by Tom Utescher

Last Tuesday’s season-opening swim meet at Penn Charter was billed as a competition for both boys and girls, but with visiting Springside Chestnut Hill Academy only having two boys on the roster, the male PC swimmers had no outside competition in most events.

However, one of the two SCH Blue Devils happens to be one of the best male swimmers in the Inter-Ac League, and North Carolina-bound Ryan Torie set a new pool record at Charter with a time of 21.02 seconds in the 50 yard free style. Penn Charter coach Brian Hecker said that the old mark of 21.27 had been set by the Quakers’ own Jamal Willis, who is now a junior on the team at Lehigh University.

Even on the girls’ side, Springside Chestnut Hill was handily outnumbered by the host team, with 14 swimmers on the Blue Devils’ roster, and 29 listed for the Quakers.

“We definitely have a bigger group this year, and that includes 10 or 12 who are new to the team,” Coach Hecker said. “The main objective today was just to get a look at them in competition for the first time this season. Early on we had some races where we touched them out, and that’s good to see because it shows a lot of heart.”

In the 200 medley relay race that launched the meet, Charter had junior Hannah Griffith, sophomore Madison Freeland, freshman Annika Murray, and eighth-grader Gabby Lopez-Ona eke out a victory over the visitors, 1:59.32 to 1:59.34. Racing for SCH were senior Lexi Prochniak, juniors Emma Lutz and Grace McKeon, and sophomore Catherine Cooney.

“To see that young medley relay team go under two minutes at the start of the season was encouraging,” PC’s Hecker said, “especially with that strong anchor leg (25.92 seconds).”

Individually, the young Lopez-Ona won the 100 butterfly (1:01.28) and her twin sister, Marissa, took first place in the 200 freestyle (2:10.97). Freeland won the 100 freestyle (55.27), and Griffith won the 200 individual medley (2:31.32).

In terms of numbers on the team roster, the Springside Chestnut Hill girls are always at a disadvantage against league rivals.

“It’s hard to not have the depth of the other teams, but my girls have a very positive attitude,” said third-year coach Sharon Lasorda. “We have some of everything on the team. We have girls who swim year-round, ones who swim summer club in addition to school swimming, and girls who do three seasons of different sports.”

With no pool of their own, the Blue Devils practice at St. Joseph’s University, and their meets are usually held at the other team’s pool.

“We’ll have three or four different workouts going in practice, depending on what stage different kids are at,” Lasorda said.

For the opener at PC, she explained, “We were focusing on good starts, good turns, and good finishes, and not so much on the times right now.”

The Blue Devil girls picked up an individual victory in the 500 freestyle, where McKeon won by more than 18 seconds in 5:56.54, and in the 100 breaststroke, thanks to a timely touch by Cooney, who edged out the Quakers’ Griffith, 1:15.25 to 1:15.26. In the 100 free, McKeon (57.11) was second to Charter’s Freeland, Lutz was the runner-up in the butterfly (1:04.69), and Cooney placed third in the 200 I.M. (2:38.49) behind Quakers sophomore Niamh Stull (2:37.69).

In the 100 backstroke, PC 10th-grader Greer Guyer won in 1:08.23 over the Blue Devils’ Prochniak (1:10.93). Guyer was also part of the Quakers’ victorious 200 free style relay foursome, joining with Freeland, sophomore Ophelie Loblack and freshman Annika Murray to post a time of 1:48.24. Springside Chestnut Hill was second here in 1:52.22, thanks to Lutz, Prochniak, senior Lexi Smilow, and junior Caitlyn Klauder.

Klauder was fourth in the 50 freestyle (28.30), following a one-two-three sweep for the home team by freshman Ayana Opong-Nyantekyi (26.09), Murray (26.29), and Guyer (27.50).

Wrapping up the girls’ side of the meet was a Penn Charter win in the 400 freestyle relay, where Freeland, the Lopez-Ona twins, and Griffith clocked in at 3:59.47. Second, in 4:08.66, were SCH’s Lutz, McKeon, Klauder, and Smilow.

Afterwards, the Quakers’ Hecker noted, “Greer Guyer probably had her best 100 back. Madison Freeland had a good swim in the 100 free with a strong 55, and she was just coming off of one of her best times.”

Looking ahead to the Inter-Ac, where PC went 2-4 in dual meets a year ago, Hecker said, “Episcopal looks to be a powerhouse again. Numbers-wise, we’ve had trouble competing with the stronger teams in the league, but we have better depth this year, and we’ll see what we can do with that.”

SCH skipper Lasorda remarked, “Some of the relays we put together swam well. I was very pleased with Cait Klauder’s sprinting for this early in the season, and Emma Lutz sprinted well. My breaststroker, Catherine Cooney, was trying out a new turn, and she did it in a meet for the first time and won, which was a big accomplishment.

“Grace McKeon did a nice job in the 100 free, which isn’t her main stroke,” the Blue Devils’ coach continued. “One good thing about having a small team is that the girls get to swim a lot of different events.”

Because of the scarcity of SCH boys, most of the Penn Charter male swimmers were basically going through workouts in a meet setting. Sophomore breaststroke sensation Reece Whitley did not race for the Quakers on this occasion. In addition to his pool-record performance in the 50 freestyle, the Blue Devils’ Torie won the 100 free in 51.94, while PC senior Tripp Griffith was second in 52.86.

The only other SCH boy, freshman J.P. Dencker, had a good meet, finishing as runner-up to Torie in the 50 free in 24.87, just ahead of Quakers junior Brendan Cellucci (24.96). Dencker also placed second in the backstroke (1:05.07) behind the winner from Penn Charter, senior Jake Brogan (1:03.02).

Charter’s Hecker remarked, “This was our first time in a racing situation and we were using it to see where the boys are at this point. You’re looking at starts, turns, finishes, and seeing what adjustments we want to make. That was a great swim for them by Ryan Torie, setting the pool record.”

The Quakers, with their short roster, have found rough going against the more fully-staffed teams, but Hecker pointed out that they are returning three of four members of their All-American medley relay team, Brogan, Whitley, and senior Jack Mahoney. The Charter boys placed seventh in the Eastern Interscholastic Championships last season.

Last Tuesday, Hecker said, “I thought Evan McFadden had a good swim, and Tripp Griffith and Tim Zurcher are also swimming really well right now. We have a small core of very strong swimmers, and we just need to build out our depth from there.”