West Chester East swims to victory over Eagles

West Chester >> The West Chester East swimming teams improved their record to 2-1 (for both boys and girls) and posted some district consideration times in a double victory against Bishop Shanahan Wednesday at the West Chester YMCA.

The Viking girls earned a 91-60 win while the East boys prevailed by a score of 106-37.

“Today I thought we swam well, had a lot of good races,” said East coach BethAnn Carozza. “We worked hard over the holidays, and it paid off tonight.”

For the Viking boys, Giuliano Bucciarelli won the 100 fly with a District 1 3A consideration time of 56.04 and just missed the district consideration time in winning the 50 free (23.25).

For the East girls, Caelan Ladd won the 500 free with a district consideration time of 5:27.36, and Grace Herlihy posted a district consideration time of 1:02.96 in the 100 back.

In addition, in the boys 100 back, the Vikings’ Dylan Cuneo (1:08.89), Matt Cohn (1:09.14) and Jon Alstrom (1:09.48) all qualified for the Scott Elliott Ches-Mont Invitational in February.

“It was exciting to see all three of them qualify (for the meet) in that race,” said Carozza.

Other first-place finishers for the Viking girls were the foursome of Sam Heiland, Taiylor Tegler, Sarah Zeminski and Allison Sambuco in the 200 medley relay (1:57.72), Herlihy in the 200 free (2:04.45), Bryanna Marshall in the 200IM (2:19.41), Kaitlyn Conklin in 1-meter diving (209.00) and Zeminski in the 100 fly (1:02.66, just missing district consideration time).

In the girls 100 breast, the Vikings’ Taiylor Tegler posted an exhibition time of 1:12.39, and the East quartet of Heiland, Marshall, Herlihy and Tegler posted an exhibition time of 3:52.42 in the girls 400 free relay.

First-place finishers for the Shanahan girls included Kerrighan Stewart in the 50 free (District 1 2A consideration time of 26.86), Julia Taylor in the 100 free (district consideration time of 59.35) and the 200 free relay team of Taylor, Lauren Ruggeri, Isabelle Sawicki and Stewart (district consideration time of 1:50.27).

Stewart also picked up first-place points in the girls 100 back (district consideration time of 1:04.61), and the Eagles’ Katherine Kolimago got first-place points in the girls 100 breast (1:25.40).

“I was very impressed with all of our swims tonight,” said Shanahan head coach Joe Devine. “I saw a lot of things I liked tonight, and a lot of things we can work on — overall I’m very happy with our performance.

“Katie (Kolimago) has been improving – she improved a second in the 100 breast — and in the 100 free she kept up with our top swimmers. Lauren (Ruggeri) had an amazing swim tonight in the 100 fly (third place, district consideration time of 1:09.32), and her splits in the relay were phenomenal, and she broke 30 seconds in her 50 free (fourth place, 28.03), which is what we were shooting for this season. We’re going to keep improving and keep working on the little details.”

For the Viking boys, first-place finishers included the 200 medley relay quartet of Michael Liebsch, Michael Murphy, Bucciarelli and Nate Schwartz (1:52.02), Schwartz in the 200 free (2:00.89) and 100 free (53.88), Gavin Heffernan in the 200IM (2:19.47) and 500 free (5:32.60), Brendan Ryan in 1-meter diving (204.85) and the 200 free relay quartet of Murphy, Bucciarelli, Schwartz and Heffernan (1:39.43).

Murphy swam an exhibition time of 1:13.67 in the boys 100 breast, and the Viking quartet of Ryan Kim, Stephen McCaffery, Kevin Benson and Heffernan posted an exhibition time of 3:59.05 in the boys 400 free relay.

Next up for the Viking swimmers is West Chester Rustin on Jan. 24, then Downingtown West Jan. 26.

“We’ve got some time to work hard and continue to improve,” said Carozza.

In Wednesday’s meet, for the Shanahan boys, Eamon Welsh picked up first-place points in the 100 back (1:11.23). In the boys 50 free, the Eagles’ Matthew Carpenter (second place, 24.09) and Owen Eusemann (third place, 25.29) both attained the District 1 2A consideration time. Also for Shanahan, Jayden Snook finished second in the boys’ 100 free (101.05).