Silver for Puskovitch leads to second place for Episcopal boys at Easterns

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LANCASTER — For years, seven days a week, yardage in the thousands and millions, Ivan Puskovitch has honed his internal clock. So finely tuned is a distance swimmer at Puskovitch’s level that he can tell minute differences in pacing, how a 26.5-second 50 freestyle feels compared to a 26.6.

Saturday afternoon at Franklin & Marshall’s Kunkel Aquatic Center, those finer points went out the window for the Episcopal Academy senior. And against Ford Blaylock of Mercersburg Academy in the championship final of the 500 free at the Eastern Interscholastic Championship, the usually meticulous distance event transformed into a 20-lap slugfest … and the race of the night.

Blaylock got to the wall ahead by 0.06 seconds, his time of 4:22.30 edging Puskovitch in 4:22.36, still good for a third trimming of his Delco record this season. Though such a cruelly slim margin, Puskovitch didn’t show a trace of disappointment.

“The great thing about the 500 is that the race is long enough for you to kind of build a mutual respect for each other,” USC signee Puskovitch said. “… It’s kind of like a chess match that we’re able to play off each other, and in the end, I think we were both able to swim fantastic races.”

The early pace was set by Andover’s Max Hunger, who beat Blaylock in Friday’s 200 free. But Blaylock and Puskovitch caught him by the 200 wall. Blaylock took the initiative briefly, working the middle of the race and knowing Puskovitch would have more in reserve. Puskovitch led by fractions until the 450 wall, but Blaylock eked just enough momentum out of his final turn to get his hand in first.

With the swimmers in adjacent lanes in the middle of the pool and able to stare each other down with each breath, the last few hundred yards were plain old racing.

“I would say for that entire race, it was just try to get your hand on the wall first,” Puskovitch said. “My coach even said, ‘the time always follows the race. You have to race first.’ So in the end, it was kind of just race, get your hand on the wall first, and hopefully the time is something that makes you happy.”

There were more happy moments for the Churchmen at large. Puskovitch won the 200 individual medley Friday in 1:48.88, erasing a record held by Brendan Hansen (1:05.15) since 2000.

Ben Wesley took 12th in the 100 free. Sam Wesley was fourth in the 100 backstroke, with Jack Christian seventh. (Sam Wesley had claimed third in the 200 free Friday, while Christian tied Haverford School’s Antonio Crescente for sixth in the IM). Cole Whitsett followed up seventh in the 100 butterfly with second in the 100 breaststroke. The 400 free relay of the Wesleys, Puskovitch and Whitsett finished fifth. As a team, EA finished second with 486.5 points in the school’s best all-time result.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that this is the best team that Episcopal Academy has had in its history,” Puskovitch said. “We knew we wanted a big bowl, we knew top two was a big bowl. … I cannot express how proud I am of all the swimmers and divers here at this meet, for us to have set such a lofty goal, such an ambitious goal at the beginning of the season, to be able to achieve it. Everyone has doubt at some point, but I think it’s really important for the underclassmen to see that if you just believe in yourself and you believe in the team and you believe in what you’re doing, you can achieve these goals.”

The EA girls also took second place. Hadley DeBruyn was fourth in the 500, freshman Kelly Feuzeu Mekoue got sixth in the 100 free and Emma Lunn and Riley Pujadas scored in the 100 back A final. In the 100 breast, Jovana Sekulic won the B final and Alina Klaehn improved six places from prelims to 18th.

The team of Lunn, DeBruyn, Feuzeu Mekoue and Chelsey Liu captured third in the final relay, not enough to close a 20-point gap to Penn Charter, but it sealed the combined trophy, a new competition.

“It’s great to see (the boys) rising up,” Liu said. “It means us girls have to also step it up. … I’m definitely so proud of the girls, and I think we put in our best effort.”

• • •

Madison Kolessar’s first Easterns was one to remember, for her and her Notre Dame teammates.

The junior won the 500 free in a time of 4:51.37, helping Notre Dame finish fifth, the program’s first top-six result since 2006.

Kolessar, an All-Delco as a freshman at Garnet Valley who didn’t swim high school last year, has helped fuel an Irish resurgence. Mia Abruzzo, the reigning Daily Times Girls Swimmer of the Year, won the 200 IM (in a Delco record 2:00.27) and the 100 fly Friday. Kolessar was second in the 200 free.

In Saturday’s final, Kolessar detached herself from the field early, beating runner-up Maddie Aguirre of Agnes Irwin by almost four seconds with an automatic All-American time.

Her sister Ashley, a freshman, was third in the 100 breast.

“It’s really awesome,” Madison said. “It’s good to cheer her on throughout everything, kind of show her the ropes at big meets in general.”

With Penn Charter and EA gunning for the team title, the relay squad of the Kolessars, Abruzzo and Natalie Stuart earned a silver medal in the 400 free relay in 3:29.49, the latest in a wholesale rewriting of the school record books.

“I think all of us knew that we had a chance to maybe place top five, top three even,” Madison said. “And to pull off a top three finish is really exciting, especially for our school.”

• • •

Antonio Octaviano wasn’t the happiest guy on deck Friday. His early start in prelims led to a DQ for the Haverford School 200 free relay, and while he rebounded to finish 10th in the 100 fly, things could’ve gone better.

“Getting DQed is just something that you really can’t control,” he said. “It’s way worse to the person if you doubt because of it. It’s going to ruin your final swim, so you just get over it and get ready for whatever swim you have then.”

Saturday, it seemed to be out of his mind as he blasted the field to win the 100 breast in 54.85. Second was Whitsett, more than 1.5 seconds back.

Even by spotting the field relay points, the Fords captured a top-6 spot. They started emphatically with Bobby Blewett winning the C final in the 100 free. Brian Brennan finished third in that event to complement silver in the 50. Jack Deppen won the B final of the 500, JR Leitz made a big jump to 19th in the 100 back and the 400 free relay of Deppen, Leitz, Crescente and Brennan (anchoring in 44.28) took sixth to keep the streak of top-6 finishes alive.

“This is the closest our team has ever been, so I’m just happy. I love these guys,” Octaviano said. “Sixth place, we’ll take it. Everyone put their hearts into everything they did, so can’t really complain with sixth place.”

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Matthew De George

Matthew De George
Matthew De George is the Asst. Sports Editor and the lead Union writer for The Daily Times.

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