Rivalry Swims On

The Jersey Shore Swim Blog has been following the engaging rivalry between Bloomsburg's Hanna Everhart and Jersey Shore's Emma Butzler. You can read about their previous encounter here, where Butzler beat Everhart in the 200 IM at the 2012 Central Pennsylvania YMCA Swim League Championships.  Unfortunately, the Bloomsburg YMCA left the league after the 2012 season and future rendezvous seemed remote.

By chance, both swimmers signed up for the Alex Moser Memorial Swim Meet this past Sunday where they had a chance to duel it out once again.  Their first face-off occurred in the 100 yard freestyle where Everhart was seeded first by 67/100s of a second over Butzler.  It was a close race where Butzler gave chase and closed the gap but fell short by 24/100s of a second.     

Their next swim against each other really didn't look like it was going to be a race as Everhart was seeded first by 1.75 seconds over Butzler in the ultimate sprint race:  the 50 freestyle.  It turned out to be a very close race as Butzler swam 20/100s of a second faster than her seed time and was just out-touched by Everhart by 11/100s of a second.  The finish of their 50 freestyle race can be viewed on a WNEP newsclip here at the 1:35 mark. 

Those were the only two events the two swam against each other the rest of the day.  Butzler went on to win the 50 and 100 yard butterfly while Everhart captured the 200 IM, 200 freestyle, and 50 backstroke. 

Several other Jersey Shore swimmers had strong showings throughout the day.  The 10-and-under foursome of Jordon O'Connor, Isabelle Griswold, Taylor Fleming, and Meaghan Keegan took first in both the 200 medley and freestyle relays.  Griswold also captured the 50 yard breaststroke and freestyle while Fleming took the top spot in the 50 yard butterfly and 200 IM. 

Full results of the meet can be viewed here.