Shore High School Girls Open Swim Season with Win

The air was thick with tension and nerves were high as the 2010-2011 Jersey Shore High School swim season got under way on Friday. Shore’s head coach was a bit apprehensive for a variety of reasons. This was his first year at the helm of a very successful swim program that sent four swimmers to PIAA States last March. In addition, this year’s team swelled with the addition of sixteen new swimmers-raw and untested.

As the meet started, nerves were calmed and Thompson had a chance to see the future of his program. “As I sat back and watched the meet unfold, I had the opportunity to see the talent that the Jersey Shore Area has within its district and now our swimming program.”

The Jersey Shore girls took charge from the start as Maddi Thompson, Addison Crawley, Katie Flook, and Jamie Mason captured the opening 200 meter medley relay in 2:15.81. The same foursome cruised to a win in the final 400 meter freestyle relay. In between, the girls dominated Towanda by winning every event except the 200 meter freestyle relay to end the night with a 92-52 win.


The boys had a tougher task. Towanda was able to capture the opening and final relays; however, Shore’s McKinley Thompson, Steven Smeltzer, Tallon Royer, and Ian Endresen prevented a relay sweep by winning the 200 meter freestyle relay.

Although not as deep as the girls, the Jersey Shore boys battled it out against the Towanda Black Knights all afternoon. “I told the kids that whichever swimmer had the greatest urge and will to win throughout the entire race - will win the race,” said Thompson. Evan Moore was the perfect example of the statement. The 200 meter individual medley is a punishing race for any swimmer, let alone a freshman. He fell behind during the middle strokes but started to play catch-up during the butterfly leg and pulled even on the freestyle leg. Digging deep, he gave a final push to just out-touch the Towanda swimmer for second place. Teammate Endresen took first place. In the end, however, the Black Knights prevailed, capturing six of the eleven events and finishing the evening with a 92-70 win.