Jersey Shore Takes Meet Over Loyalsock (review from last week's meet)

Jersey Shore coaches were anticipating some tough match-ups against Loyalsock Thursday night and it didn’t help matters that Shore was missing some key swimmers in certain age groups. As a result, head coach Lee Thompson had to move some swimmers around to shore-up certain age groups.

His dilemma was with the 14-and-under girls where ace Cortney Breon was missing from the line-up. To add some strength to this group, he reached down into the talent heavy 12-and-under girls and brought up Oliva Edler, Briar Lehman, and Emma Butzler to add firepower. The move paid off as the 14-and-unders won, 42-32.

Not to say that this age group was without some excitement and controversy. The opening relay appeared to be in the bag for Loyalsock but a false start disqualified them and pushed Jersey Shore to the top. Ultimately, regardless of the disqualification, Shore had enough depth and strength to put up enough points on the board to win.

Edler led off the individual events with a clean swim in the 50 meter free followed shortly by a win in the 100 meter IM by Butzler. In the next event, Sapphire Naugle was able to able to capture 3 points in the 50 meter backstroke by placing second. Butzler and Edler went 1-2 in the 100 meter freestyle followed by a 1-2 finish in the next event, the 50 meter breaststroke, by Lehman and Edler. Teammates Olivia Bellomo, Madalyn Charnego, Sydney Rosencrance and Brianna Edmonds picked up an insurance point with a third place finish in the final relay.

Maddi Thompson finishes her
race in the 100 yard freestyle

Coach Thompson would not have been able to remove some of his swimmers out of the 12-and-under girls unless he felt comfortable that the remaining girls could carry the load. “ We left it up to Gabbie Moore, Kendra White, the Stemler sisters, Cassie Kitchen, and the rest of the crew to come through,” said Thomspon.

The group dominated the evening, cruising to a 57-17 win. This was done by capturing the opening relay and every individual event. White and H. Stemler finished 1-2 in the 50 and 100 meter free with Moore, H. Stemler, and Kitchen going 1-2-3 in the 50 meter back. Moore also captured first in the 100 meter IM with the other Stemler sister, Olivia, touching the wall second. Loyalsock did capture the final relay as Anna Plotnikova, Justine Schulte, Gabi Raub, and Mia Zicolello finished ahead of Shore’s Trynity Lehman, Allison Schweikart, Elizabeth Osborn, and Haley Naugle.

Shore’s 15-and-under Jamie Mason provided the night’s nail biters with some very narrow wins. It was neck and neck in the 50 meter free as Mason was able to out-touch ‘Socks Molly Serfass by 1/100 of a second. It was almost just as close in the 100 meter fly as Mason won by 8/100s of a second over Loyalsock’s Marissa Gombosi.

15-and-over girls get ready for the 100 yard backstroke start