Blazer swimmers split meet against Sherwood

JAN. 15, GAITHERSBURG AQUATIC CENTER--

Squeezed into a tiny building and containing only six lanes, Gaithersburg Aquatic Center is a small, shallow and "slow” pool compared to many of the county's larger facilities. Despite the drag of the slow pool, however, the Blazers swam a solid meet against the Sherwood Warriors. The boys' team defeated Sherwood 100-73, boosting their season record to 1-2; the girls' team fell 47-121 to an overall record 0-3.

Sophomores David Vuong, Robert Feasley and Matt Ludington and freshman Yang Yang led Blair's boys to a strong start with a first-place finish in the 200 Medley Relay. The Blazer boys then went on to take victory in every event except the 50 Free, scoring plenty of second- and third-place finishes to rack up even more points along the way.

Despite the slow pool, in fact, the Blazer boys performed extraordinarily well in several events. Senior co-captains Ari Halper-Stromberg and Patrick Detzner, junior co-captain Tyler Wilchek, and junior Bryan Erickson came close to a Blair record in the 400 Free Relay, and Yang's 4:59 time in the 500 Free represents one of Blair's best times in that event since the 2003 graduation of all-Met swimmer Ian MacKinnon. Led by freshman Sam Bullard-Sisken, the Blazers also swept the 100 Back by more than a length.

The Blazer girls swam a strong meet as well, but Sherwood's girls' team proved relatively stronger than its boys' team as the meet progressed. In contrast to the results of the boys' events, Sherwood took first in every girl's event. Juniors Anna Chiplis (100 Fly) and Kelsey Dean (500 Free) and seniors Kendra Williams and Karima Tawfik (100 Breast) won Blair sixteen valuable points by taking second-place in their respective events. Most of the Blazers finished third or fourth, however, and Sherwood ultimately claimed the meet.

Blair's swimmers weren't the only ones who did well against the Warriors; junior diver Sam Silsbee also had a strong performance, scoring in the 5.5-6.5 range on all four of his dives. Silsbee finished the diving event with 129.5 points, easily taking the victory over his Sherwood opponents. Junior Sarah Janesko also dived well despite her relative inexperience with the sport, finishing third in the girls' division.

The Blazers' next meet will occur at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 22. The meet will be hosted by the B-CC Barons at Montgomery College's Takoma Park campus.