Spartans cruise to win over Bulldogs

Published 7:30 am Thursday, December 26, 2019

The Spartans won nine of 11 races and also earned a win in 1-meter diving as Bainbridge easily outpaced Garfield for a meet win in boys swimming & diving late last week.

In the Metro League matchup at the Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center, the deep Spartan bench proved to be too talented for the smaller squad of Bulldogs. Bainbridge won by its biggest margin this young season, 111-38.

The Spartans swept the top three spots in seven of 11 events: the 200-yard freestyle, the 200-yard individual medley, 1-meter diving, the 100-yard butterfly, the 500-yard freestyle, the 100-yard backstroke, and the 400-yard freestyle relay.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Tyler Stewart was first for BHS in 1:49.79.

Fellow Spartans Finn Wenker (1:51.61) and Colin McDevitt (1:55.31) placed second and third, respectively.

Curts Stewart won the 200-yard IM for Bainbridge in 2:12.16, followed by BHS’ Nate Lapin in second (2:16.51) and Jason Nordgren (2:19.96) in third.

Ben Cohen raced to first in the 50-yard free. The Spartan swimmer finished in 23.40.

Harrison Villella was second in 23.97.

Kiernan Liberman bested the competition in 1-meter diving, with a finals score of 279.00.

Brian Taylor was second with 241.15, while Guy Weibel claimed third with a score of 184.90.

Tyler Steward swam to first place in the 100-yard butterfly (54.64).

Cohen claimed second in 57.07, and Thomas Witty was third in 1:00.73.

Bainbridge topped Garfield in the 100 free, with Lapin winning in 54.25.

Jack Williams was second for the Spartans in the event, with a time of 55.17.

In the 500 free, Nordgren placed first in 5:26.60.

Thomas Defawe was second (5:29.80) while Clay Jablonski was third (5:47.11) for BHS.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the foursome of Villella, Curts Stewart, David Burton and Ian Longridge placed first in 1:36.98.

The Spartans also dominated in the 100-yard backstroke.

McDevitt placed first in 58.44, followed by BHS’ Peter Bang-Knudsen in second (100.72) and Luke Shields in third (1:02.71).

Three Spartan relay teams prevailed for the top spots in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

The team of McDevitt, Longridge, Cohen and Wenker won the race in 3:28.88.

Just behind was the four-pack of Villella, Jablonski, Burton and Mitchell Bell in 3:39.28.

The relay team of Witty, Defaw, Jack Williams and William Bang-Knudsen had the third best time of 3:48.28.