Sports
Chiefs Edge Wildcats in Close Swim Meet
Canton hosts its rival, Plymouth, in a match-up between two highly rated schools.
Cross-campus rivals Plymouth and Canton, two of the best swim teams in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association's South Division, met Thursday night.
In a close meet, the third-place Chiefs picked up a big win, scoring 97 points while the first-place Wildcats fell short with 89. Though the schools are rivals, the athletes try to downplay it a bit.
“It’s always fun,” said Canton sophomore Kyle Bindas. “We have a lot of friends on that team."
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Kyle’s teammate, sophomore Souvik Roy, added the two schools make for good competition.
“As the Plymouth coaches say, we compete with each other – not against each other,” he said, although he did add that “it’s fun to beat them.”
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Plymouth junior Adam Liakos finished first in three events. He won the 50-yard freestyle (23.80 seconds), the 100-yard freestyle (51.09), and was part of Plymouth’s A group (Liakos, Ian Smith, Todd Maslyk, and Zach Koch) that took first in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
For Canton, Jin Jay and Victor Zhang were both parts of four first-place finishes. Zhang, a junior, took the top spot in the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.46) and the 100-yard butterfly (53.13), while Jay took first in the 200-yard IM (2:06.22) and the 500-yard freestyle (5:15.80). Zhang and Jay also took first in the 200-yard medley relay with seniors Jacob Dillon and Evan Champine, as well as the 400-yard freestyle relay with junior Adrian Simion and senior Christopher Krebs.
It was a special night for the Chiefs, not only because they got the win, but because they also celebrated senior night for their three captains: Jacob Dillon, Evan Champine, and Christopher Krebs. All three were presented with gifts and listened to coach David Le read them notes from their parents. The seniors then took a ceremonial jump into the pool with their warm-ups on.
Roy talked about his team’s future with the three seniors departing. “Our seniors are leaving, so we need [the underclassmen] to step up.”
“It’s sad to see them leave,” Bindas said. “It’s good to see new people come back in.”
Plymouth had three seniors finish in first Thursday night, with Ian Smith and Zach Koch in the 200-yard freestyle relay, and Alex Jouney in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.03).
