Tough Loss For Harrison Swim Team

In their first home meet of the season the Harrison Huskies lost a close meet to the Thundercats in a thriller that took until the very last event to decide.

The Thundercat swim team is comprised of students from five high schools, Briarcliff, Byram Hills, Pleasantville, Valhalla and Westlake.

The teams traded the lead for almost the entire event, until the Thundercats were finally able to establish some sort of breathing room late. After Harrison's Matt Carducci and Charlie Vantogeren placed first and third in the 500 freestyle the score was tied at 29 with four events remaining, however it would be the last time the Huskies had a share of the lead.

In the next three events, the 200 freestyle relay, 100 back stroke and 100 breaststroke, Harrison only had one first place finish. After that the Huskies needed to place first and third in the final event to come away with the victory.

"As a group we pulled together toward the end and we won some key events," said Thundercat Head Coach Dan Malone. "The 100 breaststroke was great for us, the 200 freestyle relay was a huge relay for us. Going into that event we were tied, we came out and won that relay and I think that really shifted the focus of the meet and really put us on a positive note to finish in a strong way in the 400 freestyle relay."

Although competitive throughout, a few early season mental errors cost the Huskies late, as the team was never able to overcome the early deficit.

"We had a couple of mistakes tonight," said Harrison Head Coach Phil Dearstyne. "We had people miss flip turns that cost us valuable races. We had people miss turns which resulted in us having to split our last relay."

The Huskies made some adjustments in strategy heading into the final race knowing that they had to finish strong. Dearstyne took two swimmers off of his A relay and swapped them with two swimmers on the B relay in hopes of finishing first and third.

The first two racers for Harrison came out strong and took the lead, and after the first member of each relay finished it looked like Harrison would come away with first and second and a win, however it was not to be.

Stephan Shine of the Thundercats went second on his relay team and he was able to come from behind to catch both of the Harrison teams and take the lead for good. The team of Shine, John Quincoses, Max Brynin and Henry Fletcher finished first with a time of 3:35.64.

"We are extremely hard working," said Malone. "I have a lot of young athletes on this team and I have a lot of great mentors who have been here for several years and it is just exciting because this was our first dual meet so I am looking forward to a successful season."

"It's beginning of the season errors that any team will make," said Dearstyne. "We just need to hammer them out, tomorrow we are going to do flip turns for a very long time. They are going to be going back and forth all day until we get them right, because you can't miss three turns in a meet, we can't jump early in a relay, those mistakes cost us the meet."

Harrison is now 0-2, their next meet is on the road at Ardsley Middle School Thursday at 4:30 p.m.