Kennett swim teams defeat Bishop Shanahan
Kennett Square >> In a meet that started 30 minutes late due to technological malfunctions, the Kennett High School boys’ and girls’ swim team each earned a victory against Bishop Shanahan at the Kennett YMCA Friday evening.
The Blue Demon boys won, 124-33, and the Kennett girls won by a 98-65 score. It was the first win of the season for the Kennett squads (both 1-1).
“Overall, I thought the team did an awesome job today because we’re really late getting meets in; we’re normally 4 or 5 meets into the season by now,” said Kennett swim coach Cindy Millison. “It was disheartening to not have the timing system working, so I don’t have the splits I normally have now to tell what some of the details of the times were. But we’ll work through it, we’ll figure it out.
“I saw some really good swims today. [Sophomore] Luke Myers dropped time in his 100 back and is close to making the District cut and he’s doing some really good stuff. A few of our boys are training so their times are a little up. Luke Silverstein had a really good breaststroke swim today, Alex Fialkowski swam the 200 IM for the first time and did really well – he kept up with Luke Silverstein, and Luke is one of our best IMers.”
For the Kennett boys, Carter Elliott won the boys 200 free (2:05.35), Luke Silverstein won the boys 200 IM (2:13.28) and boys 100 breast (1:08.79), Charlie Lesher won the boys 50 free (23.63), Alexander Fialkowski won the boys 100 fly (1:03.87), Nathan Braun won the boys 500 free and Luke Myers won the boys 100 back (58.96)
The Kennett quartet of Luke Myers, Luke Silverstein, Gabe Summa and Charlie Lesher won the boys 200 medley relay with a clocking of 1:46.90; the Blue Demon foursome of Charlie Lesher, Alexander Fialkowski, Gabe Summa and Luke Silverstein won the boys 200 free relay (1:37.78); and the Kennett quartet of Carter Elliott, Luke Myers, Parker Minella and Tyler Tebo won the boys 400 free relay (4:01.90).
Shanahan’s Patrick Taylor won the boys 100 free (53.13)
For the Kennett girls, Madison Skrypzak won the girls 200 free (2:22.35) and Jenna Oakes won the girls 500 free. The Kennett quartet of Reagan Beck, Grace Pruitt, Megan Crecco and Norah Wolff won the girls 400 free relay.
“We had some girls who swam their first meet today and did well,” said Millison. “Our relays [girls] did well today and Savannah Jeffery did a great job. Lily Perkins dropped five seconds on her 100 fly and was ecstatic.
“Some of our kids have had COVID over the holidays, and they weren’t able to practice, so their endurance is lacking but we’re getting it all back together. We’ve been very strict about keeping the COVID kids away from the team so we can get everyone recovered and well. They’re recovering and hopefully, we’ll get through the rest of the season without much more illness.”
For the Shanahan girls, Julia Pagnotto won the girls 200 IM (2:32.58) and girls 100 breast (1:18.07); Kerrighan Stewart won the girls 50 free (26.80) and girls 100 back (1:05.72); Isabella Kane won the girls 100 fly (1:05.73); and Isabelle Sawicki won the girls 100 free (1:01.13)
The Shanahan quartet of Kerrighan Stewart, Julia Pagnotto, Isabella Kane and Isabelle Sawicki won the girls 200 medley relay with a time of 2:01.34. The Eagles foursome of Isabella Kane, Julia Pagnotto, Isabelle Sawicki and Kerrighan Stewart won the girls 200 free relay (1:48.98).
The Bishop Shanahan squads now have a 1-2 record.
Shanahan (1-2) coach Joey Devine said, “I thought we swam pretty good today, considering the circumstances we were dealing with, the rocky start with the technology and whatnot. The kids swam good – we’re still practicing, and I thought we showed good depth today. We had a lot of best times tonight. [Senior] Julia Pagnotto and [junior] Kerrighan Stewart are top swimmers for us and we plan to get them to Districts this year, hopefully. Kerri made Districts last year in the 100 backstroke, and we hope to get Julia to Districts in the breaststroke and 200 IM.”
