Blair boys take second at Division II swimming championships

FEB. 11, GERMANTOWN INDOOR SWIM CENTER -

At the Division II county championships, the Blair swim team had a great meet as the boys finished second and the girls, while finishing last, set many individual records.

The new pool was great in terms of allowing people to put up fast times. Swim team coach David Swaney concurred, saying, "Just about everyone had their best times today." In fact, both freshman Melanie Snail and senior captain Kelsey Dean broke their own Blair records set just last week. Snail broke her record in the 100 Back by more than a second with a blazing 1:06.21 while Dean turned in her own record-setting time of 2:24.5 in the 200 IM. Also, in the diving meet held earlier in the day, senior Blair divers Sam Silsbee and Sam Rosenthal beat out Quince Orchard for fifth place.

But the real story of the day was over on the boys' side as the undefeated Blazers looked to capitalize with a county championship. Going into the last two events, the 100 Breast and the 400 Free Relay, Blair had a comfortable 14-point lead over Wootton. It looked great for Blair as the 100 Breast had been one of the strongest events for the Blazers throughout the year.

The championship seemed to be assured when sophomores Yang Yang and Eddie Tang finished 1-2, but Yang was disqualified for taking an illegal kick off the turn. A disappointed Yang said, "The judge called me for a dolphin kick on the breaststroke, otherwise we would have won." Contributing to the confusion surrounding the DQ is the fact that the kick is legal in U.S. events, but not yet legal in Montgomery County meets. Tang's time of 1:02.38 held up for first place, but Wootton was able to cut the Blair lead to only three points.

In the deciding 400 Free Relay, Wootton beat Blair by three seconds, 3:21.73 to 3:24.39,

and the six-point difference between first and second place proved to be the difference between a dominating Blair victory and a controversial Wootton win. Wootton coach Howard Blume said, "That was a tough way for [Blair] to lose...you guys are solid."

The 415.5 to 412.5 loss overshadowed great achievements for the boys including first place in the Medley Relay, Tang's first place victory in the 100 Breast, junior David Vuong and sophomore Sam Bullard-Sisken finishing second and third, respectively, in the 100 Back, as well as senior Tyler Wilchek's third-place finish in the 50 free.

Furthermore, several swimmers qualified for the Metropolitan Swimming and Diving Championships to be held at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center later on this month. Some of the qualifiers were sophomore Tim Peng, and juniors Cole Brown and David Goode. Senior captains Bryan Erickson, Dean and Wilchek qualified as well.