By John Lohn<\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, February 27. HEADING into the second day of the Eastern Interscholastic Championships, there was little question that the girls from Germantown Academy would walk away with the team title. Still, the lack of suspense didn\u2019t prevent the Patriots from punctuating the event at La Salle University in stylish fashion.<\/p>\n
En route to 634 points, Germantown Academy capped the competition with a national high school record in the 400 freestyle relay, thanks to the efforts of Katie Riefenstahl, Sara Coenen, Teresa Crippen and Alicia Aemisegger. The quartet clocked 3:22.34, well under the former record of 3:23.85, set last fall by Pioneer High from Ann Arbor, Michigan. At the collegiate level, Germantown\u2019s time would have placed second at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships and third at the Big East Championships.<\/p>\n
Riefenstahl led off in 50.89 and was followed by a 51.10 split from Coenen. On the third leg, Crippen cranked out a split of 50.78, setting the stage for Aemisegger to bring the relay home with a 49.57 effort. The Patriots finished nearly seven seconds ahead of the Peddie School, which produced a splendid time of 3:29.15 for the silver medal. Peddie was second in the team standings with 515 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we worked for all year,\u201d said Germantown Academy coach Dick Shoulberg of the relay record. \u201cI knew they would do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winner of the 200 individual medley on the opening night of action, Aemisegger added gold in the 500 freestyle on Saturday evening by leading a top-four sweep for the Pats. Bound for Princeton University, Aemisegger set a meet record with a time of 4:43.60 and was followed to the wall by teammates Lauren Sylvester (4:54.38), Claire Crippen (4:55.84) and Abaigeal Reilly (5:04.15).<\/p>\n
Riefenstahl and Teresa Crippen also secured individual crowns, with Riefenstahl registering a swim of 50.94 in the 100 free, ahead of Coenen\u2019s second-place time of 51.68. As for Crippen, she prevailed in the 100 backstroke with a mark of 55.43, more than a second swifter than the 56.40 of Peddie\u2019s Annie Fittin. The other individual triumph was taken by Peddie\u2019s JiYoung Lee in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.37).<\/p>\n
Nine points behind Mercersburg after the first day of action, Germantown Academy came back to take top honors on the boys\u2019 side. The Patriots totaled 350 points to place ahead of Mercersburg Academy (313) and the Peddie School (305.5). The lone victory of the night for Germantown was supplied by Reece Chandler in the 500 free (4:35.65). A second-place swim was collected by Ryan Peart in the 100 breast (59.88) and the foursome of Brett Karbach, Matt Cox, Ted Bonus and Chandler placed third in the 400 free relay (3:12.44).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re ecstatic about our boys,\u201d Shoulberg said. \u201cWe only have nine of them, but they never gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mercersburg\u2019s Basil Kaaki was the victor of the 100 freestyle behind a performance of 46.77, just ahead of the 46.83 from Fork Union Military Academy\u2019s Will Trainor. Hargrave Military\u2019s Andrew Hetzner won the 100 backstroke in 52.80 and Cathedral High\u2019s John Azar prevailed in the 100 breaststroke with an effort of 57.29. Malvern Prep claimed top honors in the 400 free relay (3:12.12) to nail down fourth place in the team race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By John Lohn PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, February 27. HEADING into the second day of the Eastern Interscholastic Championships, there was little question that the girls from Germantown Academy would walk away<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n