Amherst swimmers hand Pioneer first loss, 51-50

Down 47-44, Amherst Central’s boys swimming team took first and third in the last event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay, for a come from behind 51-50 road win at Pioneer last Tuesday.

Ryan Menasco overcame a three-second deficit during the last leg and lap of the Tigers’ first place 400 free relay to seal the victory for the Tigers (1-2-1). Paul Timmel, Harrison Singer and Ben Swiatek also swam on the winning relay.

Pioneer fell to 3-1 with the loss.

“During the diving competition, I took the guys in the locker room and told them that in order for us to come back in this meet, we have to get psyched up and cheer and encourage our teammates,” said Amherst coach Chris Connor. “If we took

one event at a time, I felt we could claw our way back and make a meet out of it. My assistant coach Matt Koeppel and I really put our heads together and took some gambles by switching some things at the last minute in the lineup hoping they would pay off.”

One of those gambles was putting Marshall Davis, a member of the team’s fastest 400 free relay, on leadoff for the team’s second relay. The gamble paid off as Davis created an insurmountable lead for the Pioneer second relay to make up. Ian Johnson, Ian Blochwitz and Allen Dengler also swam on the relay for Amherst.

Amherst trailed by as many as 15 points. The Tigers won six other events-

Menasco (50 free and 100 free), Paul Timmel (200 IM, 500 free), Jacob Hofmar-Glennon (100 back, overpowered other swimmer and won by less than one second), and the 200 free relay of Menasco, Singer, Hofmar-Glennon and Timmel.

Nathan Chau and Dengler (personal best time) took second and third, respectively, in the 100 butterfly. Chau also took third in the 100 back.

Blockwitz dropped 8.5 seconds off his breaststroke for a pivotal second place finish. Breaststrokers Devin Finan and Stephen Arlington did not swim.

Davis was third in the 200 IM and 500 free as was Singer in the 100 free.

The 200 free relay of Blochwitz, Johnson, Justin Jenkins and Swiatek took third.

Connor also lauded the work of new swimmer, freshman Ryan Rychnowski.

“Ryan swam exhibition against Pioneer since he still is collecting the required number of practices to compete and swam very well,” Connor said. “He is a nice addition to our team, especially in the sprint freestyle and breaststroke events… Once this team has progressed through a few more years of rebuilding, this team will prove very hard to beat with such a large number of experienced upperclassmen.”

Amherst returns to the pool at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 2 against Springville at Sweet Home High School. On Friday, Jan. 5, they are at Cleveland Hill for a 4:30 p.m. start.