Cape girls’ swimming heads to DIAA Final

For the fourth straight year, the Cape girls’ swimming Fab Four of Molly Weeks, Sarah Rambo, Sarah Hyde and Amelia Nigh-Johnson have a chance to stand on the podium at the DIAA Swimming Championships at the University of Delaware Rawstrom Natatorium Saturday, Feb. 25. They took home the DIAA State Championship in the 200 freestyle relay in 2016.

“I feel that our girls will swim even faster times in the final on Saturday,” said Cape coach Bill Geppert. “The question is can they hold their own against the other girls from upstate that I know are going to drop times from the other night? We are going to swim great times and have a shot at breaking the state record in the 200 free relay, in which they are the defending state champions. And I think they can do it.”

Geppert was quick to praise the other girls who made it to the qualifying rounds. The group of Madison Caldwell, Sarah Spicer, Madelyn McGreevy and Gianna Vayda made the alternate team in the 400 free relay for Saturday’s final.

“Those girls swam their personal-best time in the qualifying round,” he said. “We can only be happy with their performance, and they are excited that they did a good job.”

Geppert will be sad to see six seniors leave his squad at the end of the season.

“We have huge, huge holes in our lineup and big shoes to fill for next season,” he said. “We are hoping to get swimmers to step up like Madelyn McGreevy, Gianna Vayda and some others that weren’t at states this year that will help us next year.”

Taking the top seed in the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay were Cape’s Weeks, Hyde, Rambo and Nigh-Johnson with times of 1:49.17 and 1:39.64, respectively. Hyde will be the third seed in the 50 free with a time of 24.97 and the fourth seed in the 100 breaststroke. Weeks will be the fourth seed in the 100 butterfly with a qualifying time of 58.59. She will also be the second seed in the 100 backstroke with a time of 59.00. Rambo is the fourth seed in the 100 freestyle with a time of 55.11.

Sussex Tech’s 200 medley relay team of Kelsey Fowler, Amy Venables, Hannah Venables and Megan Purdue will be the eighth seed with a qualifying time of 1:54.72. Venables will be the sixth seed in the 50 free with a 25.30. The 200 free relay of Megan Purdue, Bridget Johnson, Amy Venables and Hannah Venables took the eighth seed with a 1:46.39.

The girls’ finals begin at 10 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 25.