Drennen, Rams swimmers tune up for districts

Spring-Ford’s swim program made another stride in the right direction on Thursday as the Rams took to the pool to battle Perkiomen Valley, a team they had not lost to in four years.

The Rams boys, led by standout senior Billy Drennen, who again qualified for districts with a time of 146.46 in the 200-yard freestyle, battled the Vikings but wound up getting edged out 102-81.

The Vikings were aided by the fact that they have a diving squad, which automatically gives them a 13-point advantage to start the meet.  On this day, that advantage was too much to overcome.

“It’s tough to overcome that 13 points,” said Rams head coach Bob Sieracki in his sixth year. “Diving counts as an event and when you don’t have a facility to practice in, it makes it tough to compete. If you remove the diving from the score, it could have gone either way.”

The boys started strong with the team of sophomores Nate Darlington, who won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.26, and RJ Sheldon, along with seniors Aaron Cancro and Drennen winning the 200–yard medley relay, the first event of the day.

Cancro, who also won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 55.20, dominated the 200-yard individual medley, posting a time of 2:05.07, which was five full seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. Drennen also claimed the top honors in, what’s affectionately called the “coach's dog house”, the 500-yard freestyle.

“I think, overall ,I was very pleased with our effort,” said Sieracki. “This is a very good team we faced today and they have an enormous feeder program in their aquatic club that really helps them. We don’t know from one year to the next who we will have swimming so it makes it a little interesting, to say the least. But I think our kids have done a great job this year.”

The Spring-Ford girl’s squad was led by the performance of freshman Maddy Zimmerman, who was the only swimmer to eclipse the one minute mark in the 100-yard butterfly, winning the event with a time of 59.02.

“I love swimming the fly,” said Zimmerman, who has been "swimming the fly" since she was five years old. “It’s one continuous motion, which makes it easier to get momentum going. I always try to swim faster than the last meet and it ‘s important no matter who you’re swimming to never give up, which is what we try to do as a team.”

Erin Seiler, a Spring-Ford junior, was able to commandeer the victory in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:16.34 with three Vikings swimmers nipping at her heels.

Though the Spring-Ford girls lost the meet 104-74, they made short work of the Vikings in the 50-yard freestyle as the Rams swept the first three places. Junior Maggie McClain won her heat with a time of 26.81, followed closely by freshman Meghan Lui and senior Lisa Johnson with times of 27.24 and 27.41, respectively.

As the window of opportunity to qualify for districts begins to close, aided and abetted by winter weather that has wreaked havoc on the practice and meet schedule, the Rams made strides toward that end as Drennen, Cancro, Brandon Behr (52.55 in the 100-yard freestyle) and all of their relay teams have qualified.

“It’s always going to be tough when we step on the deck down 13 points,” said Sieracki. “Our kids have dome a great job, and today we had 5 of the best 6 times in the league,so we are looking very good for districts for boys and girls. I think we will make a good showing.”