At the beginning of the Section II Sectional Swim Finals on Saturday, February 16th, Coach Young informed the anxious swim team that this would be “the closest meet the Section had seen.” Albany Academy’s major competition? Glens Falls High School, to whom we lost in a dual meet earlier in the season. And Coach was right: the meet proved to be as close and exciting as it could possibly be.
The meet begins with a 200 yard Medley Relay: swimming for Academy were Alex Hass (Sr), Arka Rao (Jr), Wyatt Pritchard (Sr), and Alex Dreisbach (Sr). The boys started the meet off with a solid first place finish, coming in less than a second shy of the New York State meet qualifying time and setting a school record of 1:41.01. Chris Poole (Jr), Bennett Stahl (Sr), and Tucker Oberting (Fr) earned even more points for the team with their respective 4th, 5th, and 6th place finishes in the 200 yard Freestyle race. In the 200 IM, Dreisbach not only had a first-place finish, but qualified for the New York State meet with a time of 1:59.12 in the prelims and 1:58.89 in the finals (the qualifying time is 2:00.63). Freshman Kevin Nerses finished with an impressive 3rd in Heat B.
Pritchard took 3rd in the 50 freestyle, just milliseconds off form the State qualifying time, with Hass finishing first in heat B; Pritchard took second in the subsequent 100 Butterfly race, with Noah Shick (So) finishing 6th in Heat B. Dreisbach again swam an impressive race in the 100 freestyle, maintaining (and shaving a second off of) his State Qualifying time and finishing in first place, setting a school record of 47.57 seconds. Poole and Robert Jones (Sr) came in 4th and 8th, respectively. Oberting won Heat B.
After an incredibly close race, Stahl beat out his Gloversville competitor to take second in the 500 freestyle, with freshman Aidan McInerney shaving an impressive 20 seconds off of his previous time and moving up five places to take third in Heat B of the 500 free. Academy continued what was now a respectable lead by finishing first in 200 free relay, with Jones, Rao, Poole, and Stahl. Hass took sixth in Heat A of the 100 backstroke, and Noah Shick and Nerses took second and fifth respectively in Heat B. With Rao and Jones placing third and sixth in the 100 breaststroke, respectively, Academy had accumulated an impressive number of points – but was six points behind Glens Falls, with only one race left.
In the anxiety-provoking moments before the final 400 free relay, Coach Young and Coach Headwell prepped their swimmers: Academy could tie for a win, but only with a decisive victory in the relay. Thus far, each swimmer (and diver – Steven Straight (Jr) placed in the top 8 and Dan Carroll (So) in the top 16 on Thursday) had given impressive performances. Many had swum personal bests, and most shaved entire seconds off of their times between Friday and Saturday. The team as a whole had put forth an astounding effort, and was proving to be stiffer competition for Glens Falls than anyone – perhaps even Coach Young – had expected. The work of a grueling season, weekend and after school practices, and two days of intense competition now boiled down to a single race.
The tension was palpable in the pool as Stahl, who started off the relay, dove into the water. He maintained the pace of his Glens Falls opponent, but it was clear from the beginning that the race would come down to a matter of mere milliseconds. Pritchard and Poole ensued, again maintaining a very slight lead over Glens Falls. By the time the relay’s anchor, Dreisbach, dove into the water, every fan in the bleachers was on his or her feet, and every team was holding its breath. As Dreisbach completed his final turn, it became clear who was going to win the race – for the second year in a row, Albany Academy would be Section II Swim Champions.
As the initial cheering, hugging, and school song singing died down, Coach Young gathered the team before accepting the plaque. He congratulated each member on an incredible team performance, and offered congratulations to Dreisbach, recipient of the 2013 Section II Scholar-Athlete Award, as well as those team members who had qualified for the State meet. He concluded, with a smile, by congratulating the boys on their two consecutive Sectional wins. And as for the tie? “There is no team I’d rather share this title with,” Coach proclaimed enthusiastically, before leading a chant of “Red and Black” (Glens Falls and Albany Academy shared school colors) and subsequently diving headfirst into the pool for a celebratory swim.