DeMatha Shows No Mercy in Pool Against Bullis, Wins 128-36
Written by: Kelechi Ukpabi
WASHINGTON, DC- Trinity College- The DeMatha Stags swim team came into tonight's matchup against the Bullis Bulldogs after impressive lopsided wins against Gonzaga last week and Good Counsel this past Tuesday. The Stags did not let up on the gas versus Bullis and cruised to a 128-36 victory. DeMatha coach Tom Krawczewicz was pleased with his team's dominating performance and was thrilled how his young talent swam this evening.
"Our guys showed up today to swim, and they performed well. Our freshman had a strong showing and that is what I am most excited about tonight moving forward. I was impressed with freshman Patrick Sheerin. He posted some good times and is coming along very well"
The Stags came out firing in the boys 200 yd IM (individual medley) relay, commanding a half pool lead 25 yards before the end of the first leg, leading in two lanes. After
that point, it was no looking back for Dematha, who showed its superiority over Bullis maintaining a sizeable lead in the following legs to take the top two times in the first event. The fastest lane, which included Sheerin, finished with a time of 1:54.40 and the second fastest came in at 2:06.00; both of the top times were from the Stags.
The next event was the 200 yd freestyle, which was completely taken over by DeMatha's Sean McCleary. The freshman blew by all his opponents and came out aggressive in the first 50 yards of the race.
At about 100 yards, the halfway point, McCleary's teammate Al Vita started to challenge him and looked to threaten for the lead. But in the last 50 yards, McCleary turned on the high powered jets and went on to take the event in 2:08.56, almost by two body lengths ahead of his teammate Vita.
The 200 yd IM featured Clifford Henderson, who was a cool customer in the water. Henderson powered past his opponents in through the first laps in the race with ease. But teammate Danny Siedleck began to close in on Henderson, and the last 25 yards of the race was shaping up to be the first real race of the evening.
As Siedleck and Henderson sprinted neck and neck to the finish, coaches and teammates from Dematha tried to cheer and rally their own to the finish. Henderson came out on top in the spirited race and took the event with a time of 2:20.35, just less than 6 tenths ahead of Siedleck.
Eli Shanklin was the fastest sprinter in the pool on this day. The Stag's leader resembled a barracuda with his blinding speed, chopping through the water to take the 50 yd freestyle in 25.26.
The 100 yd butterfly was controlled by DeMatha senior Jack Sabin, who took the event by a margin of two seconds with a time of 1:02.67.
The 100 freestyle was tight throughout the first 50 yards. Evan Higgs and Jason Dillon battled for the top spot as their teammates screamed at the water to motivate the swimmers. The last 50 yards is were Higgs put on a show and went into high gear to seize control of the match to win in 1:00.48.
Max Bramson was one of the few bright spots for the Bullis Bulldogs. Bramson handled much of the 500 yd freestyle with ease. He jumped out to a two body length lead by the 200 yd mark and seemed to in control on his way to an easy victory.
But at about the 400 yd mark, Jason Dillon of Dematha began to chip away at his lead and by the last 25 yards, we had an all out sprint to the finish at our hands. Bramson kept his cool, along with the lead, to win the event by a close margin and finished with a time of 5:39.70, less than 0.60 seconds ahead of Dillon.
The most action packed and hotly contested event of the night was the 200 yd freestyle relay. The first leg was close, as swimmers from lane 2 (DeMatha) and 3 (Bullis) were neck and neck until they touched the tile to begin the next leg.
In the 2nd leg, the Bulldogs captured the lead in lane 3 in the last 25 yd in the leg, with Dematha behind by literally a blink of the eye and both legs were in a dead heat to begin the last leg; that's when things got real interesting. In the last leg, Eli Shanklin, whose lane was well behind his opponents to begin the anchor leg, came out like a madman to overtake the other swimmers in the last 5 yd and win the race in thrilling fashion.
The race was the gem of the meet and showed Shanklin blazing speed at anchor. Shanklin's lane posted a winning time of 1:44.95.
Sean McCleary of Dematha won the 100 yd backstroke with little to no challengers. McCleary finished with a time of 1:08.76 the cruise to the easy victory. The next best time was nearly 9 seconds later.
In the 100 yd breaststroke, Patrick Sheerin, took no prisoners and he commanded the event posting a time of 1:09.06. The fearless freshman was behind in the event, but paced himself and took control of the event in the last 50 yards.
The last event of the day was the 400 yd freestyle relay. The race summed up the evening, with another DeMatha victory. DeMatha finished with the fastest lane in 4:14.20. That lane featured Sean McCleary, Greg Rozanski, Jack Sabin, and Al Vita and finished an amazing 14 seconds faster than the next best lane.
Bullis head Coach Dorothy Yen was very optimistic and sees better days for her small, but improving program.
"DeMatha is one of the best, if not the best team in our league. We had a lot of swimmers that dropped their times and are improving, so I am very proud of that.
We are a small school and we are not going to compete that well against the bigger schools, but we a getting better each day" said coach Yen.
