Steinert tops Nottingham to finish with .500 record
HAMILTON » Steinert boys swim coach Jen Smith was quick to note that dual meet records often don’t mean much when it comes to evaluating individual talent on teams.
But when asked if it made a big difference for her team to finish with a 6-6 record as opposed to having a losing mark, Smith didn’t hesitate.
“Absolutely,” said the veteran coach after her Spartans took a 127-42 victory over visiting Nottingham Thursday.
After graduating some top-notch swimmers from last year’s 7-5 team, Steinert managed to win its share in breaking even this season.
“It’s good for the kids to have that under their belt,” Smith said. “We have a tough conference. You look at Princeton, Notre Dame, the West Windsors, some of it’s predictable. But it’s how you do in the other meets that can make a difference in a winning or losing season.”
Nottingham came in at 5-7, so if one were to handicap by team records this one looked close. But Smith’s words rung true about that not being a good indicator. The Spartans had too much firepower as Felipe Bargo won four times and Christian Devine, Spencer Oliver, Gavin Shin and Alan Sun won three events each.
“Nottingham’s always been one of our biggest rivals because it’s the battle of Klockner Road,” Sun said. “So we just came in and we weren’t gonna take it easy, we knew that for sure. We came in and did our best times and overall it was a good meet.”
Sun and Devine helped get Steinert off to a good start, as they were part of the winning 200 medley relay team. Sun also won the breaststroke and was part of the winning 200 free relay, while taking second to Bargo in the 500 free.
“They actually moved me around today,” the junior said. “My usual events are the 200 IM and 100 back. Today I did my regular two relays, but I did the 500 free and the 100 breast.
“I think they did it more because the depth of our team. Since it was the last meet of the season I think she wanted to give the seniors first dibs on the events they wanted to swim. Because of our depth she was able to do that.”
Bargo took the 200 and 500 free and swam in the 200 and 500 free relays. Devine won the 200 IM while also swimming on the winning 500 free relay; Shin claimed the 50 free and swam the 200 and 500 free relays, and Oliver won the 100 back and was in the 200 MR and 500 free relay. Dylan McGettigan was a two-time winner in the 200 MR and 200 free relay.
Kyle Calamia won the 100 fly for the Spartans, while Steve Wilfing was Nottingham’s lone winner in the 100 freestyle.
“We changed some kids around just to get different times, get them in different events,” Smith said. “Alan hasn’t decided what he wants to do yet but we wanted to get him a breast time for MCTs. That’s what we were trying to do today too, is figure out times for counties. So we kind of flipped things around.”
FIRST-PLACE FINISHERS
200 medley relay: Steinert (Sun, Devine, Oliver, McGettigan) 1:54.23
200 free: Bargo (S) 2:04.03
200 IM: Devine (S) 2:15.41
50 free: Shin (S) 24.74
100 fly: Calamia (S) 1:03.82
100 free: Wilfing (N) 55.03
500 free: Bargo (S) 5:13.07
200 free relay: Steinert (Sun, Shin, McGettigan, Bargo) 1:41.08
100 back: Oliver (S) 1:06.66
100 breast: Sun (S) 1:09.42
400 free relay: Steinert (Bargo, Shin, Oliver, Devine) 3:45.35
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores