West Chester East girls give D-East a close battle as Cougar boys, girls win swim meet

West Chester >> West Chester East, swimming its first meet of the 2022-23 season Wednesday evening, gave the undefeated Downingtown East girls squad (3-0) a close battle before falling by a score of 99-87.
In the boys meet, the Vikings lost to the Cougars (3-0) by a score of 113-72.
West Chester East head coach BethAnn Carozza said, “We showed a lot of fight tonight. We knew that Downingtown East was going to be good on both sides (boys and girls). Our kids didn’t back down; they stepped up to the challenge.”
The Viking girls won two individual events Wednesday. Brynna Marshall won the girls 500 free with a district consideration time of 5:29.84, and Taiylor Tegler won the girls 100 breast with a district consideration time of 1:09.22.
The West Chester East quartet of Marshall, Sarah Zeminski, Grace Herlihy and Tegler picked up first-place points in the girls 400 free relay.
The Downingtown East girls won seven individual events, featuring three swimmers and a diver. Alexa Fulton won the girls 100 free (52.06) and 200IM (2:09.98), both with district consideration times. Cady Kiebort won the girls 200 free (2:01.64) and 1:01.95, both district consideration times. Victoria Maki won the girls 50 free (25.59) and girls 100 back (1:01.27), both district consideration times. Rachel Laraio won diving easily with a score of 249.05.
The Cougar girls picked up first-place points in two relays – the 200 medley relay (Maki, Finley Mulhern, Kiebort and Fulton, district consideration time of 1:52.01) and the girls 200 free relay (Kiebort, Reya Petrick, Sydney Greene and Fulton).
D-East girls swim coach Sean Wyatt was impressed with the depth the Cougars showed Wednesday night.
“We have a lot of young swimmers, and we’re not really sure what they can go (timewise) in certain events, they haven’t swum them before,” said Wyatt. “So we got a lot of times for the first time tonight that, I wouldn’t say they improved their time, but they showed us something. A lot of them were racing over the weekend (with the swimmers’ club teams), so some of these swimmers are in their sixth day in a row of racing, and we had a taper meet last night, so it’s been a lot (of racing) on them. They did really good, they powered through.
“The whole team (girls and boys) did really well. Alexa Fulton was a powerhouse in the relays. Victoria Maki really, really helped us out – she won every event she was in tonight.”
For the Downingtown East boys, individual event winners were Gabe Carroll (boys 200 free, 1:52.37 and boys 100 back, 59.26), Sam Sperling (boys 200IM, 2:08.75 and boys 500 free, 5:21.70), Jack Thompson (boys 50 free, 23.48) and Matt DiAddezio (boys 100 breast, 1:06.22).
The Downingtown East foursome of Luke Sperling, DiAddezio, George Liu and Andrew Fulton placed first in the boys 200 medley relay (1:48.86). The Cougar foursome of DiAddezio, Carroll, Sam Sperling and Thompson won the boys 200 free relay (1:32.63). In the final event of the night, the D-East quartet of Sam Sperling, Carroll, Luke Sperling and Thompson won the boys 400 free relay (3:29.12).
For the Viking boys, Brendan Ryan won diving (162.50), Giuliano Bucciarelli won the boys 100 fly with a district consideration time of 55.17 and Nate Schwarz won the boys 100 free (54.20).