Winning the Suburban One League National Conference team title is always the goal of the Council Rock North boys swim team.
The Indians accomplished that mission on Saturday at their home pool, amassing 471 team points to outpace second-place Pennsbury (409). Neshaminy finished third (316).
Dom Edwards won two individual events for CR North, taking first in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:53.46 and the 500 freestyle (4:38.91).
“The team swam really well,” Edwards said. “We had some really good times all around and our relays stepped up, which helped us secure the title.”
Edwards got the swimming gene from his mother, former Pennsbury and Furman University swimmer Tracey Meredith Edwards. She died from complications from metastatic breast cancer in 2015.
“My mom really got me into swimming,” he said. “I just kind of took off with it. I also played baseball so growing up I did both. I gave up baseball in eighth grade to target swimming for high school. That was the right decision, but it was a hard decision. Even today, it’s still hard for me to watch baseball because I miss it, but I don’t regret it. Swimming’s a great sport. It teaches you a lot of life values.”
The Indians, who went 6-0 in the dual meet season, scored big points by winning all three relays.
Will Higgins, Edwards, Martin Vradinskiy and Caleb Chryst opened up the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay (1:38.11).
Jack Henderson, Austin Ruggles, Michael Kiedaisch and Chryst won the 200 freestyle relay (1:30.15) and Edwards, Henderson, Vradinskiy and Higgins finished the competition with a win in the 400 freestyle relay (3:14.13).
“The league title is very important to us but we weren’t totally focused on this meet,” said Higgins, the team captain. “We went undefeated in our league dual meets and that helped us to get to this point. Each meet was a battle and we gave it our best shot. We knew that going undefeated would make this meet so much easier.
“Once we got through the dual meets everyone put their focus on this meet, which was good to see.”
Higgins also plays lacrosse for the Indians, and he is involved in student government. He would like to major in engineering and is considering Villanova, Bucknell and the Naval Academy.
Mark Rhoge was the top finisher for Council Rock South, taking second in the 100 butterfly (55.11).
The Golden Hawks finished in fifth place in team scoring (211).
In the Continental Conference, held on Saturday at North Penn, Tommy Krystkiewicz of Central Bucks East was the winner of the 100 backstroke (54.84). He was the only winner of a swimming event who was not from North Penn, which won every other individual event and all three relays to coast to the team title.
The Knights scored 620.5 points. Souderton finished second (339) and CB East was third (251).
Central Bucks West took fourth (240.5), Central Bucks South finished fifth (232), Pennridge was sixth (199) and Quakertown was seventh (162).
Joseph Hong was the top individual finisher for Pennridge. Hong was second in the 100 breaststroke (58.58).
Greg Bashaar, Hong, Brett Musselman and Julian Arteaga teamed up to finish second in the 200 medley relay (1:40.70) for the Rams.
Ryan Kircher had the best finishes of the day for Central Bucks South, taking third in both the 200 freestyle (1:49.63) and 100 freestyle (49.39).
“I did everything I wanted to do,” Kircher said. “And we had good swims all around. We know we’re not going to win the team title so we focus on doing our best in our individual swims.
“This is the first time that I got up on the podium for individual events so I’m happy about that. It’s hard to do that at this meet so I’m pretty excited.
“I think this does set me up nicely for districts. I’m going for the 50 and the 100 free and I think I have a good chance in the 100 free. This meet gave me a lot of confidence.”
Kircher is on the student Senate at CB South. He is considering attending a military academy, where he hopes to swim.
Daniel Pohl, Kevin He, Alexei Havaka and Kircher took second in the 200 freestyle relay (1:32.86).
Luke Cimakasky was fourth in the 200 freestyle (1:49.68) and Holden Petty finished was fourth in the 500 freestyle (4:59.71) to account for the best finishes for Central Bucks West.
Tyler Einolf’s fourth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke (59.24) was the highest finish of the meet for Quakertown.
