West Chester Rustin swimmers earn comfortable victories against Great Valley

West Chester >> The West Chester Rustin swimming team celebrated its first meet of the new year Friday with a double victory against Great Valley at the West Chester YMCA.
Both squads prevailed by comfortable margins, the Rustin girls winning 106-53 and the boys posting a 101-75 victory.
The girls were led by Flynn Truskett, who posted district consideration times in winning the 200 free (2:00.95) and 500 free (5:25.59), and Lily Turco, who finished first in the 200 IM (district consideration time of 2:16.17) and 50 free (27.11).
For the boys, junior Cameron Benedetto finished first in the 100 breast (1:14.83) and earned first-place points in 1-meter diving.
Rustin head coach Kiera Callahan said, “Cam was diving on the board for the first time (in a meet), and he only had a couple of practices in (before). We’re really proud of him, he really stepped up to the plate tonight. I love having a team player like that.

“We had a lot of kids tonight who were swimming events out of their comfort zone. I couldn’t be prouder of our kids being able to move around and swim in different spots and step up to the plate.”

Rustin’s Sara Nsereko won the 100 fly (1:06.07), then two events later placed second in the 500 free.
“It was great that Sara was about able to come right back (after winning the 100 fly) like that,” said Callahan. “I could say something about every single one of our kids tonight –- they all really stepped up, so I’m really proud of them.”
Another Rustin standout was Ellie Smith, who won the 1-meter diving with a district consideration score of 228.

“That was a great accomplishment by Ellie,” said Callahan. “Of course, we always look to our dual meets, but looking toward the postseason, it’s looking like we’re going to have a lot of options, which is really good.”

The Rustin double victory Friday boosted its record to 1-1 for both girls and boys. Last month, they lost to Henderson, and Friday was their first Ches-Mont American meet of the season.

Other first-place finishers for the girls were Lily Greenwood in the 100 free (59.86), the quartet of Greenwood, Turco, Leah Hilt and Nora Casey in the 200 medley relay (2:01.20), and the foursome of Truskett, Paige Clancy, Casey and Michelle An in the 200 free relay in a time of 1:48.37.
Rustin’s Cara Schwacke posted an exhibition time of 1:11.06 in the 100 back (1:11.06), and the quartet of Greenwood, Hilt, Turco and Truskett posted an exhibition time of 3:56.98 in the 400 free relay.
Other first-place finishers for the boys included AJ Chapman in the 200 free (1:56.49), Vijay Upadhyay in the 50 free (25.24), George Harkins in the 100 free (52.67), the quartet of Upadhyay, Brendan Porter, Jonah

Hilt and Harkins in the 200 free relay (1:40.84) and the foursome of Harkins, Alec Khatib, Upadhyay and Chapman in the 400 free relay (3:37.63).
Great Valley also had some standout swimmers Friday, led by sophomore captain Patrick Li, who posted district consideration times in winning both the 100 fly (56.73) and the 200IM (2:06.60).

“Patrick has been doing an excellent job for us; he’s a great leader and he takes the time to show his teammates different things,” said Great Valley head coach Ashlyn Marabella. “He’s a great example for the rest of the team.”
For the GV girls, Grace Curtis won the 100 breast with a district consideration time of 1:10.64.
“Grace is another outstanding leader, she works hard and is willing to jump into different (events) if we need her,” said Marabella.

Other boys who finished first included Patrick Hynes in the 500 free (5:17.93), Rafael Rodriguez in the 100 back (1:01.56) and the quartet of Rodriguez, Li, Hynes and Stanley Sha in the the 200 medley relay (1:50.11).

Great Valley’s Maria Acker earned first-place points in the girls 100 back (1:15.45) as did the girls 400 free relay of Nicole Garcia, Tessa Dietrick, Acker and Curtis.

“We had a lot of effort out there tonight,” said Marabella. “We have a range of abilities on our team, and everybody on our team has been working hard, and helping each other to get better.”