Swimming: Busy week for Huron – River Rats swim against Skyline, Brother Rice
By Margaret Baker
The Huron High School Men’s Swim/Dive team had a busy week last week, hosting both Skyline and Brother Rice on consecutive days. They held their own against a very talented Skyline team at the Ratatorium, Thursday, January 19, losing 120-63, then turning around and defeating visiting Brother Rice on Jan. 20,110-70.
In the Skyline meet, Huron’s John Gao had a great night, taking first in two events, the 50 Free (22.87)– with teammate, captain/senior Alex Moskus 3rd (23.50), and captain/senior Kenneth Jiang, 5th (24.91)–and the 100 Free (50.90), in which teammate Franek Orlowski swam for 3rd (52.77).
In the 200 Free, Captain/Senior Joe O’Neal (1:53.37) was just touched out for the win by Skyline’s Ben Edlund (1:52.81), with Huron’s Ethan Yung (2:03.95), landing in 4th in that contest. Huron’s strongest showings were in the 100 Back, with junior Kal Bunnell, 2nd (1:04.66), junior Graham Baker, 4th (1:04.81), and freshman Luke Bunnell, 5th (1:07.73); and in the 100 Breast, with Kyle Smith (1:04.88), taking 2nd, Moskus (1:12.93), 4th, and junior Jeffery Wang (1:14.14), 5th. In the 100 Fly, O’Neal (58.35) was again touched out by a hair for 1st, this time by Skyline’s Chris Kurniawan (58.32). K. Bunnell took points for 5th (1:03.17), with Baker in a non-scoring, but close 7th (1:03.49).
In the relays, Skyline’s 200 Medley “A” (Owen McKelvey, Lewis McCammon, Lucas Cswell, and Jack Staunton) landed 1st (1:40.48) with Huron’s “A” (Gao, Jiang, Smith, Moskus, in 2nd (1:46.07). Skyline took 1st and 2nd in the 200 Free event with “A” swimmers (Sawyer Thompson, McCammon, Caswell, Edlund) touching in 1:33.91, and “B” (Zander Barr, Owen Torres, Chris Kurniawan, and Staunton), in 1:34.49 in 2nd. Huron’s “A” (Moskus, Jiang, O’Neal, and Gao) were 3rd (1:36.08).
Other individual point-getters against Skyline for the Rats were as follows:
In the 200 IM, Orlowski, 4th (218.55) and Wang, 5th (2:21.21); in the 500 Free, freshman Camp Streeter, 4th, (5:35.85), and Yung, 5th, (5:40.38); and on the diving board, James Hutmacher, 3rd with 157.50 points.
Against Brother Rice, Huron had five event winners. Gao swam to a win with a speedy 2:05.50 in the 200 IM, with freshman Streeter, 3rd (2:14.72) and Smith, 5th (2:22.26). Moskus touched first easily (23.61) in the 50 free, with O’Neal (25.52), 3rd, and junior Jack Humphries (26.96), 4th. Orlowski (5:18.65) came in just ahead of teammate K. Bunnell (5:19.54) in the 500 Free, with Wang in 4th (5:39.19). In the 100 Back, O’Neal (56.24), took gold, just edging out teammate Gao (56.33), with Yung (1:04.50) in 4th and L. Bunnell (1:07.60), a non-scoring 5th, and in the 100 Breast, Smith (1:05.59) touched 1st, with Jiang (1:06.60 in 2nd and Evan Ngo (1:16.42) in 4th.
On the board, three River Rat divers competed, with Hutmacher (155.63) 1st, junior Dean Molnar III (92.02), 2nd, and junior Omar Abdulhak (72.90), a non-scoring 3rd place.
Huron’s 200 Medley “A” Relay (1:44.40) won handily (O’Neal, Smith, Gao, Moskus), but their 200 Free “A” squad (1:40.07), featuring Moskus, Jiang, K. Bunnell, and Orlowski (1:40.07), fell short behind Brother Rice’s lightning-fast 1:33.51 finish (Turner Worth, Connor Pietsch, Robbie Higgins, Finn Rivard). The River Rats “B” (Smith, Ngo Streeter, Wang) took 3rd in 1:44.15. Brother Rice’s “A” of Higgins, Bode Kindt, Will Lewis, and Pietsch (3:34.31) took the 400 Free relay, but Huron’s “A” (Orlowski, Bunnell, O’Neal, Gao), was 2nd , finishing in 3:37.43 and the “B” (Wang, L. Bunnell, Yung, and Humphries), finishing in 3:56.38, was 3rd.
Huron travels to Bedford for an SEC Dual meet on Thursday, Jan. 26.
PHOTO: Franek Orlowski in the 500 Free
