Broadneck Swim Team Travels to State

The Broadneck High School boys' and girls’ swim teams battled to highly respectable second and fourth place finishes last weekend at the Maryland Public Secondary School Swim Championships held at University of Maryland, College Park.

The Bruins were frustrated again by the Severna Park boys team which swam to its second consecutive championship with 281 points to Broadneck’s 235. The Falcon boys captured this season’s county, regional and state titles. Other Anne Arundel County schools placing in the top five were South River and Annapolis, which tied for fifth place.

In the girls meet, Urbana High School out-swam Severna Park 325.5 points to 300 to capture the championship. C. Milton Wright High School finished in third just ahead of the Broadneck team.

“I think we did very well at the state meet,” said Bruins head coach Colleen Winans. “With 24 teams participating and getting second and fourth place, I was pleased. Severna Park was just stronger overall in the relays and in a few events their second participant scored higher. In many cases so we were just out swum.”

Senior James Robichaud finished out his high school swimming career in top form with first places finishes in both the 200-yard free (1:45.90) and the 500-yard free (4:50.11). Strong in both events all season, Robichaud’s 200-yard free was one one-hundredth off the state record set in 2007 by South River’s Justin Vagts, now swimming at the U.S. Naval Academy. Freshman Vadim Jacobson may be following in Robichaud’s steps – he placed seventh in the 200-yard free (1:54.22) and third in the 500-yard free in 5:02.28.

“Vadim has improved his placement in just about every race and has been fun to watch,” Winans added. “And of course, I was happy for James Robichaud to end his high school swim season on a high note with two great first place finishes.”

Freshman David Thornton also finished a strong season with a fourth place finish in the 100-yard breast in 1:07.02 which his brother Brian, a senior, capped his high school career with a seventh in the race with a time of 1:10.33.  Thornton also placed sixth in the 200-yard individual medley, hitting the wall in 2:10.10. Junior Cody Edwards also turned in two stellar performances with a third place finish in the 100-yard back in 56.63, and a seventh in the 100-yard free with a time of 51.74.

Other individual point scores for the boys include freshmen, Max Madden, fourteenth in the 200-yard individual medley, and Noah Yanchulis, tenth in the 100-yard butterfly. Sophomore Hayden Binnix placed fourteenth in the 100-yard butterfly and B. Thornton was fifteenth in the 50-yard free.

For the Lady Bruins, top performers include freshmen Rachel Armstrong who placed second in both the 100-yard breast (1:09.78) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:13.37), and Savanah McGrath who swam to fifth place in the 100-yard butterfly (1:02.98) and sixth in the 50-yard free (26.10). Fellow freshman Alden Bauman added points for the team with a fifth place finish in the 200-yard free (2:05.37) and an eleventh in the 500-yard free in 5.42.11. Senior Jackie Shrader tied for fifth in the 500-yard free in 5:24.71.

Other individual point scorers for the girls teams include junior Blair Bernhardt who swam to eleventh place in the 200-yard individual medley and fifteenth in the 100-yard free; senior Nikki Brandemarte who took eighth in the 100-yard butterfly, freshman Macel Reising who took eleventh in the 100-yard back, and Chesley Owens who was sixteenth in the 100-yard backstroke.

In the relay events, new state records were set in all three of the boys races and in one in the girls with three of those records set by Severna Park teams. In the boys 22-yard medley relay the Bruins placed fifth to the Falcons’ record setting win of 1:42.81. The Falcons also set a new state mark in the 400-yard free relay touching the wall in 3:23.23; the Bruins took second in 3:27.37. And in the 200-yard free relay, the Bruin boys finished eighth while the team from Gov. Thomas Stone set the new record in 1:31.95.

The Lady Bruins touched the wall fourth in their 200-yard medley relay, eighth in the 200-yard free relay and seventh in the 400-yard free relay. In that final race of the meet, the team from Severna Park set a new girls state mark in 3:38.07.

“Relays are all the more important and everyone has to have a great swim to win,” Winans said. “ I think that our kids had some great swims overall and some best times.” Looking ahead she added, “Overall our season was very strong and the kids performed well at states. The freshmen have a ton of talent and should make BHS the team to beat over the next few years.”

Final team scores:

Girls: 1. Urbana,  325.5; 2. Severna Park, 300; 3. C. Milton Wright, 228.5; 4. Broadneck, 196.5; 5. Gov. Thomas Johnson, 167; 6. Leonardtown, 166; 7. Annapolis, 148; 8. Eleanor Roosevelt, 143; 9 Baltimore Polytechnic, 94; 10. South River, 91; 11. North Point, 62; 12. Tuscarora, 47; 13. Chopitcon, 40; 14. Linganore, 29; 15, Glen Burnie, 27; 16, Arundel, 26; 17, North County, 23; 18. Laurel, 20; 21. Friendly, 15; 20, Old Mill, 10, 21, Northern, 6; 22 Huntingtown, 4; 23. Chesapeake, 1 and 24. Great Mills, 0.5. 

Boys: 1. Severna Park, 281, 2. Broadneck, 235; 3. Urbana, 181; 4. Gov. Thomas Johnson166,  5 (tie). South River, 161 and Annapolis, 161; 7. Old Mill, 118; 8. Leonardtown, 115; 9. Eleanor Roosevelt, 104; 10 Linganore, 99; 11, Tuscarora, 87; 12. Bowie, 85; 13, C. Milton Wright, 67; 14. Great Mills, 59; 15, North Point, 54; 16. Northern, 47; 17, Huntingtown, 42; 18, Parkdale, 30; 19. Chesapeake, 25; 20 Laurel, 15; 21,. Baltimore Polytechnic, 11; 22. Thomas Stone, 9; 23. Chopticon, 7; 24 DuVal, 4; 25 (tie). Meade,3 and Arundel, 3; and 27. North County, 1.