North Penn boys, girls surge to wins over rival Central Bucks West
TOWAMENCIN >> A challenging couple weeks or so for the North Penn swim teams nevertheless led into a night of fast swims against rival Central Bucks West.
“Unfortunately, last week, our team got shut down because of COVID, so I think it’s really cool that our team focused in here and got this nice victory against a tough opponent,” said senior captain Bobby Freece. “(Coach Jeff Faikish) really helped us focus in. We have a lot of work to do, but it was nice to see we still swam consistently with our times.
“After what happened the past week, it felt good to get back into the pool and swim competitively.”
Back together again, the North Penn boys put together a 100-77 victory over the Bucks and the NP girls earned a 99-78 win over West, in a Suburban One League Colonial Division double dual meet at The Rick Carroll Natatorium Tuesday night.
“We had winter break, then came back for a day and we got shut down,” said Emma Raser, who was on all three winning relays for the Knights and also raced to victory in the 100-yard freestyle. “It was kind of scary to see what we were gonna do after being shut down. But I think we’re gonna do okay.
“We were trying to get all of our district times in, trying to get back into it. I don’t really sprint as much so (the 100 free) was kind of a wake-up call for me to start sprinting again.”
Raser won the 100 free in 54.69 seconds and Mikayla Potts was the first-place finisher in the 100 fly (1:01.23) and 50 free (25.79) for the Knights. Luna Hutchinson took the 200 free (2:03.15) and 100 back (1:03.78) for the Knights.
For the boys, Freece was fastest in the 200 free (1:47.16) and was part of winning foursomes in the 200 and 400 free relays.
Mason Potts had one of the most impressive swims of the evening, cranking out a 51.14 in the 100 fly, winning the event by five seconds. He also swam to first in the 50 free in 22.05 and did his part on the winning 200 and 400 free relays.
“It was a lot better than I expected, to be honest, after that week off,” said Potts, sporting the traditional bleached-blonde hair along with his teammates. “I was feeling a lot better than I thought I was going to. I’m pretty happy with how everyone swam. It was a good meet by everyone.”
Mikayla Potts, meanwhile, stood out on the girls side. The Knights tried to get some mileage in at local pools last week and found other ways to stay on pace for the demands of January.
“I have a peloton bike so I just rode that. It was really good to be with everyone again,” Mikayla Potts said. “It’s just a good, fresh start.”
Brendan Lao had himself a night, surging to first in both the 100 free and 100 breast. Other first places for NP included Madeline Faikish in the 200 IM and Keira Allison in the diving event for the girls, and for the boys, Ryan O’Donnell won the 200 IM and Ryan Woolaver outlasted everybody in the 500 free for NP.
“We had a fantastic week of training before (the shutdown), and I’m putting all my eggs into that basket,” coach Jeff Faikish said. “We had probably one of the best weeks of training we’ve had here at North Penn in a long, long time.
“The kids are in a good place. We treated today like any other meet: an opportunity to get up and race. One of the captains got up at the end and said ‘this is a good place to start from. Now we’re gonna move forward.’ And I love that mentality.”
The Bucks had a strong meet, keyed by diver Kevin Siegfried, Connor Mangan (100 back), Maddie Majewski (500 free), and Lina Hofmann (100 breast), all winners in their respective events.
