By Bruce Karnick

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Swim meets can sometimes come down to tenths of a second. Such was the case in the Raiders visit to the Grove on Thursday night, January 14th. One relay came down to four tenths of a second, but which way did it go? For those that understand how swimming is scored, feel free to skip ahead. For those that have never understood it, maybe this will help.

Swim scoring has its quirks, so here is the long explanation. Only varsity events count for the score. Individual events score the top five finishers. First place earns six points, second earns four, third earns three, fourth earns two and fifth earns one. Sixth and lower earn none. For Individual events, one team can only score the top three swimmers. That means, in an eight lane pool for a dual meet, if each team has four swimmers in a varsity race, even if Team A places First, Second, Third and Fourth, the best they could do is score their top three, and Team B would then get points for fourth and fifth. Relays are similar but those are limited to the top three places. First earns eight points, second earns four and third earns two. Only the top two relays for each team can score.

Short explanation: Individual Events = 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for first to fifth. Max three places per team Relay Events = 8, 4, 2 points for first to third. Max two places per team.

For dual meets, where it’s Team A vs Team B, the magic point total to guarantee victory is 94 points. Once a team reaches 94 points, it is not possible for the trailing team to win. In general, once a team reaches 94 points, they will go into exhibition mode. This means they are forfeiting any additional points they would earn in any remaining races. It is a courtesy thing at the high school level, so the scores don’t look insulting.

How did this night come down to four tenths of a second? The third event of the night, 400 medley relay. Four swimmers, two laps each, each swimmer swims a different stroke. The first swimmer, Phillip Jensen swam the backstroke and completed his portion in 57.82, just over four seconds ahead of his opponent. John Destross would swim the breaststroke portion and his opponent would make up significant ground for Simley making the teams almost even at the midway point of the race. Caleb Urban was the butterfly swimmer for the relay, and he would come in about a second ahead of his opponent, so it all came down to freestyler Joe Everson. Everson would enter the pool just over a second ahead of Simley’s Brandon Petryszyn. Petryszyn would even the race at the 50-yard mark of the 100yard freestyle portion of the relay. Both swimmers touched the timing pad at 3:33 on the timer. Everson would be at 3:33.24 and Petryszyn at 3:33.25, one one-hundredth of a second separating them.

At the 75-yard turn, the swimmers were still neck and neck. By the time they hit the touch pad at the finish, Petryszyn edged out Everson by .38 of a second to give Simley the relay win. Races like that are exciting to watch even though there is always someone heartbroken at the end.

The 200-butterfly team of Jensen, Hudson Doty, Adam Duer and Destross put in a solid performance, winning their event by nearly three seconds. Once Destross was able to catch his breath, he spoke to us after the race.

“This is kind of one of our best relays to do. We’re all pretty good butterflies so we just went out there and we gave it our all. It’s the first meet so none of us are really out there doing our best times but we’re all out there giving it 110% you know,” Destross said as his teammates were behind him laughing trying to break his concentration.

How are the guys doing with the masks?

“It makes it a little harder. You know, just to do like some stretches after you get out of a pool, to do some breathing, but it’s, you know, we’re working with it. You do the best you can. We’re just happy to be swimming,” Destross Added.

The Raiders would take first place in five of nine events, but it was not enough to win the meet. The final score was Simley 64, Hastings 62. Looking back at many sporting events, it always comes down to a few key moments. Four tenths of a second difference in one relay changes the score to 58-66 in favor of Hastings.

Key performances for the Raiders: Phil Jensen dominated the backstroke, showcasing why he is one of the best backstrokers in the state this year.

Caleb Urban had a very smart race in the 500 yd freestyle portion of the crescendo relay, not allowing his opponent to rattle Urban with an early sprint to lead. Caleb kept to his race plan and beat the Simley swimmer by 15 seconds.

Joe Everson continues his sprint prowess, leading all competitors in that category.

Ryan Lester dominated in diving, winning by 31 points over his Simley challenger.

Swimmers of the meet for Hastings were Taylor Schmaltz and Isaac Schalk. Each of them had four lifetime best swims.

The next two weeks of meets for the Raider swimmers is: 1/21 at Tartan and 1/28 at home against St. Thomas Academy. Keep an eye on HCTV’s Facebook page for streaming information and of course, get the recaps here each week!

Raider butterflier, John Destross swims the final lap of the 200-yard butterfly relay. His lap time was 25.76 and the Raiders won the relay with a time of 1:44.18. Photo by Bruce Karnick