Water dominance was asserted early when the No. 1 Westfield High School boys swim team hosted the No. 9 Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) at Wallace Pool in Westfield on January 15. The 8-0 Blue Devils released the Krakens (legendary sea monsters) right from the start and out-pointed the 3-1 CBA Colts in every event except two (8-8 tie in 100-butterfly, and 9-7 in 100beaststroke) to claim a 100-70 triumph.
Blue Devil Owen Waibel won two individual events (50-freestyle, 100freestyle) and anchored the winning 200-medley relay (MR) and 400freestyle relay. Cole Sharkey won the 500-freestyle and swam on the winning 400-free relay. Danny Pierce won the 100-backstroke and swam on the winning 200MR and 400-freestyle relay.
But the Blue Devils made the water boil in their lane when Pierce, Hudson Wilcomes, Logan Swenson and Waibel came in with a sizzling 1:33.72 in the 200MR, followed by CBA’s Santiago Massone, Max Maycher, Alex Ruckel-Bekefi andAlex Madpak at 1:35.42. When Max Matera, Dylan Lagrimas, Sharkey and Spencer Grauch touched third at 1:41.04, the Blue Devils took a 10-4 team lead.
Ruckel-Bekefi took first in the 200freestyle at 1:43.59 but Blue Devils Mike Fisher at 1:44.29, Artem Dobrovolskyi at 1:46.98 and James Kavanagh at 1:47.55 finished 2-3-4 to up the lead to 19-11. Another 2-34 finish in the 200-Individual Medley stretched the lead to 28-18. Maycher won the event in 1:56.9, followed by Sharkey at 1:57.09, Lagrimas at 1:57.79 and Wilcomes at 2:01.3.
Waibel won the 50-freestyle in a blistering 20.8, followed by Swenson at 22.14 and CBA’s Rafael Villarina at 23.02 and Jack Furlong at 23.61. The 1-2 finish made the team score, 38-24. The 8-8 tie in the 100-butter- fly had CBA’s Massone finishing first at 51.7, followed by Pierce at 52.61, Swenson at 53.09, CBA’s Colin Drew at 56.88 and Blue Devil Alex Cherenkov at 57.17.
The Blue Devils took 1-3 in the 100-freestyle with Waibel taking first at 46.98 and Kavanagh taking third at 49.05. Ruckel-Bekefi was second at 48.01 and Madpak was fourth at 51.0. A 10-6 score in the 500-freestyle pushed the Blue Devils’ lead to 65-45 when Sharkey finished first at 4:55.32 and Fisher took second at 4:59.65. CBA’s Jack Camillone was third at 5:03.22 and Chris Conti was fourth at 5:10.03.
Wilcomes, Lagrimas, Fisher and Swenson took top honors in the 200freestyle relay with a time of 1:27.91. CBA’s Maycher, Villarina, Madpak and Ruckel-Bekefi finished second at 1:28.44, followed by CBA’s Robbie Gibbons, Furlong, Will Brennan and Camillone at 1:34.34. Pierce finished first in the 100-backstroke at 51.19, followed by Massone at 52.66, Dobrovolskyi at 56.23, CBA’s Matt Caraos at 56.81 and Blue Devil Matera at 58.77.
Maycher won the 100-breaststroke in 58.9, followed by Lagrimas at 1:00.59, Wilcomes at 1:01.71 and Madpak at 1:03.73. The Blue Devils finished the meet in style by finishing 1-3 in the 400-free relay. Fisher, Pierce, Sharkey and Waibel took first at 3:15.15, while Kavanagh, Grauch, Alejandro Villar and Dobrovolskyi took third at 3:24.71. CBA’s Villarina, Camillone, Caraos and Massone finished second at 3:22.7.
Just the day before, the Blue Devils had a warm-up meet with the 3-3 New Providence Pioneers and claimed a 112-57 victory. The Blue Devils won six of the eight individual events, including four sweeps, and two of the relays.
In the 200MR, Matera, Dobrovolskyi, Kavanagh and Wes Young finished first at 1:47.46, followed by Pioneers Rian Arora, Ryan Knight, Sean Mannion and Matt Schmidt at 1:54.74. Blue Devils Henry Gould, Alex Fu, Clark Seeder and Henry Charles finished third at 2:07.71. Pioneer Lou Conlon took first in the 200-free at 1:48, followed by Swenson at 1:48.04, Mannion at 2:02.83 and Blue Devil Cherenkov at 2:04.6.
Wilcomes won the 200IM in 2:04.38, followed by Pioneer Sebastian Mercado at 2:15.87 and Blue Devil Joe Kiley at 2:16.66. The first sweep was in the 50-free with Kavanagh at 23.67, Grauch at 24.51 and Dima Batkivskyi at 24.85. Another sweep came in the 100-butterfly with Sharkey touching first at 56.51, followed by Flynn Martin at 57.91 and Liam Mulkeen at 1:06.86. The third straight sweep was in the 100-free with Dobrovolskyi at 51.01. Matera at 54.98 and Luke Jenner at 1:01.28.
Waibel participated in the 500-free and won the event in 5:19.69, followed by Blue Devil Gavin Gimblette at 5:40.89 and Pioneer Mercado at 5:41.26. Pioneers Schmidt, Arora, Mannion and Conlon won the 200free relay in 1:37.97, followed by Blue Devils Cherenkov, Swenson, Max Laskow and Martin at 1:39.59 and Kiley, Kanavagh, Pierce and Gould at 1:39.82.
Pioneer Conlon took first in the 100-backstroke at 56.49, followed by Grauch at 1:04.41 and Pioneer Tainsuke Ikeda at 1:06.52. The fourth Blue Devil sweep was in the 100breaststroke when Logan Welsh at 1:07.04, Villar at 1:10.07 and Ben Zhou at 1:13.78 finished 1-2-3. Batkivskyi, Pierce, Gould and Laskow won the 400-free relay in 3:43.86, while Young, Lagrimas, Jenner and Kiley finished third at 3:44.89. Pioneers Mark Alexandrov, Mercado, Ikeda and Conlon finished second at 3:44.65.
