(Feb. 13, 2015) The Stephen Decatur swim teams wrapped up regular season competition last Thursday with victories over the Saints Peter & Paul Sabres at the Pocomoke YMCA.
The Lady Seahawks won 106-63.
Girls who earned first-place honors in their individual events were: seniors Stephany Smith (100-yard butterfly, 1:15.73) and team co-captain Carly Deickman (100-yard breaststroke, 1:14.05) and juniors Hailey Williams (200-yard freestyle, 2:16.18; 500-yard freestyle, 6:11.13) and Marley Rakow (100-yard freestyle, 1:00.02).
Seniors Madison Tinus and Kailey Mihavetz, Rakow and Smith scored a victory in the 200-yard freestyle relay race (1:54.69).
Williams, Deickman and seniors Maria Zweifel and Molly Wooten finished first in the 400-yard freestyle relay race (4:23.39).
“I thought our swimmers did an excellent job and swam well against a tough opponent,” said Decatur Coach Steve Deakyne. “Senior night went well, and our group of four seniors in the 200 free relay posted their best time of the season.”
The Decatur boys’ squad came out on top, 103-65.
Seahawks who won their individual events were: senior captains Dalton Warren (100-yard backstroke, 1:07.09) and Chris Poole (100-yard freestyle, 56.03 seconds), junior Andrew Gottfried (200 IM, 2:13.46; 100-yard butterfly, 59.06 seconds), sophomores Tucker Cordial (200-yard freestyle, 2:11.40) and Dustin Berkey (50-yard freestyle, 26.41 seconds) and freshman Kevin Williams (100-yard breaststroke, 1:08.28).
Warren, Williams, Gottfried and Poole out-swam their competition in the 200-yard medley relay race (1:50.85).
Senior Matt Krall, Berkey, Cordial and Williams took top honors in the 400-yard freestyle relay race (3:59.65).
“The boys swam very well. It was senior night and the windows in the pool were covered with posters and well wishes for the seniors,” said Decatur Coach Damien Sanzotti. “Some of the swimmers improved their times for regionals.”
The 3A/2A/1A East Regional meet is scheduled for Saturday at the Arundel Swim Center.
Last year, Decatur’s girls’ team was favored to win the regional title and the Lady Seahawks didn’t disappoint as they captured their second consecutive championship.
Tinus won the 100-yard freestyle and Deickman the 100-yard breaststroke to bring home individual regional titles last year. Deickman’s time of 1:13.36 was a new meet record.
“To prepare for regionals, the team will be really focusing on refining the technical aspects of their individual strokes, along with focusing on fast turns and fast starts,” Deakyne said earlier this week. “As long as Decatur practices well, stays focused and utilizes all the experience they have gained this season, then I believe our swimmers will be successful and post their best times of the season.”
Deakyne said the level of competition will be much higher at regionals, as each team will be putting its top swimmers in their best individual events.
“That being said, I think the Decatur girls have an excellent chance of winning or placing highly at regionals,” he said. “I think some of our toughest competition will come from Easton, whom we swam against in our first meet, along with some of the schools across the bridge.”
The Decatur boys’ team finished third overall at regionals last year.
“Our focus this week is for each swimmer to focus on the events they are in. We are working on everything from our starts and turns, to our underwaters and kicks, to race-pace swimming,” Sanzotti said Tuesday. “The whole team needs to continue to improve in areas that we have been discussing all season. We have done extensive work on kicking, which will be essential to success at regionals.”
Sanzotti is confident the boys will do well at regionals. He is hoping for the team to finish in the top three.
“We had competitive dual meets with almost all of the teams in our region…I’m not exactly sure what to expect from other schools…I believe that Andrew Gottfried will do well in the 100 butterfly and 200 IM, Kevin Williams in the 100 breaststroke, Dalton Warren in the 100 backstroke and the boys’ 200 medley relay is very strong. But, it will take a team effort from all the boys to make it into the top three.”
The top three finishers in each regional event will qualify for the 3A/2A/1A state championship, scheduled for next Saturday at Eppley Recreation Center on the University of Maryland-College Park campus. Individual competitors or relay teams who, in their regional meet, are among the next top-12 statewide times will also qualify for states.
