Council Rock South had its first home swim meet in two seasons on Tuesday, playing host to Central Bucks South in a Suburban One League crossover meet at Council Rock North.
Both teams returned from the holiday break with gusto, resulting in good swims on both sides. CR South won the boys meet, 105-65 while CB South prevailed in the girls competition, 95-83.
For the CR South boys, Will Slaman won the 200 freestyle (2:02.10) and 500 freestyle (5:33.18), Matthew Vinnikov won the 50 freestyle (23.39) and 100 backstroke (1:02.07), Ryan Sabalaske took first in the 100 butterfly (58.46) and Ian Saca was the winner of the 100 freestyle (54.11).
Umid Akmalov, Chris Saca, Nick Kutsevol and Sam Cantwell teamed up to take first in the 200 freestyle relay (1:42.98) for the Golden Hawks.
“It’s about halfway through the season and we finally had a home meet, and it was great,” CR South senior captain Jay Schilk said. “Last year was so difficult, with not having the other team there so to finally be able to swim against another team at our own pool and win is really good for us.
“We were 0-2 coming into the meet and now we’re 1-2 so obviously I’d like to see us win more meets but I think our future is bright and I’m really excited.
“For myself, I’d like to make the district cut in the 50 free. I’m working at it and I’m getting closer each meet. For our team, I’d like to see us swim really well against CR North. That’s always a tough meet.”
He hasn’t chosen a college yet but would like to major in political science. He is a member of the debate team, the chess team, the political science club and runs the Republican club at CR North.
For the CB South boys, Richard Scholer was a double winner, taking first in both the 200 individual medley (2:10.54) and 100 breaststroke (1:04.77).
The Titans won two relays. Aryan Mistry, Scholer, Eric Simon and Sam Kim began the day with a victory in the 200 medley relay (1:48.99) and Dan Conrad, Kim, Simon and Scholer ended things with a win in the 400 freestyle relay (3:39.16).
“Our season started off a little slow but then we came back and won two in a row,” said Scholer, a sophomore. “The boys team is low in numbers but we’re trying to pull together. This was a setback but we’ll try to rebound from this.
“So far, I’ve been proud of what we’ve been able to do, especially with how few people we have. We’ve had to improvise and we haven’t been able to put in as many relays as other teams. But I think we can get better than what we are now.”
Scholer is following in the footsteps of his older sisters, Heidi and Haley, both standouts at CB South. Haley is now swimming at Duquesne.
“I got into swimming because of them but I really like the sport,” he said.
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