South River girls repeat as champs
Depth helps Seahawks hold off Broadneck; Severna Park takes boys crown
At last year’s Anne Arundel County championships, South River used a solid regular season to propel itself to boys and girls titles for the first time in school history. Boasting a deep girls squad and a powerful boys squad, the Seahawks nearly pulled off the double again, winning this year’s girls title, 282-272, over Broadneck.
Severna Park’s boys, who came into the meet with a 15-0 record, proved too strong as they took the boys title, 291.50-253.50 over South River.
“I’m super proud of the girls,” Seahawks coach Marc Carella said. “It wasn’t any one of them that did this. It was absolutely all of them. Our depth is what really gave us the advantage over the other teams this year.”
South River needed every ounce of its depth to hold off a strong Broadneck team and was able to thanks to wins by Lauren Poole in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 backstroke, Jennifer Thompson in the 500 freestyle and Jenna Miller in the 100 breaststroke. The 200 freestyle relay team of Thompson, Alexa Anderson, Grace Burkhardt and Sarah Mulvaney also took first.
“The first relay I thought we swam well but Broadneck outraced us, and my second race [200 IM], I was happy with it. The time is what I have been building to all season, so it’s high marks for me,” Poole said. “We needed to stick together as a team a lot and we needed to help each other through all the races. It’s not just getting first but getting points with the high seeds. That’s what got us what we needed.”
Broadneck had several winners as Brayden Bowen won the 100 butterfly, Megan Dickey took the 50 freestyle and Nastya Jacobson won the 200 free and the 100 free. The trio combined with Tori Fulton to claim the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay.
For Jacobson, and many others in the county who were forced to choose between their high school and their club teams to participate at the state meet in a few weeks, it was her last high school meet.
“I feel very happy to be a part of this team,” Jacobson said. “This is my last high school meet ever after four years and it’s very nostalgic and I’m really happy to end it on a good note. I’m really happy with the way that I’m swimming and the team has been very supportive. I haven’t swam in the past two weeks because I’ve had lower back pain, but I am beyond pleased with my performance.”
On the boys side, Severna Park finished strong.
“I think we had a great effort today,” Falcons coach Matt McKenney said. “I can leave here happy knowing that we came back from a rough start. Our boys have been near perfect all year and I am just so proud of them.”
Reid Hussey and Jackson Schultz led the way for Severna Park, with Hussey winning the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly while Schultz won the 100 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke. The pair helped both the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay teams to victory. Alex Kuriawa and Ian Weiner were also on both winning relay teams.
“I’ve been waiting for this for so long,” Hussey said. “For the past two years I’ve just wanted to come here and win, and having my boys with me to come and get that first relay win hyped us up and we’ve been swimming well since. It feels great. Coming in here 15-0, Coach Matt told us to forget all about that, to come in here confident and just swim our fastest and hopefully come out with the county championship.”
Weiner combined with Wesley Winkler, Ryan Maloy and Caelan Troy to win the 200 free relay while Andrew Falsone won the 50 free for South River.
Devin McClure won the 200 free and the 100 back to help the Seahawks finish second, while Will Roberts of Broadneck won the 500 freestyle, helping the Bruins finish third.