Unionville swimmers victorious in dual meet opener

Lower Oxford >> Unionville, in its first dual swimming meet of the season, scored a double victory against Oxford on Wednesday at Lincoln University, the girls winning 92-67 and the boys prevailing 85-63.
Leading the way for the Unionville girls was Izzy Iwasyk, who finished first in both the 200 IM (2:18.14) and the 100 fly (1:01.63). Last winter at states, Iwasyk finished third in the girls 50 free and fifth in 100 free. On Wednesday, head coach Mike Mangan pointed out the value of her versatility.
“Izzy did a great job today, swimming some events that aren’t normally her best events,” said Mangan. “She’s fighting off a little bit of (back soreness) right now. But she can swim anything, that’s the great thing about her. We can put her really in anything, and it will be good.”
Iwasyk also was part of the first-place 200 medley relay team of Jacqueline Heyer, Delaney Harlan, Iwasyk and Lauren Dobie (1:57.78), as well as the anchor of the 200 free relay team of Dobie, Harlan, Jillian Murphy and Iwasyk that won in 1:47.94.
Another Longhorn that Mangan praised Wednesday was junior Conor Burns, who finished first in boys diving with a score of 158.50. Just one event earlier, Burns placed second in the 50 free (24.99).
“He’s our only diver, and he’s sort of been without a place to practice (recently), since we don’t have a board at the Kennett Y,” said Mangan. “He did an amazing job today. He did a great job in the 50 free, then jumped out of the pool and did six dives in a row. I was really proud of him, for jumping up like that –- for us, that was the highlight of the meet.”
Other first-place finishers for Unionville were Kyle O’Neill (200 free, 2:01.02), Mihir Sehgal (200 IM, 2:16.25), Harrison Kachel (50 free, 23.95) and John Albans (500 free, 5:54.50). The Longhorns also finished first in the 200 free relay (Kachel, O’Neill, Sehgal and Brendan Manion, 1:38.95). Ernesto Solana swam an exhibition time of 1:03.02 in the 100 back, and the 400 free relay quartet of Kachel, Albans, Manion and Solana swam an exhibition time of 3:36.26.
First-place finishers for the girls included Amelia Miller in the 200 free (2:10.14) and 500 free (5:57.69), Dobie in the 50 free (25.84) and May Telenko in the 100 free (1:00.13).
Heyer swam an exhibition time of 1:05.88 in the girls 100 back, and the girls 400 free relay team of Murphy, Telenko, Alexandra Tryon and Miller swam an exhibition time of 4:07.06.
Unionville has 38 swimmers combined, whereas host Oxford had 18 for Wednesday’s meet.
“We have a numbers advantage, but the Oxford team is a classy bunch,” said Mangan. “We know some of them from our club swimmers, and they’re a good group of kids.”
This was Oxford’s fourth meet of the season – the girls are now 2-2 (defeated Penncrest and Chichester), and the boys are 1-3 (defeated Chichester).
Leading the way for the Oxford boys was senior Alex Karahalis, who finished first in the 100 fly (51.83) and 100 breast (59.52). Both times are well under the District 1 3A consideration time (56.90 for the 100 fly, 1:06 for the 100 breast). At states, Karahalis finished fourth in the 100 fly and fifth in the 100 breast.
One standout for the girls was freshman Claire Livingston, who won the 100 breast with a District 1 consideration time of 1:11.64. Freshman Grace McDermott placed second in the 50 free with a time of 25.95.
“We have a lot of kids who don’t swim club, and this winter, they’re putting up some phenomenal (early-season) times for first-year swimmers,” said Oxford head coach Chrissy Reinard. “We’re really excited – we have some first-year 50 free swimmers who are already going under 30 seconds, which in years past we never had – it used to take them all season. To put up times like this early in the season, we’re happy about that. Our kids are working super hard, and we’re very proud of what they’re doing.”
Oxford’s Andrew Hinkley finished first in the 100 free (51.71), and the girls 400 free relay quartet of Grace McDermott, Zoe Verbanas, Hope McDermott and Livingston picked up first-place points with a clocking of 4:11.16. In the boys 400 free relay, the quartet of Hinkley, Eric Kellermann, Zachary Stapleton and Karahalis picked up first-place points with a time of 3:40.52.