2 records fall for Darlington swimmers

The Darlington boys’ Middle School swim team races to 11th place out of 31 teams at the Joe Gawry’s Middle School Championships.

The Darlington boys’ Middle School swim team raced to 11th place out of 31 teams at the Joe Gawry’s Middle School Championships at the Baylor School in Chattanooga.

Dante Tomaselli broke his 100-yard breaststroke record both in preliminaries and in the finals for the fifth and sixth time this season, swimming to 14th place with a 1:17.21. The boys’ 400 freestyle relay team moved up from ninth place to sixth place with a 4:26.00. Sam Tullis, Zach Jones, Ricky Frisiani and Tomaselli broke the 2015 record held by Chris Mauer, Jack Eady, Elliot Kinney and Samson Mumber by 2 seconds.

Darlington had five individual swims in the finals.

Tomaselli also placed fourth in the 100 freestyle with a new best time of 57.30. Tullis placed eighth in the 500 freestyle with a 3-second time improvement with a 5:56.00, and ninth in the 100 backstroke with a1:10.71 for his best time by 1 second.

Jones placed 16th in the 100 backstroke as well as in the 500 freestyle timed final event. The boys’ 200 medley relay of Jones, Tomaselli, Tullis and Frisiani placed eighth.

The Lady Tigers placed 16th overall, led by the three relays in the Top 16. The 200 medley relay of Addie Ray, Amelia Whitefield, Kathleen Perkins and Grace Ann Lundy placed 15th. The 200 freestyle relay of Whitefield, Lundy, Ashlyn Earnest and Ray also placed 15th. The 400 freestyle relay of Earnest, Olivia Laughridge, Lataija Johnson and Perkins placed 16th.

16 new best times were recorded for the Tigers, most notable were Juliette Forgette dropping 18 seconds in her 100 breaststroke, Frisiani going 10 seconds faster in his 100 breaststroke, and Kate Scott going 2 seconds faster in her 100 breaststroke.

Darlington finishes out their season with an intersquad meet Thursday.