Seahawks Dominate Region Swim Meet

BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s varsity swimming teams turned in remarkable performances last week in the state Class 3A-2A-1A East Regional meet with the boys winning their second straight regional tournament and the girls’ finishing a close second.

The Decatur boys nearly swept every event, taking firsts in nine of 11 races, to capture their second straight east regional title. The Seahawks finished with 329 total team points, outdistancing second place Kent Island, which finished with 267 team points.

In the men’s 200 medley relay, the Decatur team of Jeff Middleton, Jake Blazer, Shayne Custodio and Jake Middleton took first place. In the 200 individual medley, Custodio was first and Jeff Middleton was 10th. In the 50-meter freestyle, Blazer finished first while Zack Hoshino was fourth. Custodio finished first in the 100-meter butterfly, while Zach Keiser was 12th. In the 200-meter freestyle, Jake Middleton was first and Zach Keiser finished sixth.

In the 100-meter freestyle, Blazer was first and Hoshino was sixth. Jake Middleton won the 500-meter freestyle, while James Hillyer finished eighth. In the 200-meter freestyle relay, Decatur’s team of Custodio, Blazer, Hoshino and Jake Middleton finished first. In the 100-meter backstroke, Jeff Middleton finished first and Tate Socha was 11th.

The Seahawks did not finish first in only two of the 11 events, but placed on both of them. In the 100-meter breaststroke, Colin Bankert finished ninth. In the 400 freestyle relay, the Seahawk team of Hoshino, Keiser, Bankert and Jeff Middleton finished fourth.

On the girls’ side, Decatur was also impressive, finishing a close second in the team score. The Seahawks finished with 291 team points, just 19 points behind Cambridge-South Dorchester, which finished with 310. The score was so close, meet officials had to go back and tally the results by hand after a scoreboard malfunction.

The Decatur girls also collected a few firsts, both by Karli Straight. Straight won the 500-meter freestyle and also finished first in the 100-meter backstroke. In the 200-meter medley relay, the Decatur team of Straight, Carly Deickman, Brianna Carroll and Madison Tinus finished third. In the 200-meter freestyle, it was Carroll finishing second and Molly Wooten finishing fifth.

In the 200-meter individual medley, Decatur’s Maria Zweifel was eighth and Deickman was ninth. Tinus finished seventh in the 50-meter freestyle, while Cece Pyles was 111th. Carroll finished sixth in the 100-meter butterfly. In the 100-meter freestyle, it was Tinus finishing sixth and Pyles finishing 12th.

Straight was first in the 500-meter freestyle, while Wooten was sixth. In the 200-meter freestyle relay, it was Julia Wellen, Pyles, Zweifel and Tinus finishing fourth. In the 100-meter breaststroke, Deickman was third and Zweifel was sixth. Decatur’s 400-meter freestyle relay team of Straight, Wellen, Zweifel and Carroll finished third.