Madison Swim Teams Earn Victories Against West Morris Central

In a meet that was plagued by COVID-19 related absences, both the Madison boys and girls swim teams prevailed to victories against West Morris Central. Once again, spectators were not permitted at the meet but fans had the opportunity to view the meet on YouTube via Livesight Productions. 

The Dodgers had not swum against West Morris Central in three seasons, so they were unsure of what to expect. It came to them as a surprise when the meet was close for both teams towards the break, but during the second half of the meet, they stepped up to secure the win. 

Boys

The boys’ meet was highlighted by a backstroke collision, a false start, and several last-minute lineup changes, where many of the boys had to go into the meet swimming events that they were not expecting to swim. However, in the end, they had stellar performances that pushed them to a 94-76 win. This improved their record to 2-4.

The “A” relay team of junior Owen Weller, freshman Anuthra Abeysinghe, senior Justin Lee, and senior Artha Abeysinghe opened up the meet by winning the 200 yard medley relay in a time of 1:50.68. They led the relay from start to finish, winning by a margin of over ten seconds.

However, the real race was between Madison’s “B” relay of junior Evan Katz, senior Shane Faraher, senior Sterling Hart and senior Nick Modi, and West Morris’s “A” relay. During the freestyle leg of the relay, Modi and West Morris’s Alex Velasco were neck-to-neck, with Velasco out-touching him for second place by a mere 0.2 seconds. However, Modi still managed to split a 26.26, which was a best time for him. The relay team’s total time was 2:01.28 compared to Mendham’s 2:01.07. Sophomore Justin Dickson, who was racing the freestyle leg of the Madison “C” relay, also swam a personal best of 26.32–beating out his old best time of 27.59 by over a second.

There wasn’t much of a race in the 200-yard freestyle with every swimmer finishing in the same positions that they started. Freshman Jacques Chemaly, the fastest 200 freestyler for Madison this season, finished second in a time of 1:54.08 while Justin Lee touched behind him in third with a time of 2:06.19.

Pulling away from the rest of the field in his signature stroke of backstroke, Owen Weller won the 200-yard individual medley by over 10 seconds in a time of 2:15.03. Anuthra Abeysinghe was behind West Morris’s Dashiell Antonov for the majority of the race, but towards the 150-yard mark, he got ahead of Antonov during the breaststroke portion of the swim and finished second ahead of him in a time of 2:25.27. Shane Faraher finished fourth in a time of 2:28.35.

In the 50-yard freestyle, Artha Abeysinghe finished second with a time of 24.18 while Justin Dickson finished fourth with a time of 27.88.

It was a very close race between Justin Lee and West Morris’s Itay Ben-Yoseph, but Lee ended up finishing second with a time of 55.71 compared to Ben Yoseph’s 54.96. However, the time was an improvement from his previous best time swum at a high school meet of 56.18. It was also the fastest time swam by a Madison swimmer this season in this event. Nick Modi finished fourth in a time of 1:17.51.

Artha Abeysinghe won the 100-yard freestyle a body length ahead of the second-place finisher by surging ahead of his competitors in the last 25 yards, clocking a time of 54.40. Sterling Hart finished third in a time of 1:00.01.

Owen Weller won his second individual event of the night in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 5:35.13. Evan Katz finished third with a time of 6:26.10, and senior David Amieva was fifth with a time of 7:40.45.

The team of Jacques Chemaly, Shane Faraher, Evan Katz, and Nick Modi finished second to Mendham in a time of 1:45.18 in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

After the relay, the score was Madison 64, West Morris 60. Although the Dodgers had been leading throughout the meet, there was uncertainty about whether they could pull off the win with such a close score. However, the last three events were able to secure the victory for the boys.

Although Jacques Chemaly won the 100-yard backstroke by a very impressive margin in a time of 59.53, this race was underlined by another event. During the 50-yard mark of the race, West Morris’s Jack Griffith did an underwater (when a swimmer is beneath the surface of the water after a turn) into the lane of junior Jake Terry and accidentally collided with him, causing Terry to stop mid-race. The collision put Terry at a major disadvantage, and he finished last. Griffith, who touched the wall second after Chemaly, was eventually disqualified.

Although Mendham did not lose the 4 points earned for a second-place finish (as they were awarded to third-place finisher Carter Seale), the disqualification gave Terry 1 point for a fifth-place finish as opposed to scoring nothing for finishing last. This one point ended up being the deciding factor for Madison to outscore West Morris 9 to 7 in this event and it widened their lead to 73-67.

The 100-yard breaststroke increased Madison’s hopes of winning even more. Shane Faraher and Anuthra Abeysinghe, the two fastest breaststrokers on the team this season, finished 1-2 with times of 1:10.94 and 1:12.34 respectively. Sterling Hart finished fifth with a time of 1.16.08. Their lead was widened to 84-72.

The second incident of the night came in the 400-yard freestyle relay, where the leadoff swimmers in lanes 5 and 6 jumped into the water before the starting horn sounded. This incident, unlike the one in the 100 backstroke, did not lead to a disqualification and the race was able to proceed as usual.

Madison’s “A” relay of Owen Weller, Artha Abeysinghe, Justin Lee, and Jacques Chemaly finished first with a time 3:33.02, while the “B” relay of freshman John Davidson, David Ameiva, Nick Modi, and Evan Katz finished third with a time of 3:35.32. This relay cemented the Dodger boys’ winning score of 94 to 76.

Girls

While the Dodger boys had an incredible performance against West Morris, the girls’ team did not disappoint either. 

Just as for the boys’, last-minute absences that were only found out about minutes before the meet started forced some girls to swim events that they had never swum before.

The meet started off with the 200-yard medley relay, where the Madison “A” relay of sophomore Emma Dooley, senior Lily Barisonek, junior Karen Wu, and junior Bella Guarino finished second with a time of 2:04.65. The Madison“B” relay of juniors Sasha Knoll, Louise Nielsen, Amanda Beneventano, and Fiona Beacom were trailing in fourth behind Mendham’s “B” relay, but a 32.14 butterfly split from Beneventano gave her team the lead and helped them touch third with a time of 2:23.70 to earn 2 points for the Dodgers.

Although at first it was a close race in the 200-yard freestyle between Bella Guarino and West Morris’s Francheska Lucap, Guarino widened her lead in the second half of the race to win the event in a time of 2:17.71. Sophomore Isabella Sarullo and senior Allison Lee finished close together in third and fourth with times of 2:33.71 and 2:34.37 respectively.

Similar to what Owen Weller did with backstroke, Lily Barisonek separated herself from her competitors in her best stroke–breaststroke–in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:24.51. Senior Shannon Kelley finished fourth with a time of 2:56.53, and Sasha Knoll finished fifth with a time of 3:15.96.

Fiona Beacom, Amanda Beneventano, and freshman Evelyn Juliano finished 2-3-4 in the 50-yard freestyle with times of 29.01, 29.75 and 30.08 respectively. 

In the 100-yard butterfly, Bella Guarino finished second in a time of 1:13.21, and Allison Lee finished fourth in a time of 1:21.75. Sophia Modi, finishing sixth, swam a time of 1:31.44 that improved her best time by an impressive margin of 3 seconds. 

Parallel to what happened at the boys meet, there was also some concern on the girls’ side about how close the girls’ score was, especially since they dominated by such a large margin at the last two meets. At the end of the 100 fly, Madison was only winning by 4 points, with the score being 41-37. However, the Dodgers proved that there was no need for worry, as they never lost that lead.

The second 2-3-4 finish of the night came in the 100-yard freestyle, where Emma Dooley, Isabella Sarullo, and Evelyn Juliano went times of 1:05.03, 1:07.90, and 1:09.5 respectively.

Karen Wu and Amanda Beneventano took the top two places in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing first and second respectively with times of 5:48.31 and 6:23.71. 

The Madison “A” relay of Bella Guarino, Shannon Kelley, Fiona Beacom, and Allison finished second in the 200-yard freestyle relay in a time of 2:02.64 while the “B” relay of Louise Nielsen, junior Nina Kornchankul, Isabella Sarullo, and Evelyn Juliano followed behind in a time of 2:05.37. This relay marked the second time that night where the girls took the second and third-place finishes in a relay.

The streak of second-place finishes for the Dodger girls was finally snapped in the 100-yard backstroke, when school record holder Karen Wu won by over 8 seconds in a time of 1:06.39. Emma Dooley finished third in a time of 1:14.17.

The 100-yard breaststroke was won by another school record holder, Lily Barisonek, in a time of 1:12.21. The race was close between her and West Morris’s Alexandra Lozanguies–the person responsible for besting Madison in the 200 medley relay and the 50 freestyle–but Barisonek finished a little over a second ahead of her competitor at the end of the race. Shannon Kelley was fifth with a time of 1:28.83.

The Dodgers saved the best for last when they grabbed their first relay win in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Karen Wu gave the Dodger “A” relay a strong lead with a 56.03 split—the fastest 100 yard split on the girls’ team this season—and Fiona Beacom, Amanda Beneventano, and Lily Barisonek followed to finish first with a time of 4:15.46. Madison’s “B” relay of Emma Dooley, Nina Kornchankul, Allison Lee, and Sasha Knoll finished third with a time of 4:55.32.

The final score was Madison 92, West Morris 78.

Coach Remarks:

“Tuesdays meet brought a great number of challenges with line-up changes right up to fifteen minutes before the start of warm-up. Coach Nan and I had to ask for swimmers to really step-up and push themselves through some hard swims. For example, Isabella Guarino and Justin Lee swam back to back swims with the 200 medley relays and the 200 freestyle. In addition, we had to ask Evan Katz and David Amieva to swim the 200 free relay right after their exhausting 500 free swims. Swimmers were so flexible swimming events they don’t typically swim too. Everyone came to the pool with a super positive attitude and we were so happy to be able to still compete with COVID-19 concerns looming. To win both meets was absolutely outstanding!!” Coach Moretti said, following the conclusion of the meet.

To watch the livestream of the meet, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZZrsLmsklg&t=901s.

For full boys’ results, go to https://highschoolsports.nj.com/game/699437 and for full girls’ results, go to https://highschoolsports.nj.com/school/madison-madison/girlsswimming/season/2021-2022