Seahawks swim teams split against Riders to open season

In a thrilling meet, the Sussex Academy girls’ swimming team scored a 98-72 win over Caesar Rodney to open the season, while the boys fought through adversity but came up just short 77-73 at the Central YMCA in Dover Dec. 5.

“This meet confirmed what I had imagined: that our depth on the girls’ side is likely the best in 13 years,” coach Tom Martiner said. “This year’s challenge is providing enough opportunities.”

Senior Victoria Evans claimed the top spot in the 100 freestyle and backstroke, and showed great leadership in and out of the pool.

“I was struggling a little bit with backstroke last year, but this year, I feel like I've developed my love for it a little bit more,” Evans said. “I've been working hard on my underwaters.”

As a team, the Seahawks captured the medley relay rather handily but had to settle for second place in the freestyle relay races.

Junior Camila Figueroa joined her brother in the butterfly victory club, and sophomore Gretchen Maughan won the breaststroke.

“Our girls did a great job today,” Evans said. “We've had a lot of new people, so we're kind of just like seeing where everybody's wanting to dip their toes.”

On the boys’ side, a few ailments held the team back from what Martiner believes is high potential.

“The boys had a crazy run of illnesses which didn’t allow us to give the true picture of their abilities,” Martiner said. “We’re fortunate that this was only the first meet of the year.”

Senior Christian Wright was featured heavily and won the 200 freestyle (2:00.98) and 50 freestyle (22.66) individually, and anchored both 200 relay teams. The Seahawks were down a few lengths before the future St. Peter’s swimmer dove in to end the medley at 1:45.66 and freestyle at 1:39.

“I'm trying to show the younger kids that it doesn't matter if you're last in your race, just finish,” Wright said. “All that matters is just finishing at the end of the day.”

In the 400 relay that wrapped up the meet, senior Keiran Probert was the final leg for the top relay team and came back to claim the final event with a 3:54.44 time. His classmate Angel Figueroa’s 1:00.67 won the butterfly. Freshman Eddie Hale captured the distance swim with a time of 5:52.33. Junior Michael Whitaker’s 1:06.55 topped the back.

The team’s leadership wasn’t happy to lose, but they know there is a bigger picture to consider for the program.

“They're very raw, and we have a lot of seniors this year graduating,” Wright said. “As a graduating senior, I want to pass down to the future generations of the swim team a quote that my stepdad told me, ‘Do whatever it takes.’ If you have to swim back to back, like I did at this meet, the hard work is going to pay off.”

Sussex Academy is set to host a tri-meet against Lake Forest and Seaford at 3:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 15.