Sickness sweeping the swimmers can’t stop the Bobcat swim and dive teams.

The WPIAL ruled that the vomit and blood-sullied meet against Deer Lakes in early December ended in a win for both the Bobcat boys and girls teams.

The Bobcats were leading by over 50 points at the half, and it was deemed impossible for the Lancers to come back for a win after two incidents (one involving a vomiting Lancer and one involving a bleeding Bobcat) temporarily rendered the pool contaminated.

With a 1-0 start to the season, the Bobcats prepared for their December 19 meet against Cornell and Ellis Academy. This is where the Bobcats started to struggle.

In swimming there are many teams where the boys and girls teams are extremely lopsided, and Cornell is one of these teams.

They only have enough boys for one relay but have a solid girls team with fast swimmers. Ellis Academy only has a girls team that is also very small.

The days leading up to this meet, the Bobcats started dropping like flies. With four athletes out with the flu, two with swimmers' ear, and three with pneumonia, the Bobcats were back to playing the numbers game.

Mathematically the girls could not win against Cornell, and without five of their swimmers, they had to fight for a win against Ellis.

The Bobcat boys won with no trouble, and the girls earned one loss and one win.

Even without some of their more valuable swimmers, the Ladycats ended up winning against Ellis 52-37 but lost against Cornell 57-39.

The boys team won easily 80-40.

The swimmers of the meet were senior Kaelin Wooley and junior Jude Lovra.

Wooley received her MAC cut in the 50-yard freestyle by one-hundredth of a second while Lovra went under six minutes in the 500-yard freestyle for the first time.

On the diving side, junior Isaac Burtt won for the boys, and junior Izzi Niedbala won for the girls.

For most diving meets, it is the six Bobcat divers against themselves since many schools, like Cornell, don’t have a dive team.

Three days later, December 22, the Bobcats prepared for their longest meet ever with report time being 5:45 a.m. and the van returning at 1 in the morning—the day was never-ending.

Beaver Area travelled to Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio for their Winter Invitational meet.

There was no diving at this meet.

In the past, Beaver Area always attended the West Allegheny winter invitational, but due to space limitations, they lost their bid this year.

At Spire, the Bobcats represented the smallest team attending the event and participated in two meets that were running simultaneously. (This is where it gets complicated.)

The A and B meets were being run in the same pool at the same time, but this pool is an Olympic training facility, so it is 50 meters long (twice the length of a traditional high school pool) and is able to be split into two 25-yard pools.

The A meet had qualifying times that only two Bobcats qualified for, senior Ava Sutter and junior Tony Rabatin. Sutter had the times in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. Rabatin qualified in the 100-yard freestyle.

Both Sutter and Rabatin were able to bring a relay team with them to compete on the A side of the meet.

The A meet had both prelims and finals that lasted all day, while the B meet only had prelims.

All Bobcats had the opportunity to attend the meet, and any team member who was not on the A relays was able to go home after lunch.

The A relays stayed for finals that ended around 8:30 p.m., and they began the trek home in a snowstorm, doubling the hour-and-a-half ride to over three hours.

For the boys, Rabatin, Lovra, and fellow junior Jake Minnick proved to be the MVPs. All three boys went a personal best in the 100-yard freestyle with all of them finishing under 58 seconds.

For the girls, Sutter went a year best in the 50-yard freestyle and made it to the finals in the 100-yard backstroke. Senior Madison Mooney also had a good meet with a personal best in a relay 50-yard freestyle.

To wrap up winter break, the Bobcats had a huge section meet against Hopewell January 3.

This meet was away at the Hopewell pool which has only four lanes and no diving board.

The girls went into the meet knowing how fast the lady Vikings can swim and left with a loss of 57-36.

Junior Cora Rodgers was able to come away with a win in both the 200 and 500 yard freestyles.

The boys' meet was much more exciting. With an extreme back and forth between the two teams, the Bobcats were able to pull away with a win that may determine the section at the end of the season.

The final score was 51-43, and the entire meet came down to the last two events.

The Bobcats started the meet with back-to-back losses in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle but were able to claw their way back on top, starting with the 200-yard individual medley.

For the IM, freshman Robert Deleon and sophomore Daniel Wang finished first and second in a race that came down to less than two seconds.

Going into the half, the score was practically tied after a Bobcat loss in the 50.

With once again back-to-back losses in the 100-yard butterfly and freestyle, the meet was slipping away from the Cats.

Thankfully, they were able to come back and win all remaining events.

Deleon and junior Aden Prence finished first and second in the 500-yard freestyle in a race that came down to less than a second.

Swimmers of the meet were Deleon and junior Annaka Najewicz. Najewicz received the MVP for finishing her first-ever 100-yard freestyle.

The Bobcats now prepare for their only home meet in January against West Allegheny January 10. The boys prepare for yet another tough section matchup while the girls prepare to stomach another loss. This meet will have both swimming and diving from both teams.

Check the next BASD ECHO for coverage of the rest of the swim season.