Swimming: Pioneer tops Skyline in dual-meet of defending state champions

Terry Jacoby
December 19, 2022, 1 year ago

Last week must have been Skyline vs. Pioneer week in the SEC Red. The day before the two schools met on the hardwood in boys and girls basketball, the two swimming teams got together in the pool. Defending state champion Pioneer swam to an impressive 115-68 win over defending state champion Skyline on Thursday evening in the first meeting of the young season.

The Pioneers look ready to defend their Division 1 state championship when they swam off with the D-1 title last season with a dominating 365 points. Pioneer will have to replace a talented roster of seniors including Jack Wilkening, Ryan Hume, Robert Yang, Caleb Rice, Alex Farmer and Harrison Sanders – so, yeah, it’s not going to be easy.

But the Pioneers reload every year – rebuilding is not in the building or the pool when it comes swimming and diving. And they made a big opening splash with the win over the Eagles, the defending state champions in Division 2.

Skyline scored 291 points last year to capture the D-2 title behind a strong senior class led by the likes of Ben Deininger, Daniel Osterholzer, Matthew Lee, Ben Kurniawan and Evan McKelvey.

Despite the loss of key seniors, both teams have high expectations for 2022-23.

The meet started on Wednesday with diving at Hill Pool at Pioneer. Pioneer’s Gabe Mercier, who finished 11^th at last year’s state finals as a sophomore, took first place with 255 points. Skyline took the next two spots with Stuart Knight (216 points) and Charlie Andrew-Vaughan (193).

First, the relays.

The swimming splashed off on Thursday with the 200 medley relay. The Pioneer team of Isaac Almeida, Edward Zhang, Justin Su and Gabriel Sanchez-Burks touched first with a time of 1 minute, 38.81 seconds – a state-cut qualifying time. Skyline’s team of Owen McKelvey, Jack Staunton, Lucas Caswell and Ben Edlund took second with a D-2 state-cut time of 1:39.80. Skyline’s team of Ian Dyer, Lewis McCammon, Chris Kurniawan and Zander Barr was third in 1:47.14. Pioneer’s team of Brighton Han, Young Jun, Cam Kline and Wil Kim was fourth (1:47.38).

In the 200 freestyle relay, the Pioneer team of Henry Baumhover, Christopher Leuciuc, Justin Su and Gabriel Sanchez-Burks finished first with a D-1 state-cut time of 1:30.15. Skyline’s team of Jack Staunton, Sawyer Thompson, Lucas Caswell and Bed Edlund finished second with a D-2 state cut time of 1:32.16. Pioneer took the next two places: The team of Young Jun, Wil Kim, Jensen Wood and Alec Lipham was third (1:35.64) and the team of Tobias Tang, Coen Boutell, Thatcher Jurevicius and Henry Colvig was fourth (1:41.70).

In the 400 freestyle relay, Pioneer’s team of Henry Baumhover, Alec Lipham, Christopher Leuciuc and Edward Zhang took first with a D-1 state cut time of 3:19.17. Baumhover earned a 100 D1 state cut with a time of 48.90. Pioneer also took second as the team of Jensen Wood, Brighton Han, Cam Kline and Isaac Almeida finished in 3:35.33. Skyline’s team of Sawyer Thompson, Connor Zillich, Chris Kurniawan and Owen McKelvey was third in 3:39.39.

Here are the individual results

200 Freestyle

1^st: Pioneer, Henry Baumhover, Fr. Time – 1:45.95 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

2^nd: Pioneer, Alec Lipham, Sr. Time – 1:48.41

3^rd: Pioneer, Jensen Wood, Jr. Time – 1:52.40

4^th Skyline, Andy Xi. Time 1:53.42

5^th: Skyline, Connor Zillich. Time 1:55.47

6^th: Pioneer, Henry Colvig, Fr. Time 2:02.35

7^th: Skyline, Keane Thai. Time 2:13.01

8^th: Skyline, Aidan Mazza. Time 2:24.19

200 Individual Medley

1^st: Pioneer, Edward Zhang, Fr. Time – 1:58.15 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

2^nd: Skyline, Lucas Caswell. Time – 1:59.00 (State cut qualifying time)

3^rd: Pioneer, Christopher Leuciuc, Jr. Time – 2:00.75 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

4^th: Skyline, Owen McKelvey. Time 2:10.10

5^th: Pioneer, Brighton Han, So. Time 2:10.49

6^th: Pioneer, Oleksandr Gladunin, So. Time 2:15.29

7^th: Skyline, Lewis McCammon. Time 2:21.08

8^th: Skyline, Ian Dyer. Time 2:23.12

50 Freestyle

1^st: Pioneer, Gabriel Sanchez-Burks, Sr. Time 21.39 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

2^nd: Skyline, Jack Staunton. Time 22.56

3^rd: Pioneer, Justin Su, Sr. Time 22.66

4^th: Pioneer, Young Jun, Sr. Time 22.87

5^th: Skyline, Ben Edlund. Time 23.13

6^th: Skyline, Chris Kurniawan. Time 23.56

7^th: Skyline, Sawyer Thompson. Time 23.94

8^th: Pioneer, Will Kim, Jr. Time 24.24

100 Butterfly

1^st: Skyline, Lucas Caswell. Time 52.48 (State cut qualifying time)

2^nd: Pioneer, Henry Baumhover, Fr. Time 53.69 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

3^rd: Pioneer, Christopher Leuciuc, Jr. Time 55:26

4^th: Pioneer, Isaac Almeida, Jr. Time 56.99

5^th: Pioneer, Cam Kline, Fr. Time 58.11

6^th: Skyline, Connor Zillich. Time 59.94

100 Freestyle

1^st: Pioneer, Gabriel Sanchez-Burks, Sr. Time 48.52 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

2^nd: Pioneer, Justin Su, Sr. Time 49.34 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

3^rd: Skyline, Ben Edlund. Time 50.64

4^th: Skyline, Sawyer Thompson. Time 52.25

5^th: Skyline, Zander Barr. Time 53.73

6^th: Pioneer, Coen Boutell, So. Time 56.70

7^th: Pioneer, Luke Silva, Jr. Time 56.99

8^th: Pioneer, Thatcher Jurevicius, Jr. Time57.67

500 Freestyle

1^st: Pioneer, Jensen Wood, Jr. Time 4:56.80 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

2^nd: Pioneer, Alec Lipham, Sr. Time 5:09.43

3^rd: Skyline, Soren Nielsen. Time 5:28.19

4^th: Pioneer, Brighton Han, So. Time 5:30.24

5^th: Pioneer, Henry Colvig, Fr. Time 5:37.30

6^th: Skyline, Aidan Mazza. Time 6:26.87

100 Backstroke

1^st: Skyline, Owen McKelvey. Time 56.56 (D2 State cut qualifying time)

2^nd: Skyline, Chris Kurniawan. Time 58.22

3^rd: Pioneer, Isaac Almeida, Jr. Time 58.43

4^th: Pioneer, Cam Kline, Fr. Time 1:02.73

5^th: Skyline, Ian Dyer. Time 1:02.74

6^th: Pioneer, Oleksandr Gladunin, So. Time 1:03.30

7^th: Pioneer, Kevin Li, Jr. Time 1:06.77

100 Breaststroke

1^st: Pioneer, Edward Zhang, Fr. Time 1:00.13 (D1 State cut qualifying time)

2^nd: Skyline, Jack Staunton. Time 1:02.15 (D2 State cut qualifying time)

3^rd: Pioneer, Young Jun, Sr. Time 1:02.54

4^th: Skyline, Lewis McCammon. Time 1:06.76

5^th: Skyline, Soren Nielsen. Time 1:10.34

6^th: Pioneer, Thomas McTigue, Jr. Time 1:10.83

7^th: Pioneer, Tobias Tang, Jr. Time1:11.68

8^th: Pioneer, Luke Silva, Jr. Time 1:11.74

[Swimming]