Suffolk News-Herald

Ryan Hanson and Joey DiRenzo took individual wins and Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s boys grabbed a pair of relay races in the closing moments to hang on to defeat St. Benedictine’s (SB) 50-43 in swimming action Thursday at the Suffolk YMCA. With the score knotted at 29 with four races left, the Saints took first in all of them to ice the meet. They also defeated Cape Henry 48-39. The Lady Saints took a convincing 70-23 victory from the Lady Dolphins and gave St. Gertrude’s (SG) a 51-43 scare.

DiRenzo, Hanson, Philip Brooks and Aaron Schaubach finished second in the 200-medley relay to start things, but SB got first and third to go up, 7-4 (in relay action, first place gets six points, second gets three, and third one. In individual races, first gets four points, second gets three, and third one). Brooks and Iiams got a 10-8 lead by taking first and second in 200-free action, and DiRenzo and Schaubach won second and third in the 50-free.

Brooks finished second in 100-fly, but SB got first and third to tie the score at 21. SB got first in 100- and 400-free, but Tennant and Kyle Minga got second and third in the shorter race and Iiams and Ben Woodyard followed suit in the longer one to keep the score tied.

DiRenzo started off the first leg of the 200-free relay, and Schaubach was in next. SB pulled even and then ahead for a few seconds, but Brooks kept it close in the third go-round, and Hanson finished things out, touching the wall in 1:57.30 – over two seconds faster than SB. Tennant, Iiams, Woodyard and Minga finished third for another point, giving NSA a 36-32 lead.

Hanson and DiRenzo tore through the 100-back and 100-breast races, but SB took second and third in both to stay within four. But Minga, Woodyard, Iiams and Tennant won the 400-free relay by a full 17 seconds to complete the defeat.

In the Cape Henry match, DiRenzo, Hanson, Brooks and Schaubach won the 200-medley and Brooks and Iiams got first and third in 200-free. Hanson got the 200-individual medley and DiRenzo the 50-free, and Brooks finished second in 100-fly. Minga and Tennant were second and third in 100-free, and Woodyard and Iiams followed suit in 400-free.

The Dolphins won the 200-relay to get within 34-28, but Hanson and DiRenzo again won their respective individual races, and Minga, Woodyard, Iiams and Tennant charged through the final race, this time winning by over 44 seconds.

The Lady Saints took control from the start in their respective win, as the teams of Jade Bishop, Ana Cotton, Danielle Waller and Maggie Standing and Kelly Ruland, Kristin MacKinnon, Morgan Thorndike and Tiffany Buckley won first and second in the 200-medley relay. Bishop and Tess Smith took the top spots in 200-free, already netting a 16-2 lead. Ruland and Cotton were first and third in 200-individual medley, and Waller and Buckley were tops in 50-free.

Standing and Amber Mosal got second and third in 100-fly, and Waller and Smith first and second in 100-free. Standing finished third in 400-free (her first time ever competing in the race), and Smith, Mosal, Buckley and Waller finished first in 200-free relay. Bishop and Ruland swept the 100-back, and Cotton and MacKinnon did so in 100-breast. Just as they had started the meet, the Lady Saints finished it with two relay wins. Smith, Ruland, Standing and Buckley got the top spot in 400-free relay, and Thorndike, Mosal Courtney Henderson, Courtney Johnson pulled up second.

The Lady Saints kept things close in the SG meet by getting at least three points in the first six races. With SG up 28-22, Standing won the 400-free and Jamie Iiams got third to get to 31-29. Buckley, Waller, Mosal and Smith finished first and MacKinnon, Thorndike, Johnson and Henderson third in 200-free relay to tie things at 34. SG won the 100-back, but Bishop and Ruland were second and third to keep the scores the same. Then SG got first and second in 100-breast and first in 400-free, breaking too far away. Still, Cotton took third in the individual race and NSA was second and third in 400-free relay.

After Christmas break, the Saints will swim in the ODAC Optimist Meet at Old Dominion University on Jan. 8, and host Catholic and Peninsula Catholic on Jan. 14.