Cardiac Cards: Upper Dublin girls pull out a close one over Souderton, Cardinal boys prevail
FRANCONIA >> Like Upper Dublin girls swim coach Pat Redican said, it was “heart-stopping,” but a tremendous way to start off January.
“Already, we’ve had a couple close meets this season and the girls have learned how to deal with that,” Redican said after Friday’s battle with rival Souderton Area. “That 400 free relay – they had to win it to win the meet. And those girls are the vets. They know how to do it.”
An unrattled foursome of Laura Pendleton, Hannah McKeown, Meghan DiMartile and Aly Breslin raced to a winning time of 3 minutes, 40.54 seconds, enabling the Cardinals to pull out a 94-92 victory over Big Red.
“It was a great meet, back and forth the whole time,” Redican said. “You gotta love it, because every place means something.”
The Upper Dublin boys came through with a 113-73 win over Souderton, providing a happy bus ride home all around.
There Goes Braun
Elle Braun had a tremendous meet for the Cardinals, winning the 200 free, placing third in the 100 back and taking care of the third leg of the first-place 200 medley relay.
“It’s good right now, especially in the beginning of January,” Braun said of the win. “We had a tough winter break and now we’re just trying to get back into it so this is a good win for us. This was good competition to get us into January.”
Said Braun of the meet coming down to the 400: “All of those girls had that type of competition before. They were excited to get after it.”
Turning It Around
Upper Dublin gained an edge it never lost when the Cards took three of the top four spots in the 500 free.
Korinna Pesti led the way, followed by Erin Andrews and Kayla Mosteller in third and fourth.
“The 500 was our turning point. And if our girl that gets fourth gets fifth instead, all of a sudden it’s a tie meet instead,” Redican said. “Good competition. Just matching up well up top and you never know coming off of winter break how kids are gonna react.
“All credit to Souderton. Their depth was very impressive. We knew we had some good people up top but they really matched up with our second, third and fourth swimmers.”
Souderton, which got wins in the 50 free and 100 breast from Haily Freed, kept on coming.
“Swimming against Upper Dublin is always a bench mark for us because they’re such a great team,” Indians coach Lou Williams said.
New Tradition
Souderton turned up the tempo on Thursday and Friday, going against Cumberland Valley and Upper Dublin on back-to-back days.
The Big Red girls tied CV and the boys fell by just five.
“It’s a new thing for us. My coach growing up (Mike Gobrecht, who also runs paswimming.com) – I grew up in Harrisburg – coaches Cumberland Valley so when I took over here two years ago, we started talking about us doing a back-and-forth dual meet,” Williams said. “So they came here this year and we’ll go there next year. It’ll be an ongoing tradition for us.
“Our goal the last two days was to have state-level competition two days in a row to try and mimic the demands of both the district meet and the state meet.”
Record Setters
Matt Jensen set a pool record in the 200 IM to lead the Upper Dublin boys, touching in 1:53.21.
DiMartile’s 56.95 in the 100 back was also a pool record for the Upper Dublin girls.
Boys Swimming
Upper Dublin 113, Souderton Area 73
200 medley relay: Souderton Area (Brien Yaglenski, Matvey Andryushin, Erik Moyer, Austin Graham), 1:45.30; 200 free: Jake DiMartile (UD) 1:44.83; 200 IM: Matt Jensen (UD) 1:53.21 (pool record; previous: 1:54.73, Ryley Fein, North Penn, 2019); 50 free: Kyle Pro (UD) 21.86; Diving: Kyle Creachen (S) 269.15; 100 fly: Kyle Pro (UD) 53.83; 100 free: Jake DiMartile (UD) 48.53; 500 free: Jonas Andrulonis (UD) 5:11.19; 200 free relay: Upper Dublin (Matt Jensen, Nicholas Gewartowski, Jake DiMartile, Kyle Pro), 1:27.94; 100 back: Matt Jensen (UD) 52.07; 100 breast: Michael Yoon (UD) 1:06.54; 400 free relay: 400 free relay: Upper Dublin (Matt Jensen, Jake DiMartile, Nicholas Gewartowski, Kyle Pro), 3:12.70.
Girls Swimming
Upper Dublin 94, Souderton Area 92
200 medley relay: Upper Dublin (Meghan DiMartile, Aly Breslin, Elle Braun, Korinna Pesti), 1:49.65; 200 free: Elle Braun (UD) 1:57.33; 200 IM: Meghan DiMartile (UD) 2:15.29; 50 free: Hailey Freed (S) 24.90; Diving: Ally Beldham (S) 192.30; 100 fly: Laura Pendleton (UD) 1:00.66; 100 free: Aly Breslin (UD) 53.56; 500 free: Korinna Pesti (UD) 5:33.63; 200 free relay: Souderton (Hailey Freed, Kayla Pike, Jordyn Grossman, Frankie Ferlick), 1:40.21; 100 back: Meghan DiMartile (UD) 56.95 (pool record; previous: 58.07, Haley Scholer, CB South, 2019); 100 breast: Freed (S) 1:06.63; 400 free relay: Upper Dublin (Laura Pendleton, Hannah McKeown, Meghan DiMartile, Aly Breslin), 3:40.54.
