Haverford Boys, Penn Charter Girls Win 2018 Easterns

2018 Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships

• Febraury 16th-17th, 2018
• Germantown Academy, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania
• 25 Yard, Prelims/Finals, Invitational Format (Events 1-12 on Friday, 15-24 on Saturday)
• Complete Results

The 2018 Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships, colloquially known as “Easterns,” pits a group of elite northeastern private prep schools against one another for significant bragging rights in a season-ending invite.

The biggest headline of the weekend was the two National High School records set by Cal-bound Penn Charter senior Reece Whitley, who broke the independent and overall high school records in the 100 yard breaststroke (51.16) and the independent high school record in the 200 IM (1:43.55).

Among the top swims that we haven’t covered yet, though, was a new Easterns record by Pennington high school freshman David Curtiss, when he swam a 19.97 to win the men’s 50 free. That makes him just the 2nd high school freshman to ever go sub-20 in the 50 yard free on a flat-start, joining current Cal freshman Ryan Hoffer, who swam 19.55 at his first Arizona High School State Championship meet in 2013.

Curtiss also took 3rd in the 100 free in 45.21, behind Brian Brennan‘s winning 44.96 for Haverford School. Brennan also lead Haverford to a meet-closing win in the 400 free relay, where he led off in 45.20 en route to a 3:02.21 relay for Haverford. With Andover finishing 3rd, that was enough for Haverford to hold on for the 2018 Easterns boys title.

Senior Alex Boratto was also a big contributor to that win. After breaking a National High School Record in the 100 back in short course meters earlier this season, he won both the 100 yard fly (49.20) and 100 back (48.01), the latter of which is a new Easterns record. He also split 43.99 on the end of Haverford’s 400 free relay. He was the only double individual winner of the boys’ meet aside from Whitley

Boratto is Stanford-bound this fall.

Whitley and his Penn Charter teammates took 13th in the men’s meet, but it was the Penn Charter girls who took home the big trophy on the day with a 24-point win over The Episcopal Academy in the final female standings.

The Penn Charter girls opened up with a win in the 200 medley relay, where Annika Murray(28.17), Sally Foley (28.68), Ayana Opong (26.08), and Camille Weiss (23.71) combined for a 1:46.64 win, with the bold freshman anchor running down Mercersburg senior Isabell Baltimore to win with the fastest final split of the field.

The Episcopal Academy fought back thanks to a 1-2 finish on the 1-meter, but Penn Charter’s depth was too much to overcome. They didn’t win another event after the opening medley until late, but finished 2nd in 4 events, including a 2-3 finish in the 500 to fight back after Episcopal’s mid-meet diving surge. Episcopal had another 1-2 finish late in the 100 backstroke, with Alex Sumner winning in 54.19 and Hadley DeBruyn taking 2nd in 56.34. The lone Penn Charter individual win came in the 100 breaststroke, where Penn Charter sophomore Sally Foley swam 1:02.54 to just out-touch Mercersburg’s Mandolin Nguyen (1:02.69), and that just-about put the meet out-of-reach.

Penn Charter’s girls’ team is young, with only 1 relay leg swum by a senior (and that offset by the fact that 1 was also swum by an 8th grader), and that leaves them positioned to defend next season.

Women’s Top 5 Team Scoring

1. William Penn Charter School – 578
2. The Episcopal Academy – 554
3. Mercersburg Academy – 536
4. Andover – 479
5. Germantown Academy – 438

Men’s Top 5 Team Scoring

1. Haverford School – 530.5
2. Andover – 537
3. Peddie School – 517
4. Malvern Prep – 445.5
5. The Episcopal Academy – 434

Other Event Winners – Boys

• Warwick’s Jes Washington won the boys’ 200 free by over a second in 1:39.12.
• Episcopal junior Ivan Puskovitch won the boys’ 500 free in 4:27.35, half-a-second ahead of Hill’s Alfonso Mester. Mester was closing hard and made up over a second on Puskovitch over the last 100 yards, but a 4th-100 split of 43.79 for Puskovitch (faster than every split aside from his opener) gave him the cushion he needed.

Other Event Winners – Girls

• Germantown’s Emma Atkinson won the girls’ 200 yard free in 1:48.51, which along with her prelims 1:48.44 made the two best times of her career. She opened in a blistering 52.19, which was foreshadowing for the speed she showed to win in the 100 in 50.26. both of her individual swims were automatic All-America times.
• Atkinson later led-off Germantown’s winning 200 free relay with a 23.64, which carried the team to a total time of 1:36.47. All 4 members of that relay are underclassmen. So too are all 4 members of Germantown’s winning 400 free relay, which finished in 3:28.58. Thompson split 50.01 on the relay’s anchor.
• Notre Dame freshman Mia Abruzzo won the girls’ 200 IM in 2:00.49 – almost 4-seconds faster than the field. She put up an even bigger margin of victory in the 500 free, touching in 4:51.90 ahead of Camille Weiss‘ 4:58.03 for 2nd. Weiss is also a freshman.
• Germantown’s Erin Merke won the girls’ 50 free in 23.72, just edging-out Peddie School’s Anjuii Barrett (23.80).
• Milton’s Mary Howley won the girls’ 100 fly in 56.16, beating out a tightly-bunched group at the top of the standings.