PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, February 21. GERMANTOWN Academy is on pace to repeat as girls’ team champion at the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships after the first of two days of competition, leading by 102 points over Peddie School. The Peddie boys are also looking to defend their 2013 title, and are being chased by Loyola Blakefield.
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Germantown leads 319-217 over Peddie in the girls’ team race, while Peddie has an 18.5-point advantage over Loyola Blakefield headed into tomorrow’s competition.
Though Germantown has a big lead in the team standings, the girls only won two events to three for The Episcopal Academy, which sits in third overall with 211 points. The two wins for Germantown came in the 200 freestyle by Shannon McKernan, who defended her 2013 title with a 1:49.46 after posting a 1:48.50 in prelims. McKernan was a part of Germantown’s victorious 200 free relay with a 1:35.12 that included Meagan Dollard, Madison Visco and Natalie Dowzicky.
Finishing second to McKernan in the 200 free was Andover’s Danieller Liu with a 1:50.03. Germantown’s Sierra Schmidt took third with a 1:50.07. In the 200 free relay, it was Peddie who placed second with a 1:36.24 after qualifying first after prelims. Episcopal finished third with a 1:38.04.
Episcopal came out strong in the 200 medley relay, taking the win in 1:43.97 to miss the seven-year-old meet record by seven tenths of a second. Suffield, also having a strong first day, was second with a 1:45.45 and Germantown was third with a 1:45.53.
Sarah Baturka gave Episcopal another win in the 50 free, posting a 23.86 over the 23.98 by Peddie’s Nika Blank and the 24.08 by Germantown’s Natalie Dowzicky. Emily Rhodes got the Episcopal Academy team on its feet when she took down defending champion Val Yoshimura in the 100 fly, 54.78 to 54.93. McKenzie Street was third for Episcopal with a 56.13.
After passing Visco after a strong breaststroke leg, Eva Crouse won the 200 IM for Suffield with a 2:02.63 to get an automatic All-America qualification. Visco had posted a 2:02.84 in prelims but settled for second with a 2:04.18. Germantown’s Emily Erwin helped her team in points with a third-place time of 2:06.32.
Patrick Park of Peddie provided the highlights of today’s competition, winning the 200 IM and 100 butterfly to be the first double event winner of the meet. After a 1:49.60 in the 200 IM, he was back to chase a 27-year-old meet and pool record of 48.09 set in 1987 by future Olympic champion Mel Stewart in the 100 fly. After a 48.19 in prelims, Park got the win in finals with a 48.34. He would return to get a third gold medal today in the 200 free relay, leading off in 20.58 to help Peddie post a 1:23.61.
In the 200 IM, Park beat out Georgetown Prep’s Carsten Vissering, who was second with a 1:51.25. Young Tae Seo, who moved to the East Coast after many years in southern California, took third for Kiski School with a 1:51.33. Park was chased in the early stages of the 100 fly by Andover’s Tim Wynter, who was second with a 49.76. Grant Goddard of Georgetown Prep was third with a 50.39.
Goddard helped Andover win the 200 medley relay to start the session with a final time of 1:31.86, beating out the 1:33.59 by Georgetown Prep and the 1:34.12 by The Haverford School.
Peddie got another win tonight in the 50 free, as Joshua Daniel got the close win with a 21.12 to Andover’s Michael Camarda’s 21.16 and the 21.0 by Treyy Perry of Loyola Blakefield.
In the 200 free, Billy Beard led from start to finish, winning with a 1:40.09. Adrian Lin of Georgetown Prep pushed the pace in the final 50 yards but ran out of room and placed second with a 1:40.30 ahead of the 1:40.34 by Deerfield’s Matthew Hrabchak.
In the boys’ 1-meter diving, Episcopal Academy’s Josh Owsiany set a meet and pool record with a score of 573.85 to crush the 568.55 points Tom Henninger of Germantown posted in 2007. Well back in second was Christian DeVol of Hill School with 527.00 points, and Josh’s younger brother Andrew was third with a score of 493.90.
Tomorrow’s events include: 100 free, 500 free, 100 back, 100 breast and 400 free relay as well as the girls’ 1-meter diving. The highlight of Saturday’s events will be Vissering’s chase of the overall national high school record in the 100 breast of 53.24 set earlier today by Andrew Seliskar. Vissering owns the independent high school record with a 53.49, swum two weeks ago.
Results: Eastern Interscholastic championships, day one
