Swim and dive falls to Wootton

MONTGOMERY AQUATIC CENTER, Dec. 10–

The Wootton Patriots (1-0) defeated Blair 's swim and dive team (0-1) in the first meet of the season. The girls' team fell to the Patriots by a score of 62-109 while the boys lost by a score of 137-201.

Junior Emily Lathrop broke two Blair records during the meet. Lathrop finished the 100 Fly with an time of 1:01:99 and the 100 Back with a time of 1:03:90. Sophomore Michael Thomas also swam exceptionally well in the 500 Free with a time of 5:08:24 along with senior James Sheperdson who broke three of his personal records.

Co-coach David Swaney praised the Blazers for pulling it together during the second half. "We ended with two really good relays," Swaney said. He pinpointed junior Jennifer Arai for delivering a fast split of 54 seconds during the 400 Free. "It was extremely impressive because she just came back from another meet," he explained.

Despite the score for the swim team, the diving team excelled in all of their competitions. Junior Patrick Washington placed first for the boys' diving competition followed by junior Nick Seidell who came in second. Senior Katie Pohlman placed second in the girls' diving competition as well.

Co-coach James Demma encouraged the Blazers to have a more aggressive approach to the meet. "We need to work on being meaner," Demma said. "Swim team is supposed to be fun, but we need to become aggressive competitors." Swaney also pointed out that the team needed to work on their turns. "We had some pretty terrible turns during this meet."

Senior co-captain Elsa Dupre was optimistic and proud of how the swim and dive team performed. "Even though we were missing a lot of swimmers during the first half, we were still able to fill in the gaps," Dupre said. "We had a good beginning to the season and I'm sure everybody will step up their game after this meet."

Blair swim and dive's next meet is on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 11:30 a.m. at the Olney Swim Center.

Editors' note: Katie Pohlman is a staff writer for Silver Chips Print and Nick Seidell is on Silver Chips Business Staff.