Central Mountain Wildcat Boys Fall to St. Mary’s By Two

by Dana Suter

Going into Saturday’s swim meet with St. Mary’s, CMHS head swim coach Carol Matheney was hoping to better the score against the Flying Dutch after the Wildcats fell short, by only six points, the weekend before at the Arctic Classic.  

However, as fate would have it for the Wildcats, their strong efforts against a competitive St. Mary’s squad was not enough to carry them over the hump as they fell 81-79 in PIAA high school swimming.

The Wildcats got down to business right from the start with a first place finish in the 200 medley relay, the team of Phil Rodo, Jordan Suter, Josh Cram and Tyler Sheets coming in at 1:54:03. Suter, struggling with a shoulder injury, narrowly missed second, placed third in the 200-yard freestyle followed by Mark Myers who placed fourth. Cram and Kibler placed second and fourth respectively in their 200-yard individual medley while teammate Ben Jones gave the momentum the Wildcats needed by cruising to the wall to win in the 50-yard freestyle.

Senior Bethany Barrett powers through the
water in her 100-yard backstroke

The Flying Dutch were up by four leading into the 100-yard butterfly where teammates Rodo and Sheets brought the outside smoke to win first and second in that order, and adding ten much needed points to the scoreboard and giving the Wildcats a one point lead. The score became tied with Cram’s second place finish in his 100-yard freestyle followed by Mark Myers’ third.

In the 500-yard freestyle, Suter was able to add support to the scoreboard, placing third in the event while sophomore Nolan Dale followed in fourth.  With the score slightly in favor of the Flying Dutch, the Wildcats knew they needed the relay teams to place in the top three in order to remain close. The 200- yard relay team of Sheets, Cram, Suter, and Rodo placed second giving the Wildcats four points, while the second relay team of Ethan Dale, Jewayne Marshall, Mark Myers and Nolan Dale placed fourth.  

The 100-yard backstroke saw Central Mountain garner a number of points with Rodo touching the wall in second, followed by Kibler third and Marshall fourth. The Wildcats snagged the most points in the 100-yard breast stroke when Jones out-touched the Flying Dutch for a first place finish with a 1:13:46, Sheets a very close second at 1:14:46, followed by E. Dale in third.  

The Wildcats were up by two points, in a back-and-forth tight contest, going into the 400-yard free relay. The strong St. Mary’s team prevailed though. “I was very pleased with all of my guys’ performances today,” said Coach Matheney, whose squad improved to 3-2-1. “I expected it to be tight. They had a good meet. They should be very pleased with themselves.”

“On the girls’ side, depth continues to be an issue,” said Matheney. “We’ve gotten stronger; we’re just missing the numbers.”

Senior Bethany Barrett had a strong day, tallying the most points for the lady Wildcats, placing second in her 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke while teammate Hannah Worden followed with two, third place finishes in her 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard breast stroke. The 200-yard relay team of Kyra Greenaway, Hannah Williams, Hannah Worden and Danielle Bryan contributed to the scoreboard by placing third. Williams and Greenaway continued with the momentum by placing fourth and fifth respectively in the 100-yard freestyle.  The final score for the girls was the St. Mary’s 129 – Central Mountain 23.

“This is the point in the season where all teams are training pretty hard and coming off the holiday training which is usually a lot more intense. We still have work to do, and definitely will get better as we approach districts in March,” said Matheney. “Right now, the important thing is to keep everyone healthy. Some of the swimmers are banged up. We just have to focus on those key race strategies, come out and make sure we do our best as this team has the ability to do special things.”
Central Mountain travels Thursday to take on arch rival Jersey Shore. Meet starts at 4:30pm.