Last Saturday, the RM Swim and Dive’s winning streak ended with a twelve point loss against the WJ Wildcats, the favorites to win Divisionals. The boys raced past the competition, finishing with a victory 110-59. Meanwhile, the girls faced one of their toughest opponents yet and ended with a tough loss of 117-54.
The meet started promptly at 1:45 pm with diving.
Junior Ian McBain placed second in the boys diving event, and senior Kamryn Umbel claimed first place for the girls with a grand score of 177.15, completely destroying the competition. Sophomore Lyda Harouna followed with third place, earning an additional three points for the team.
Shortly after diving ended, RM had already secured ten more points from the boys 200 medley relay. Seniors Matt Nguyen, Kenny Afolabi-Brown, Greg Afolabi-Brown, and Jonathan Mendley teamed up to create a dominating relay team, beating the other team by almost four seconds. The B relay team followed up with third place.
Furthermore, the boys sweeped the competition by winning events like the 100 backstroke, which earned them twelve consecutive points and the 400 free relay, in which they claimed both first and third places. However, they conceded a hard loss to Walter Johnson in the dreaded 500 free race.
The girls struggled against the Wildcats. Although the girls raced tirelessly for first place, WJ maintained a firm winning grasp in all events except diving. Many of the RM girls swam personal bests and won second place, earning series of four points for the team, but to no avail, as victory ultimately went to the Wildcats. Senior Grace Sun held one of the more gut-wrenching losses of the many sustained by the RM girls, missing first place in 50 free by less than a second.
At the end of the day, however, every meet is just a chance to learn and improve. “I think no meet is ever a loss,” Sellemi explains. “I mean on paper it is, but when you look at the bigger picture it’s about the fact that we grew and developed as a team, and we got better as a whole.”
This week, the swimmers have two final chances to show off their improvements. On Friday, they have a makeup against BCC. The following day, they have their last dual meet against Churchill before the season is over.
Featured photo by Grace Zhou.
