Madison Swim Teams Lose to Morristown, Boys Break Team Record

Both the boys’ and girls’ swim teams lost to Morristown at Morristown High School on December 6th. After opening the season by losing to a very strong Chatham team last week, the Dodgers swam against another tough opponent whose girls’ team finished undefeated and boys’ team finished 7-2 in the 2021 season. 

This meet was their first meet of the season that was swam in short course meters, as opposed to the slightly shorter short course yards races. Madison’s home pool, the Madison Area YMCA, is a short course yards pool, which meant that many new swimmers had to adjust to longer races. 

The girls’ lost their meet 103-67 but still managed to win five events. Junior Karen Wu won two races, the 200-meter individual medley (2:47.23) and the 100-meter butterfly (1:09.68). In addition, sophomore Erin Barisonek won the 100-meter backstroke (1:15.19) and Karen Wu, junior Amanda Beneventano, Erin Barisonek, and senior Lily Barisonek won the 400-meter freestyle relay (4:40.95). 

On the boys’ side, seven out of the eleven events were won by Madison. Despite winning the majority of the events, the Dodgers still lost the meet 100-70 due to several second, third, and fourth-place finishes from a Morristown team with incredible depth. 

The Dodger boys swept all three relay events, with junior Owen Weller, freshman Anuthra Abeysinghe, senior Justin Lee, and senior Artha Abeysinghe winning the 200-meter medley relay (1:56.73) while senior Doyle Keane, senior Shane Faraher, senior Nick Modi, and Chemaly won the 200-meter freestyle relay (1:59.47). Artha Abeysinghe, Lee, Chemaly, and Weller also won the 400-meter freestyle relay (3:55.24), setting a new school record after taking down the old record set by Morgan Bruhn, Zach Ruiz, Brendan Fowler, and Michael Lee in 2019 (3:58.94).

 In terms of individual events, Chemaly won the 200 meter freestyle (2:07.26), Artha Abeysinghe won the 100 meter freestyle (59.24), and Weller won the 100 meter backstroke (1:05.38).