Swimming: Pioneers record nine state cuts; Segal goes the distance
The Pioneer boys’ swimming and diving team won every event and recorded nine more state cuts in a 151-28 win over visiting Monroe on Thursday night.
Another interesting and incredible storyline was the performance of Matthew Segal. The Pioneer senior pulled off a swimming three-peat that doesn’t happen very often by recording state cuts in three consecutive events – the 500 freestyle, as a member of the 200 free relay and the backstroke. Most swimmers are pretty exhausted after the 500 free and don’t just jump right back in the water, but Segal not only did that he recorded state-cut times in the process.
Segal also was a member of the 400 free relay team which also recorded a state-cut time. Four events and four state cut times for the University of Wisconsin bound Segal. Not a bad way to spend an evening.
The Pioneer medley relay team of Caleb Rice, Anthony Gibbons, Justin Su and Alex Farmer took first with a state-cut time of 1 minute, 41.23 seconds. The Pioneer team of Ryan Hume, Samuel Fonte and Gabriel Almeida and Cameron Williston took a close second in 1:41.60.
Alec Lipham took first in the 200 free in 1:47.87 followed by Harrison Sanders (1:49.20), Jack Wilkening (1:49.82) and Jensen Wood (1:53.45).
Robert Yang touched first in the 200 IM with a time of 2:02.61 followed by Fonte (2:07.80) and Gibbons (2:08.18).
Cam Williston raced to a state-cut time of 22.45 seconds to win the 50 free. Gabriel Burks was second (23.34), Gabriel Labadie was third (23.45) and Teodor Jaworski was fourth (23.74).
Cole Tremewan led a Pioneer sweep in diving with 291.95 first-place points. Gabriel Mercier was second (215.35) and Max Rolla-Mullis was third (199.45).
The Pioneers recorded two state cuts in the 100 butterfly. Hume touched first in 52.80 and Rice was second in 53.95. Williston was third (55.39) and Jaworski took fourth (56.59).
Burks was first in the 100 free with a time of 50.37. Jack Shemke was third (51.10) and Labadie fourth (51.24) for Pioneer.
Segal went 4:54.23 in the 500 free to record another Pioneer state cut and another first-place finish. Wilkening was second (5:00.15), Sanders was third (5:00.74) and Alec Lipham was fourth (5:01.87).
The 200 free relay team of Segal, Farmer, Wilkening and Yang clocked a state-cut time of 1:29.67. The team of Almeida, Liam Herbert, Lipham and Sanders took second in 1:37.23. And for good measure, the team of Young Jun, Shemke, Wood and Matthew DeBona took third in 1:37.72.
Segal jumped right back in the water and had a state-cut time of 54.23 in the backstroke. Su was second (59.96), Isaac Almeida was third (1:02.44), Gibbons was fourth (1:02.46) and Mathieu Ruelle was fifth (1:04.43).
Hume touched first in the breaststroke with a time of 1:01.60. Sung-Jae Lee was a very close second (1:01.64), Rice was third (1:04.16) and Almeida fourth (1:04.43).
The Pioneers ended the meet with state cuts from both their A and B teams in the 400 freestyle relay. The team of Farmer, Sanders, Yang and Segal went 3:13.32 to finish first. The foursome of Williston, Burks, Wilkening and Hume went 3:16.65 to take second.
