Mansion House made the quick trip over to Riverside Gardens for one of the best meets we have seen all season. Despite (or perhaps in spite of) the Ninja Prediction putting this meet at an 80 point blowout in favor of the Tsunami, Mansion House showed up hungry for a win and gave RG everything they could handle.
Preview| Free | Back | Breast | Fly | Relays | Recap
Freestyle was close as we predicted with both teams tied at 45-45–Mansion House got a nice 4 point swing when Jack Kay pulled out a close win in 13-14 free! Riverside Gardens was expected to pull ahead significantly in backstroke, but Mansion House kept the meet knotted up at 90-90 by flipping a 2nd to a 1st in 8-under girls back when 6 y/o Summer Abrams touched the wall first for the Piranhas. MHC got a few more points they weren’t expected to get from Katie DeWitte in the form of a 2nd place swim in 11-12 girls back as well. Finally, Michael Hood claimed 1st place in 15-18 boys and the senior ladies swept which made up the 10 point deficit Mansion House was seeded to lose in the second event!
Riverside Gardens looked strong in the middle of the meet–12 y/o Anita Buchanan won back by a few body lengths and broke her own team record set last week by 8 tenths of a second. In the next race, her older brother Brian ran away with the 13-14 boys race. Breaststroke was really where the Tsunami excelled–Riverside Gardens took 59 of 90 total points in the stroke, with two sweeps in the 11-12 and 15-18 boys races, as well as 1-2 finishes by the Tsunami 8-under boys, 11-12 girls, and 15-18 girls. Harrison Evans from RG had a truly dominant 9-second win in the 11-12 boys breast race, which demonstrated the Tsunami’s strength in the event. After breast, RG had a 148-124 lead; however, Mansion House fought through fly, refusing to let the Tsunami grow their lead as they were seeded to do, and actually picked up an unexpected point in the 13-14 boys race by getting third.
Ultimately, Mansion House came just short of being able to complete the upset–the Piranhas needed 8 relays to win, where Riverside Gardens only needed 5. The finals score was 216-204, and a thrilling one at that. Mansion House pulled within 2 points after 9-10 girls relay, almost 30 points better than what seed times indicated would be the case. Both teams had a ton of spirit, at times making it difficult for the Ninjas as we tried to film around the swimmers screaming from the edge of the pool deck, and both pools brought great energy and sportsmanship to this close contest.
The coaches from both teams had good things to say about how their squads competed and detailed some of the efforts their teams would need to make in practice moving forward. We sure are glad we made it down to this meet, and we wish the Tsunami and Piranhas well in their remaining meets!
See all the race videos from the meet below:
Preview| Free | Back | Breast | Fly | Relays | Recap
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