Cape swimmers head to state championships
The Cape boys’ swim team, fresh off the daily double by winning the dual meet and Henlopen Conference Meet Championships for the first time since 2006, have qualified nine swimmers for the upcoming state championships.
J.T. DiGuglielmo, Nick DiGuglielmo, Tom Ashcraft, Tyler Saltiel, Patrick Buchwald, Kyle Joseph, Conrad Rutkowski, Logan Mathews and Jared Schrader will all compete at the state level.
The Cape boys’ outstanding performance at the Henlopen Conference Championships was highlighted by a first-place finish in the 200-meter medley relay with a team of Ashcraft, J.T. DiGuglielmo, Saltiel and Nick DiGuglielmo with a time of 1:57.7. Cape also placed first in the boys’ 200 freestyle relay with a team of Joseph, J.T DiGuglielmo, Buchwald and Nick DiGuglielmo in 1:45.3. In individual events, J.T. DiGuglielmo captured first in the 100 backstroke in 1: 05.1. In the 200 freestyle Ashcraft placed second in 2:13.1 and Rutkowski was fourth in 2:17.8. Saltiel placed fourth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:36.5.
Nick DeGuglielmo placed third in the 50 free in 26.5 while Buchwald placed fifth in 26.8. In the 100 butterfly Ashcraft came in third at 1:07.3 and Nick DiGuglielmo fifth in 1:07.49.
J.T. DiGuglielmo captured second in the 100 free in 1:00.1 and Buchwald third in 1:00.2. Rutkowski placed third in the 400 free in 4:56.6.
The 100 breaststroke saw Saltiel finish third in 1:14.3 and Joseph fourth in 1:17.5.
The 400 freestyle relay of Ashcraft, Joseph, Buchwald and Rutkowski placed second in 4:03.6.
The Cape girls, fifth-place finishers at the Henlopen Championships, will send Colleen Bailey, Holly King, Romy Stancofski, Taylor Trimmer, Christine Bristowe, Danielle Griffith and Shelby Hunt to the state championships.
King took fifth in both the 50 freestyle in 30.9 and 100 freestyle in 1:08.4.
The 200 freestyle relay of Stancofski, Hunt, King and Bailey placed fourth in 2:08.5. Bailey also placed third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:27.1.
The 400 freestyle relay of Bailey, King, Hunt and Stancofski placed fourth in 4:45.2.
The preliminaries and finals for the state championships will take place at the University of Delaware Wednesday-Saturday, Feb. 23-26.
Notes - Coach Bill Geppert said, “Our best individual qualifier in terms of seeding at states would be J.T. DiGuglielmo - he is seeded seventh in backstroke and 12th in the 100 freestyle. If he can hold both, he probably would be second team All-State - a major accomplishment for us.
“The boys have a definite chance of getting in the finals of all three relays: 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle. That would be quite an accomplishment considering the others in these relays are teams of year-round swimmers. All the boys going have qualified in individual events as well.
“At states, top 16 swim on Saturday - 1-8 in finals heat, 9-16 in consolation finals heat. If you make finals, no matter how poor your time is on Saturday, you can finish no worse than eighth place even if a team from the consolation heat swims faster. That’s just how it is - we have finished ninth several times with better times than some of the finals teams – that’s why preliminaries are so important.”
