LINWOOD — The Mustang girls swim team had it hard and easy in its two meets last week. Mainland blew by Cedar Creek on Friday afternoon 111-59 to remain undefeated at 5-0, a few days after an epic battle against Egg Harbor Township.
It was a contest between unbeaten teams when EHT and Mainland Regional met Tuesday, Jan. 10, with the Mustangs winning by the barest margin, 86-84.
That meet came right down to the end, with the Eagles sweeping the top three places in the penultimate event, the 100-meter breaststroke, to take the lead heading into the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. Mainland came through in the end, however, taking first and third places in the relay to hand the Eagles their first loss of the season.
“They’re working really hard. They’re a good group of girls who are focused on getting better,” Mainland coach Brian Booth said after the Cedar Creek meet. “They put a really good meet together against Egg Harbor Township. It was back and forth the whole time.
“Today … they got to do some other events and have some fun.”
But Booth said it’s right back to the grind.
“We’ve got a big one, Cherry Hill East is coming in. That’s going to be a tough one for us, so hopefully we’ll be ready for that,” Booth said.
Mainland is the defending Group B South Jersey sectional champion. The Mustangs made it to the state finals last year but lost to Summit.
Cherry Hill East is the defending Group A South Jersey sectional champion. The CHE girls also made it to the state finals last year but lost narrowly to Westfield.
“They called and were interested in coming and we said sure,” Booth said about Cherry Hill East.
He said the Mustangs want to “put a good meet together and see what we can do. It’s two weeks before the playoffs really start rolling. If that’s going to help us, we’ll use whatever help we can get.”
The girls were swimming against Absegami on Tuesday after the Sentinel sports section went to press. They will host Cherry Hill East at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Mainland is scheduled to host Vineland on Jan. 24 and Haddon Township on Jan. 30.
Mainland 111
Cedar Creek 59
Mustangs Shannon Sharkey, Monica Iordanov, Isabella Iordanov and Summer Cassidy won the opening 200-meter medley relay in a time of 2:17.95, with teammates Ryann Lowry, Claudia Booth, Natalie DiBartolo and Laci Denn third. Pirates Kendra Canale, Faith Klose, Abigail Clapp and Amber Klose were second.
Mainland’s Alivia Wainwright (2:25.3) and Leah Nirenberg were first and second in the 200 freestyle, with teammate Lauren Quinn fifth. Pirates Sara Gutierrez and Mary Grace Fenton were third and fourth.
Lowry won the 200 individual medley in 2:42.21 with Mustangs Megan Pruitt and Bonnie Peng third and fourth. Pirates Alana Closson and Kailey Wagner were second and fifth.
Cassidy took the 50 freestyle in 24.95 seconds, with Pirates Amber Klose and Clapp second and third. Mustangs Madelyn Slattery and Sam Camey were fourth and fifth.
Booth won the 100 butterfly in 1:12.7 with Aixell Perez and Nirenberg third and fourth. Pirates Canale and Clapp were second and fifth.
Amber Klose won the 100 freestyle in 1:06.54 for the Pirate with Gutierrez fifth. Mustangs DiBartolo, Isabella Iordanov and Sophie Goldstein were second, third and fourth.
Denn won the 400 freestyle in 4:48.69 with Riley Lockhart fourth. Pirates Closson, Faith Klose and Kailey Deman were second, third and fifth.
Mustangs Megan Pruitt, Goldstein, Peng and Molly Hieb combined to win the 200 freestyle relay in 2:06.65. Teammates DiBartolo, Camey, Isabella Iordanov and Slattery were second.
Cedar Creek’s Georgiana Radovanowicz, Lauren Rhodes, Wagner and Gutierrez were third.
Pirate Canale won the 100 backstroke in 1:14.05 with Avery Ciambrone fifth. Mustangs Perez, Lowry and Sharkey were second, third and fourth.
Monica Iordanov (1:25.40), Booth and Sydney Stites were first, second and fifth in the 100 breaststroke. Faith Klose and Wagner were third and fourth.
Mainland closed out the meet winning the 400 freestyle relay with Denn, Peng, Pruitt and DiBartolo. Teammates Wainwright, Charlotte Evinski, Camey and Goldstein were third. Pirates Amber Klose, Crosson, Canale and Clapp were second.
Mainland is 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the Cape-Atlantic League.
Ocean City 96
Atlantic City 74
The Red Raider girls improved to 4-3 on the season with a 96-74 victory over Atlantic City last week. Ocean City is 2-2 in the Cape-Atlantic League.
Story and photos by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
