The Bobcat swimmers are looking forward to the upcoming WPIAL championships and of course the infamous taper season!

The girls’ swim team currently holds a 5-2 record while the boys have earned a 3-4 record.

Beaver Area competed against Cornell for the first home meet in the brand new pool January 24.

There was a ceremony to dedicate the new natatorium prior to the meet which included a ribbon cutting ceremony and multiple influential guest speakers.

Some of the speakers included principal Sean Snowden, swim board president Mrs. Jen Cestra, the district’s superintendent Mark Holtzman, Pennsylvania state representative Josh Kail, and state senator Elder Vogel.

To make the celebration that much sweeter, the swimmers defeated Cornell, and the individual swimmers that came from Southside, with a final score of 70-21 for the girls and 90-17 for the boys.

“The meets have been fun this year, but I’m especially excited to go to MACs for the medley relay and see the best schools compete,” sophomore Ryan Minnick said.

Senior Reed Garrett and freshman Cora Rodgers were named swimmers-of-the-meet for Garrett’s MAC cut in the 100 yard butterfly and relays and Rodgers time and MAC cut in the 200 yard freestyle.

On the very next day, January 25, the Bobcats traveled to Beaver Falls to face the Tigers.

After a slightly rough start with the A-relay being disqualified in the first event the girls' team quickly pulled ahead and defeated the Tigers with a final score of 81-46.

The boys’ had a strong lead in the beginning and held it for a 84.5-35.5 victory (half points occur when two swimmers get the exact time down to the hundredth of a second and split the points.)

The swimmers-of-the-meet were junior Jon Baker for his 200 yard individual medley swim and sophomore Mandy Moldovan for her 200 free victory.

This meet ended a seemingly “easy” season for the Bobcats so far (especially the girls).

January 30 the team traveled to Hopewell to face the Vikings in one of their two hardest section meets.

Both teams knew that they would have to fight for a victory but fell short with the boys’ and girls’ teams being defeated.

The final scores were 65-28 for the girls and 55.5-38.5 for the boys.

Despite the loss, the Bobcats pulled away with multiple individual wins, WPIAL cuts, and many personal bests.

At Hopewell the event winners for the boys’ team included senior and team captain Brandon Osborne in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle as well as junior Graham Lovra in the 100 yard breaststroke.

Both the boys 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays received six points after their first place finishes. The 200 free relay was made up of senior and team captain Robert Cestra, senior Jameson Bonnar, Lovra, and Osborne, while the 400 free relay consisted of Garrett, Lovra, Cestra, and Osborne.

“The meet was good,” Cestra succinctly summarized.

On the girls’ side, sophomore Ava Sutter won her races in the 100 yard backstroke and freestyle.

The swimmers-of-the-meet were Osborne and Sutter.

February 1 the Bobcats faced the Quaker Valley Quakers.

Going into this non-section meet Beaver Area prepared to focus on getting MAC and WPIAL times instead of the scoreboard.

The Bobcats fell to the Quakers 96-63 for the girls and 95-73 for the boys.

“QV is a really good team, so it was fun to swim against them,” Lovra stated.

Despite such a hard loss, the Bobcats pulled through and earned some much needed MAC cuts on their final chance to get them.

MAC cuts for the girls included Moldovan in the 50 and 200 yard freestyle, Rodgers in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle, Sutter in the 100 yard butterfly, and sophomore Kaelin Wooley in the 50 yard freestyle.

For the boys’ senior Eric Larson and freshman Tony Rabatin earned their MAC cut in the 50 yard freestyle.

Juniors Klayton Kaunert and Sam Lindemann secured their spots for the MAC diving championship after safely completing the reverse dives.

After an exciting race, Lovra received his WPIAL cut in the 100 yard breaststroke.

Event winners included Osborne in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle as well as the boys’ 400 yard freestyle relay.

Senior Jackson Vuckovich said, “Two L’s do make a W,” after two hard losses and hopes of beating Central Valley February 9.

Check the next BASD ECHO for the end of the Bobcat swimmers’ regular season and the MAC and WPIAL championships.