Unbeaten Downingtown East boys, girls swim teams defeat Rustin

Uwchlan >> The Downingtown East boys’ and girls’ swimming teams remained undefeated after victories against West Chester Rustin Wednesday afternoon at the Lionville Community YMCA.
The Cougar boys won, 104-73, and the D-East girls earned a 97-84 victory. Both the Downingtown East boys and girls are now 3-0.
“We had the depth today – everyone swam better than I expected,” said D-East swim coach Gigi Graesser. “They handled the pressure [of the meet] well, swam so beautifully and exceeded my expectations.”
Due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, the Cougars were missing five swimmers (boys and girls combined), while Rustin was missing about 20 swimmers.

“I had to change the lineup three times this morning,” noted Graesser.
A trio of Cougar girls each won two individual events Wednesday. D-East junior Alexa Fulton finished first in both the girls 200 free (1:54.29) and girls 100 fly (57.77); junior Victoria Maki won the girls 100 free (57.19) and girls 100 back (1:03.92); and junior Cady Kiebort placed first in the girls 50 free (26.37) and girls 500 free (5:36.50). Both of Fulton’s winning times qualified for District consideration.

Fulton, who captured gold medals in the girls 50 free and girls 100 free at the PIAA 3A state championships last winter and was the Daily Local News All-Area Girls Swimmer of the Year, said, “Usually in the Districts and States I swim the 50 and 100 free, but lately I’ve been trying to work especially on my 200 free, so I’ve been practicing that [event] and learning to swim the 200 free a little better. … I think I did pretty well today, considering that we didn’t rest up for this meet; we’re still training.”
The Cougars’ Rachel Laraio won the girls 1-meter diving event with a PR score of 230.60, qualifying for District consideration.

The Downingtown East girls finished first in the girls 200 medley relay with a clocking of 1:54.56 (Maki, Finley Mulhern, Fulton and Kiebort), and posted a time of 3:51.43 in the girls 400 free relay (Maki, Kiebort, Finley Mulhern and Fulton).
For the West Chester Rustin girls, Lily Turco finished first in the girls 100 breast (1:12.19) and placed second in the girls 100 fly with a District consideration time of 1:00.33. Carly Chapman won the girls 200 IM (2:25.47) and the Golden Knights’ girls 200 free relay team of Leah Hilt, Katherine Mullarkey, Cara Schwacke and Carly Chapman finished first with a time of 1:53.24. Amanda Rollings finished second to Maki in both the girls 100 free and girls 100 back.

Both the West Chester Rustin girls and boys teams are currently sporting an 0-2 record, but Golden Knight swim coach Kiera Callahan noted, “We’ve gone against two really strong teams in Downingtown East and West Chester Henderson and given them a good meet, even though we’re missing about 20 swimmers today due to the COVID pandemic. We have a very young team, and many of our top swimmers are underclassmen.”

For the Downingtown East boys Wednesday, sophomore Gabe Carroll finished first in both the boys 50 free (23.36) and boys 100 free (52.46), while freshman Matt DiAddezio was first in the boys 100 breaststroke (1:07.91).
Mitchell Goldman led D-East in the boys 1-meter diving with a team-record (and District consideration) score of 234.40. Teammate Jack Hackett finished second with a PR score of 211.60.

The Cougar boys also finished first in both the boys 200 free relay (Connor Kiebort, Aidan McIlroy, DiAddezio and George Liu – 1:36.00) and the boys 200 medley relay (Jack Thompson, DiAddezio, McIlroy and Carroll – 1:46.11).
For the West Chester Rustin boys, AJ Chapman finished first in both the boys 200 free (1:54.14) and the boys 500 free (5:11.82), while Adam Khatib won both the boys 200 IM (2:08.43) and boys 100 fly (56.10, District consideration time). Sebastian Hess finished first in the boys 100 back (59.59).

The Golden Knights also finished first in the boys 400 free relay, with a quartet of AJ Chapman, George Harkins, Hess and Khatib (3:30.72).