Pleasant Valley Pool Swimmers Take Down Stardust in Back-and-Forth Contest

Coach Jennifer Anello admits that the Stardust team was strong competition for the Piranhas this past Wednesday, July 21st.

"Going into the meet, we knew Stardust was going to be a tough team to beat," Anello said . The Pleasant Valley Pool swim team has had a streak of winning both medley relays to start off the meet, whether the outcome is a win or a loss, however, the Stardust swimmers claimed these events, and set the pace for the next hour and a half.

Evelyn Bigini, Will Crewe and Dylan Lettie won three of the four races in the individual medleys, bringing the score up to 22 for Pleasant Valley Pool and 28 for Stardust.

During the freestyle events, the Piranhas caught up to and over took their opponents by scoring 19 points more than Stardust did.

Madeline Skapper, Paige Johnson, Elizabeth Buckley, Alexander Kippel, and Sarah Valente all finished first in their heats, adding, collectively, 25 points.

As the breaststroke races started up, the score was 76 to 64, with Pleasant Valley in the short lead. Yet, following the 11/12 boys' race, Stardust pulled into the lead once more, 98-96.

The Piranhas didn't quit, and once again took the lead with Briana Thompson, Johnson Crewe and Kate Bradley winning consecutively. Skapper also placed first, while Kevin Tang, Meghan Covery, Liam McCluskey, Kristyn Julian and Assistant Coach Joey Patchett finished second in each of their events and Daniel McCarthy, Aaron Schlemovitz, and Robert Patten placed third in theirs. After the final breaststroke race, the score was 119 Pleasant Valley to 111 Stardust.

During the backstroke events, the Piranhas had no trouble keeping the lead. Christopher Fabian, Johnson, Dylan Wachenfeld, Kristen Mallia, Richard Valente, Molly Wolf, Johnson Crewe, Sarah Valente and Bradley Wachenfeld won nine consecutive races out of the ten that took place.

The score was 174 to 146 heading into the butterfly events, and Pleasant Valley Pool took off with its lead, keeping a constant gap between the two teams' scores. Johnson, Bigini, and Bradley Wachenfeld placed first while Grace Sedlazek, Asa Faherty, Dylan Wachenfeld, Molly Wolfe and Amanda Wachefeld finished second and Natalie Kellam, Joe Maese and Julian came in third.

Finally, the step-up relays, the final two events, began. The girl's relay group of Johnson, Buckley, Thompson and Sarah Valante won its race, earning an additional seven points for the team. Despite the boys' loss in their race, Pleasant Valley beat Stardust by a final score of 220 to 204.

"Every swimmer came with a winning attitude and swam their best, leading Pleasant Valley," Anello said. As the season comes to a close, competition like Stardust is essential to the swimmer's development and preparation for the final meet of the summer; the Meet of Champions, which will take place August 1.