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Local La Salle students help sustain swim streak
by TOM UTESCHER
Around the country there are annual events that signal
the end of winter. In California, the swallows return to Capistrano, and
in Wyndmoor, PA, La Salle High School wins the Philadelphia Catholic League
swimming championship.
On March 5 at the La Salle University pool, Chestnut Hill natives Garrett
Gallagher and Ted Walker helped the Explorers claim the PCL title for
the 18th year in a row. La Salle easily eclipsed the rest of the nine-team
field in the team scoring, rolling up 961 points while runner-up St. Joseph’s
Prep scored 550.5 and third-place Cardinal O’Hara finished with
346.
Walker, a freshman out of Norwood Fontbonne Academy, took first in the
200-yard freestyle event in one minute, 47.06 seconds, and led off for
two of La Salle’s winning relay teams, the 200 free (1:30.15) and
the 400 free (3:17.42).
Gallagher, a junior, placed third in both the 50 freestyle (22.49) and
the 100-yard backstroke, and he swam the third leg in the 200 free relay.
He was also the anchor for the victorious 200 medley relay team (1:39.48),
where he was preceded by sophomore Todd Domanski, freshman Blase Szyszko,
and senior co-captain Ben Dearden.
The other members of the 200 free quartet were Domanski, who anchored,
and senior Chris Driscoll, who swam the second leg. Domanski, another
Norwood Fontbonne alum, resides in Lafayette Hill.
Following Walker in La Salle’s gold-medal performance in the 400
free relay were junior John Holt, senior Eric Prendergast (the Explorers’
other co-captain), and Dearden.
Individually, Szyszko won the breaststroke (1:01.09), while in the butterfly
Dearden was the winner (53.07) and junior Brendan Wills placed second
(53.94). Dearden also won the 200-yard individual medley (2:01.43) to
leave the meet with four gold medals, and second in the IM went to Prendergast
(2:02.23).
In the 500 freestyle, junior Brian Jeffers was first (4:53.22) while
his classmate Conor Doherty came in third (5:03.08), and Holt took second
for La Salle in the 200 free (1:48.34).
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