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Cape boys' swim team wins second straight conference title

Lady Vikings take second place
Cape senior Tommy Ashcraft flies through the water to help the Cape Henlopen boys' swim team to its second straight Henlopen Conference Championship. BY DAN COOK
Dan Cook
February 13, 2012
Cape's Matt Spicer pulls away from his Caesar Rodney opponent to score points in the 200-meter freestyle. BY DAN COOK
Cape sophomore Charles Burton scores points by finishing sixth in the breaststroke. BY DAN COOK
Senior John Merz scored for Cape in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle. BY DAN COOK
Cape senior Tyler Saltiel gets cheered on by his coach Kristina Lingo and teammate Charles Burton during his turn in the butterfly leg of the 200 medley relay. BY DAN COOK
Cape sophomore Luke DiGuglielmo swims to a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter backstroke. BY DAN COOK
Cape sophomore Luke DiGuglielmo scores during the freestyle leg of the medley relay. BY DAN COOK
Cape's Nick DiGuglielmo gets a jump off the blocks. BY DAN COOK
Cape coaches (l-r) Kristina Lingo, Bill Geppert, John Zacharias and Pete Olson celebrate their victory by hoisting the Henlopen dual-meet prize and their Henlopen Conference Championship trophy in the Lake Forest pool. BY GARY MERZ
The Henlopen Conference boys' champions are in back (l-r) Charles Burton, Logan Mathews, John Merz, Tyler Saltiel, Jarad Schrader and Tommy Ashcraft; in front are Nick DiGuglielmo, coach John Zacharias, coach Pete Olson, Tyler Mitchell, Troy Saltiel, Matt Spicer, Luke DiGuglielmo, Sean Grogan, Nate Griffith, Craig Fanto and head coach Bill Geppert. BY GARY MERZ
Cap's Colleen Bailey scores a second place finish in the breast stroke. BY DAN COOK

The Cape Henlopen boys swim team once again proved that winners don't always place first, but in swimming, where points are given to the 1-12 spots, Cape is the champion of the Henlopen Conference.

The Vikings took their depth and scored 205 points, finishing with a pile of non-first-place finishes and garnering their second straight Henlopen Conference Championship Feb. 12 at Lake Forest after going 11-0 on the season.

"We had a lot more depth than the other schools in the meet," said Cape coach Bill Geppert. "Where schools had one good swimmer, we picked up points from two or three of our swimmers in each event. The way to win in swimming is with numbers."

Cape trailed Sussex Tech until the 400-meter freestyle, when Tom Ashcraft finished in second place with 4:49.30, scoring 13 points.

"That's when I knew we were going to do really well," said Geppert. "We got points from all of our guys. Luke [DiGuglielmo] had a great meet, did really well taking fourth in the 100-meter backstroke."

"The whole group of Craig [Fanto],  John [Merz],  Sean [Grogan], Matt [Spicer], Jarad [Schrader],  Charlie [Burton], Nate [Griffith], Nick [DiGuglielmo], Logan [Mathews], Tyler and Troy [Saltiel] and Tyler [Mitchell] did a great job for the team," Geppert said.

The Cape boys tallied 205 points and were followed by Sussex Tech with 172,  Indian River 170,  Seaford 167,  Caesar Rodney 131, Lake Forest 116,  Sussex Central 100,  Dover 81 and Milford 28.

The Cape girls finished second behind Sussex Tech with 198 points to the Ravens' 232.

"We didn't have any first-place finishers, but we swam like we have all season," said Geppert. "We don't have any superstars; we just swim hard and place in the top 12 to score the points."

"The seniors of Taylor Trimmer, Tini Bristowe, Erin Ricker, Danielle Griffith and Mary Beth Gooding will sorely be missed. They have scored a ton of points for us this season, " Geppert said.

"Freshman Kaitlin Philcox had a great meet," he added.

"I'm pleased with the resiliency of the boys and girls teams," said the happy coach. "They play other sports, and swimming isn't all year for them. It's just exciting to have them on the team and it is a great pleasure to coach them."

Full results of the meet can be seen on websites4sports.com.

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