It is still a few weeks away before the battle
of the West Branch waters takes place but both the Jersey Shore Bulldogs and
Central Mountain Wildcat swimmers got a chance to measure each other up at the 2017
Arctic Swim Classic. And in a preview of
what to expect for the future dual meet, they had to look no further than the
first event.
Central Mountain’s Avery Mahoney was
able to hold off Shore’s Gabbie Moore in the opening backstroke leg of the 200
medley relay. Rachel Marek opened a
wider lead over Taylor Fleming in the breaststroke. Shore’s Butzler was able to give chase to
Olivia McGhee in the butterfly and hand off a small lead to her anchor Kendra
White. Central Mountain’s Mikayla Rich
was now in the chasing position and out-touched White by 45/100s of a second. The Wildcats finished third in the event with
Shore placing right behind them in the four spot.
Both teams continued to size each other
up through the individual events. Probably
the most glaring example was in the girl’s 100 yard backstroke where Shore and
Central Mountain had more than half of the top ten seeds (4 for JS and 2 for CM). Swimming beside each other in the two heats,
Jersey Shore’s Butzler, Moore, Jordon O’Connor, and Kendra White took 2, 3, 5,
and 7 respectively. Intermixed with them were Central Mountain’s Mahoney and Rich
at 6 and 9 respectively.
There is a bit of pressure when you are
the reigning champion and top seed. The rest of the swimmers are eyeing upset
and looking to make a name for themselves.
Jersey Shore’s Luke Engel was in that position in the 50 yard freestyle.
He initially thought it would come from the Clearfield High School swimmers on
either side, but he had to fight off a swimmer from a unexpected lane. St. Mary’s Ben Koss was in the outside lane,
far from Engel’s middle lane. “I have seen him swim before and I knew I was
going to have to watch him,” said Engel.
Sure enough, it wasn’t the swimmers on either side of him that were the
threat, rather Koss hiding on the outside lane. “I kept my eye on him the whole
race”. Engel was able to hang on and
successfully defend his title from hard charging Koss. It was an added bonus
that Engel broke his own school record in this event.
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Jersey Shore girls celebrating their second place
performance at the Clearfield Arctic Swim Classic
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Engel also was the top seed in the 100
yard butterfly. In this case,
Clearfield’s freshman Luke Mikesell was looking for the upset. He got it by beating Engel by 65/100s of a
second. As a result of the close race,
Engel broke his school record set earlier this week.
Engel’s teammate on the girls’ side was in
a little different situation. Butzler had
the pressure to defend her 200 yard freestyle title and meet record but was
seeded second behind DuBois’ Gabrielle Wayne.
After the first 50 yards, Butzler was behind by 4/100s.
In the next 50 yards, Butzler dug in and passed Wayne. She widened the lead in the next 100 yards,
not only winning but breaking the meet record.
“We came in this meet to just have some
fun,” said Shore’s head coach Jenna Brooks.
“But as the meet progressed, the girls were in the thick of it. It was a fight for the girls to capture second
place overall team score. I told our 400
yard free relay that they had to finish high in order to secure second.”
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| Shore’s Kendra White, swimming the 100 backstroke and finishing seventh. |
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