Boys swim to seventh in DC Metro area

Blair's Division I Champion boys' swim and dive team placed seventh at Metros with 99 points. The girls' team did not score any points.

The boys scored points in the 200-yard medley relay, the 100-yard backstroke, the 100-yard breaststroke, the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard freestyle relay. The medley team placed fourth, beating all other public schools at the meet. In the backstroke event, senior Ian MacKinnon placed third and senior Tom Johnson placed thirteenth, together earning 20 points for the Blazers. MacKinnon was just touched out for second place, but he split a 53.23.

Blair placed eighth in the 200-yard freestyle relay, in which sophomore Patrick Detzner split an impressive 22.93. Coach David Swaney was pleased with Detzner's performance and said that this year's sophomores will be a powerful team when they are seniors. "Patrick Detzner had a surprisingly good performance at Metros," said Swaney. "Two years from now, when our sophomores are seniors, we're going to be good."

Overall, Swaney said he expected the boys to place higher than they did. "I had hoped we would've done a little better," he said. The Blazers didn't have their depth to their advantage at Metros, though, because only the top swimmers score points.

Also, the Blazers were missing senior Pete Johnson in four freestyle events. Johnson was prohibited from participating in swimming or diving competition after he was ejected from the Montgomery County diving championship meet on Feb 14. Johnson was punished after he and three seniors from other MCPS high schools jumped into the pool screaming "Seniors!" and intentionally splashed the judges. The competition was over, but the four boys were all given zeros for the day and barred from diving or swimming in the rest of the post season. Due to inclement weather, the results from the Counties have not yet been released.

Swaney was disappointed that Johnson's chance at winning Counties were so easily dashed, and he felt that the officials were too harsh. "The punishment was a bit of an overreaction," he said.