Bel Air High School, winner of the past four Harford County swimming championships, is favored to make it five at the 16th annual program this week at Magnolia Middle School.
In a change from the original schedule, the girls will swim preliminaries Tuesday and finals Thursday, and the boys will have preliminaries Wednesday and finals Friday.
For the first time, separate team scoring will determine a girls champion and a boys champion. The two divisions also will be combined for overall standings, as in the past.
Each team will be permitted to enter two teams in each of the three relays, and up to four entries in individual events. Consolation races will be contested in each event.
Last Thursday, Bel Air completed another undefeated season -- running its dual-meet streak to 109 -- when it totaled 249 points to 216 for C. Milton Wright, and 122 for Joppatowne at Edgewood Middle School.
Fallston was first with 225 points, followed by Havre de Grace, 198, and Aberdeen, 191, at North Harford Middle School. Havre de Grace, however, outpointed Fallston, 18-16 in the final event, and clinched a 115-112 decision over the Cougars in the boys division. The result gave the Warriors an undefeated season, believed to be the first for any team in school history.
At Magnolia Middle School, John Carroll won with 232 points, followed by North Harford, 190; Edgewood, 127, and Harford Tech 9.
The final standings: Bel Air 15-0; C. Milton Wright 13-3; John Carroll 12-4; Fallston 12-5; Aberdeen 10-6; Havre de Grace 8-8; North Harford 6-11; Joppatowne 5-12; Edgewood 3-14; Harford Tech 0-21.
Havre de Grace and Aberdeen produced the closest final-night competition. They were tied twice and separated by one point twice (after the same event) in chasing Fallston. It came down to the final race, the boys 400-yard freestyle relay, with Havre de Grace down, 181-180, after the Aberdeen girls had won their relay.
The margin at the finish was a blink. Jason Hartsfield, Mike Hitchings, Jody Hochstein and Tom Davies were timed in 3 minutes, 57.65 seconds -- from even after three legs, Davies got a narrow lead on Fallston's Mike Taylor off their dives and no more than a foot separated the two the rest of the way. Taylor was timed in 3:57.70.
Aberdeen was third in 4:05.75, and Havre de Grace added to its margin when its second entry beat Aberdeen's second unit for fifth place.
The boys 500 freestyle was equally competitive, with Hitchings touching out Fallston's Michael Taylor, a 200 individual medley winner earlier, at the finish, 6:08.50 to 6:09.03.
The Fallston girls, headed by double-winners Katy Novotny and Paige McCarthy, won six of their eight individual events, and the Havre de Grace boys, led by double-winner Hitchings, won four of their eight events.
* At Edgewood, Bel Air girls and boys each won six individual events, with Kathy Rising, Jeff DeHart and Dan Machovec getting two apiece. Wright won the other four with Laura Hershner, Amy Landis, Steve Abeyta and Chris Cavallaro.
For Joppatowne, Kelly Knight was the best of the girls with a second in the 100 breaststroke, and Brad Wink and Chip Reiter each got a third and a fourth in helping the Mariners' five-man squad total 42 points.
* At Magnolia, John Carroll dominated the girls individual events and split the honors with Edgewood among the boys.
Adrianne Kotula was the lone double-winner for the girls, as John Carroll took seven firsts. Edgewood's Jenny Beall prevented a sweep when she won the 100 breaststroke in 1:19.72, the third fastest time for the event among the night's three meets.
Brothers Sherwin and Rex Sapasap each had two wins for Edgewood, and Liam Smith had two for John Carroll. For North Harford, Alisha Beattie and Jason Spacek each had two seconds, and the girls won two relays. Justin Barnhill (a second and and a fourth) and Chris Loucks (a sixth) scored for Harford Tech.
Name association
At least a dozen sets of sisters are scheduled to compete at the county championships: Beth/Laura Yonych and Kate/Meredith Eyler, Bel Air; Amie/Brie Landis, Kelly/Kim Ditmer, Patty/Jodi Kraus, Erin/Jennifer Pettebone, and Brooke/Brie /^ Kotula, C. Milton Wright.
Also, Carrie/Sarah Dannenfelser and Kim/Ali Stackhouse, John Carroll; Melinda/Cindy Cattell and Holly/Kristi Andrews, Aberdeen; and Susan/Sarah Whatley of Havre de Grace.
The group includes two sets of twins, Pettebones and Kotulas, and the latter have an older brother, Stas, on Wright's team.