Jersey Shore swimmers warm-up before starting swim meet against Wellsboro
At some point, Jersey Shore is going to have to come up with an answer to deal with Wellsboro’s growing youth movement. Shore had easily handled Wellsboro in previous years but the gap is narrowing. In 2008, Shore easily won 7-3 but just escaped with a 6-4 win a year later. This week, Jersey Shore struggled against Wellsboro and managed a 5-5 tie.
Wellsboro’s younger age groups dominated the black and orange as both 8-and-under boys and girls lost 34-21 and 42-14, respectively. It was no better for the 10-and-under boys as they lost 55-19.
The bright spot in the younger age groups was the 10-and-under girls. They stopped Wellsboro’s undefeated girls, 54.5 - 19.5, by winning both relays and every individual event.
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One thing head coach Patty Kennelley does not have to worry about is finding enough swimmers in this age group for the breaststroke events. In the past, Emma Butzler had been the number one breaststroker with teammate Sam Keegan right behind her. Butzler was moved into other events and Keegan suffered an early season arm injury. As a result, Kennelley had to find another breaststroker in her talent laden 10-and-under group. She inserted Cassie Kitchen mid-season and has exceeded expectations by capturing wins against Mill Hall, Loyalsock, and Troy. Keegan has since returned to the line-up and Shore had a powerful 1-2 punch in the breaststroke.
10-and-under, Briar Lehman, pleaded her case with coach Kennelley to be inserted as a breaststroker against Wellsboro and was placed in an outside lane since no one knew what to expect. The starter system went off and she launched herself off the block. “I had goose bumps watching her race down the lane” said coach Kennelley. Opponents and swimming teammates did not notice her power down the outside lane as she touched the wall first, 66/100s of a second before Wellsboro’s top swimmer. Keegan and Kitchen finished third and fourth respectively.
Jersey Shore swimmers gather around coached for a last minute pep talk before facing off against Wellsboro.
In last week’s meet against Loyalsock, Kennelley told her swimmers that she needed fast ,clean swims and that relays were probably going to be the deciding factors. It was déjà vu all over again as it was one relay that secured a 5-5 tie.
The undefeated 12-and-under boys met up with Wellsboro’s undefeated lads and were in a fight until the end. Shore started off by winning the opening relay but Wellsboro clawed back into contention over the next several events.
With two events left, Shore was down by two points, 26-28. Jacob Butzler was able to out-touch Wellsboro in the 50 yard butterfly placing them even at 31-31 heading into the final 200 yard freestyle relay. Nothing less than a first place finish would keep one of these age groups undefeated. In addition, a win for Shore would secure an overall team tie while a Wellsboro relay win would give them an overall 6-4team victory. Shore’s relay team of Cullen Berfield, Johnathan Creveling, Luke Engle, and Butzler prevented a Wellsboro win in the age group and team score by finishing almost four seconds ahead of Wellsboro’s top relay.
The 15-and-over girls had a strong showing as the foursome of Katie Flook, Danielle McPherson, Sam Kennelley, and Maddi Thompson set Bald Eagle Swim League records in the 200 yard medley and 200 yard freestyle relays.
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