Blair swimmers cream Cougars

DEC. 10, OLNEY SWIM CENTER –

Both Blair boys' and girls' swim teams won their first divisional meets of the season today against the Quince Orchard (QO) Cougars. While the boys' team won handily 96-75, the girls fought tooth and nail for a 90-81 victory that was their first win in two years.

The boys' team struggled in the first half of the meet, trading the lead with the Cougar boys after each event. They ended the half tied, 31-31, but took a slight lead, which they never relinquished, after the diving events. The boys' team beat or tied the QO team for points in every event in the second half, leading to a comfortable 21-point victory.

Blair's boys' team took five individual victories, as well as first place in the 400 Free Relay with a team of freshman Andrew McGehee, junior captain Robert Feasley, junior David Goode and senior captain Bryan Erickson. Erickson also took first in the 100 Free, where he won by a mere .06 seconds, and in the 200 Free. Feasley took first in the 100 Fly, and sophomore Samuel Bullard-Sisken took first place in the 100 Back. Finally, senior diving captain Sam Silsbee captured a first place in the boys' diving event.

The girls' team took the lead in the first event of the meet and never lost it, although they had to fight hard to maintain a point advantage. The difference between the two teams' scores was usually less than ten points, meaning that any event could affect the score enough to switch the lead.

The Blazer girls took first place in all but three events, but QO managed to take plenty of second and third places, which prevented the girls' from taking a more commanding lead. The girls' took first place in the 200 Medley Relay event with a team of freshman Melanie Snail, sophomore Elissa Fischel, junior Christie Lin and senior Diana Frey. They also took first in the 400 Free Relay with a team of senior captains Anna Chiplis and Kelsey Dean, junior captain Sally Chang and sophomore Francesca Blume.

In addition, Dean took first in both the 200 and 500 Free, and Chiplis took first in the 200 Individual Medley. Snail took commanding firsts in the 100 Free and 100 Back with a margin of two seconds and four seconds, respectively, and Chang took first in the 50 Free.

Many of the team's top swimmers were at a swim meet for the Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club, a private swim team that approximately 15 Blair swimmers belong to. According to Feasley, "[The team] was missing so many key swimmers that a lot of our alternate swimmers had to step it up. They did a really good job."

Silsbee, the diving captain, was especially proud of the girl divers. "Our new girls did really well," he said. "It was [junior] Nicole [Poor's] first meet, and she did really well and got second. She just learned her inward dive this week and got fives and sixes [out of a perfect 10] on it." The girl divers took second and third place, while the boy divers took first and third.

Blair's next meet will be at the Martin Luther King Swim Center on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 11:30 a.m. The Blazers will swim against the Blake Bengals in their second divisional match of the season.