DiMartile leads Upper Dublin girls past Souderton; boys finish in a tie

FRANCONIA >> Florida sunshine gave way to the chill of January, back home in Pennsylvania.

But the Upper Dublin girls still continued their charge on Tuesday afternoon against rival Souderton.

“The pool was very cold today,” Cardinal senior Meghan DiMartile said with a smile. “So we just tried to see what we could do today. I was really proud of the girls for turning it around and coming out on top.”

Following an enjoyable but challenging week of training down in Fort Lauderdale, the Cardinals swam and dove to a 102-83 victory over Big Red in a Suburban One League non-division contest at Souderton.

The Upper Dublin and Souderton boys went stroke for stroke, battling to a 90-90 deadlock.

DiMartile, bound for Texas next year, surged to victories in both the 200-yard freestyle (2:01.27) and 100 back (1:01.30) for the Cards, and she also led off the winning 400 free relay (Maya Gondek, Korinna Pesti, Hannah McKeown) to finish things off for Upper Dublin.

“We had a hard week of training. It was really nice to see what we could do here today,” DiMartile said. “(Florida) was really nice, considering we didn’t have a pool all season because of the tornado. So it was nice having something really awesome down there. So that was cool.”

It was very nearly four first places for DiMartile, who also anchored the 200 free relay. Souderton won the event by six hundredths of a second (1:41.12) with a foursome of Mikayla Scardino, Anna Stauffer, Abby Burns and Jessica Burns.

“That was cool to get up and race with these girls,” DiMartile said. “Swimming Souderton’s always a fun meet because they have some tough competition.”

Abby Burns also won the 200 IM and 100 fly for Big Red and Jessica Burns touched first in the 50 free and 100 breast. Maya Gondek had a nice swim in the 100 free to notch first for the Cardinals.

In more ways than one, Upper Dublin has logged a lot of miles in recent days but is starting the month off strong.

“Very long month. Lots of meets, lots of hard training. And hard schoolwork coming up,” DiMartile said.

That Souderton 200 free relay, already under the district consideration time, shaved another seven tenths of a second off its previous best.

Meanwhile, the boys team saw Robbie Ferlick race to victories in both the 50 free (22.55) and 100 fly (55.17).

“He had some leg soreness two weeks ago that he was battling, and he is looking the same in the water but his times are starting to come down, which is really a positive result for us,” said Big Red coach Lou Williams. We have two sprinters now (along with Drew Stephens) who are moving in the right direction, which is great.”

Jack Vitella took the 200 free (1:51.41) and the 500 free (5:06.32) for the Cardinals.

Key for Souderton was a first- and third-place finish in the 200 free relay, led by the foursome of Logan Freed, Gian Carlo Bocchino, Matvey Andryushin and Ferlick (1:32.64). Big Red also took first and third in the 200 medley relay, led by the winning foursome of Abraham Bleazard, Andryushin, Ferlick and Freed (1:43.70).

Big Red likes where it’s at coming off of winter training.

“We suited up and swam really fast at Cumberland Valley last week,” Williams said. “This week was more about getting some volume of racing in because we have three meets (at home against Methacton on Thursday and at CB South against CB West on Friday).”