The Bobcat swim team is officially into the best part of their season: taper practices!
Taper practices are when the swim team begins to bring down their yardage, get more rest during practices, and start focusing on speed. Taper practices also are when the team will have their best times and best practices.
The girls' swim team currently has a record of 6-5 while the boys have a record of 7-3.
The Beaver Area team also is the opposite of the norm in the sport with an extremely large boys' team and a small girls' team. In Beaver Area’s section, Riverside is the only other team with a large boys' team but a weak girls' team.
The Bobcat swim team raced against the Quaker Valley Quakers January 31.
The boys came out of the QV meet victorious with a final score of 93-54. Senior and team captain Graham Lovra received his WPIAL cut in the 200-yard individual medley.
Event winners for the boys included one boy from every stroke. Freshman Daniel Wang won the 200-yard freestyle, sophomore Tony Rabatin won the 100-yard butterfly, junior Ryan Minnick won the 100-yard backstroke, and sophomore Aden Prence won the 100-yard breaststroke.
The girls were crushed by the Quakers with a score of 103-65. The Quakers were the reigning girls' section champions, WPIAL runner-ups, and one of the best teams in the state, so this defeat was extremely expected.
Junior Mandy a Moldovan was able to earn her MAC cut in the 200-yard individual medley.
Moldovan and Lovra were the swimmers of the meet.
February 2 the Bobcats prepared for their version of “Friday Night Lights” with their meet against the Riverside Panthers. For the first time all year, the girls' team prepared for an easy win while the boys prepared to have to fight to win any races.
The Riverside boys not only have numbers but state champions, state record holders, and WPIAL champions.
Nonetheless, the Bobcats held on for a close loss. The final scores were 94-50 for the girls and 99-83 for the boys. The girls' team was able to go into exhibition points after the half.
Freshman Ava Harden cemented her trip to MACs with a cut in the 200-yard freestyle.
For the girls, junior Ava Sutter received both of her WPIAL cuts at this meet. She will swim the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. Sutter is the first Beaver Area girl to qualify for the meet in three years and the first girl to qualify in either of these events in over seven years.
Riverside has no divers and this gave the Bobcats an automatic boost at the beginning of the meet points, and at the half the two boy teams were tied.
The Bobcats could not keep their momentum and quickly fell in the second half with both of Riverside’s breakout stars having their events in the second half.
For the boys, the 200 medley relay qualified for the WPIAL meet for the fourth year in a row. Minnick, Rabatin, Graham Lovra, and sophomore Lovra will represent the Bobcats February 29 at WPIALS.
Sutter and junior Liam Denny were the swimmers of the meet.
The following week the Bobcats only had one meet against the Central Valley Warriors February 8. This meet was also the Bobcats’ senior night.
The swim and dive team honored eight seniors at the pre-meet ceremony.
Seniors Joe Mollura, Dom Bumblis, Eli Bechdel, Klayton Kaunert, Jon Baker, Graham Lovra, Lizzy Michael, and Reese Lindemann all competed at their final home meet as Bobcat swimmers and divers.
The Warriors boast 13 female swimmers but only four male swimmers. This meet was not only easy for the six male seniors but for the entire boys' team.
On the contrary, mathematically the Lady Cats would need Central Valley to disqualify in multiple events to be able to win the meet.
The boys walked away with a final score of 83-35, while the girls lost 93-71.
Sophomore Issac Burt received his MAC cut in the 50-yard freestyle.
Following the meet, the team hosted their annual Buck-a-Duck fundraiser where rubber ducks are sold for one dollar, and then over 3,000 ducks are thrown into the pool. Team members then jump into the water from the diving board onto all of the ducks and choose one. The corresponding number on the duck matches the person who bought the duck and they win a variety of prizes.
The team has one remaining regular season meet against Blackhawk February 15, MAC diving will be February 16, and MAC swimming is February 17.
WPIALs for diving will be February 23 at North Allegheny High School while WPIAL swimming will be held at the University of Pittsburgh February 29 and March 1.
Check the next BASD ECHO for coverage of the Bobcats championship meets!