alexa Crossgrove was fastest in the 500 free.

Souderton also got additional first-places from sophomore Matt Masciulli (200 free), junior Jake Kramer (200 IM/500 free) and junior T.J. Yaglenski (100 fly/100 back).

Freshman Ellie Hiestand (200 IM), sophomore Hailey Freed (50 free) and junior Clara Burrell (100 breast) all touched first in their events.

“It was really fun. Everyone’s in a really good mood,” Ahart said as Senior Night festivities were about to get rolling.

Pennridge’s Morgan Scott won the 200 free and 100 free (both pool records) and also anchored home the 400 free relay. The Rams also got a victory from diver Holly Files, Ryan Bashaar (girls 100 back) and Ethan Lionetti (100 breast) in their annual battle with Big Red.

“Souderton’s really good. They always have a great program, their coaches do great work,” Rams coach Jacob Grant said. “We’re hurting. We’re just not mentally there right now. Physically, we’re almost there. I’m still riding them pretty hard — they’re swimming a lot of yards, a lot of practices per week.

“But we’re still not there yet. It’s taking some time this year, but that’s alright. Each year’s different.”