Dialog reporter
WILMINGTON – As the girls from Archmere and St. Mark’s lined up for the 200-yard freestyle relay, the final event of their dual swimming meet on Jan. 24, the results of the meet hung in the balance. If Archmere could take first and second, the Auks would win the meet. If not, the Spartans would go home victorious.
Well, Archmere’s quartet of Lillian Quinn, Emily Lugg, Sarah Mousley and Chelsey Liu did what they had to do, winning the event. But St. Mark’s finished comfortably in second place, and a third-place showing by Archmere was not enough. The Spartans squeaked out the victory, 85.5-84.5, at the Walnut Street YMCA, snapping a two-meet losing streak and handing the Auks their first loss of the season.
The Auks won eight of the 11 events, but in seven of the 11, the Spartans placed two swimmers in the top three, and the points they picked up allowed them to maintain a small lead throughout the match. The four points they earned in the 200-free relay was just enough to offset 10 picked up by the Auks.
St. Mark’s winners included Maire Wilson in the 50-freestyle, Victoria Blankenship in the 500-free, and the 200-free relay team of Blankenship, Amy Day, Madeline Day and Wilson.
It was a big day for the aforementioned Archmere swimmers. The same four opened the meet by taking the 200-medley relay. Liu won two other events, the 200-freestyle and the 100-free. Quinn was also a double individual winner, capturing the 200-individual medley and the 100-backstroke. Lugg took the 100-butterfly, and Mousley won the 100-breaststroke.
On the boys’ side, Archmere jumped out to an early lead and defeated St. Mark’s, 104-63. The teams split the first two events, but Archmere won six of the next seven.
Luke Grant led the way for the Auks with two wins, in the 200-individual medley and the 100-free. Other Auks winners included Ryan Padlen (50-free), Samuel Linton (100-fly) and Daniel Zhu (100-back). Archmere also had victories in the 200-medley relay (Zhu, Matthew Cho, Julian Iacono and James Maddox) and the 200-free relay (Padlen, Linton, Iacono and Grant).
St. Mark’s had a double winner in Bobby Rush, who showed off his dominance in the distance freestyle events, the 200 and the 500. Aidan Campbell won the 100-breaststroke, and the Spartans closed out the meet with the team of Justin Barker, Campbell, Connor Hessler and John Mouser taking the 400-free relay.
Archmere’s boys won their fourth in a row to improve to 4-2. St. Mark’s boys are now 2-4. The Spartans’ girls went over .500 at 4-3, while the Auks’ girls fell to 5-1. Both teams are in action again on Friday. St. Mark’s swims at McKean, while Archmere returns to the Walnut Street Y on against Newark Charter. Both meets begin at 3:30 p.m.
