Wahconah Boys Top Taconic Hills
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- No one walked out of Friday’s swim meet between Wahconah and Taconic Hills with any idea who won.
And no one was really bothered by that fact.
That is because just half the meet was taking place in Wahconah’s home pool at the Boys and Girls Club. The other half was happening 50 miles away at Taconic Hills High in Craryville, N.Y.
The coaches got together later Friday and shared their scores online to determine the score of the virtual meet. But the action was very real on Melville Street, and the enthusiasm was very strong among the Wahconah swimmers.
“It’s very good to have a chance to compete,” Wahconah coach Steve Kolis said. “Wednesday was the first time we had the whole team together at once.”
Given the space available at their practice pool at the Dalton CRA, the Wahconah boys and girls teams have been practicing in six-swimmer cohorts, Kolis explained.
Among other things, that means that instead of practicing five days a week for an hour and a half each day, the swimmers are getting about half that time in the pool.
“That’s not ideal,” Kolis said. “But the good part is we’re one-on-one with these kids. We teach everyone all the strokes, and everyone can do it perfectly. But when you get to a meet like this, some of them forget some things. They get a one-hand touch and they’re disqualified.”
Enough Wahconah boys remembered their training to earn 84 points for an 84-63 win when the times were tallied.
Jacob Kunzmann and Zach Archambault each picked up a pair of wins.
Kunzmann won the 200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes, 10.28 seconds and the 100 free in 57.97 seconds.
Archambault took the 200 individual medley (2:46.47) and the 100 breaststroke (1:23.04).
Taconic Hills’ girls edged Wahconah in their dual meet, 87-64.
Alex Bills won the 100 breaststroke in 1:34.56 and placed second in the 200 freein 2:53.51.
Overall, Kolis was happy with what he saw on Friday.
“There practice time is basically cut in half, so their meet times are a little bit slower, but we had Zach [Archambault], today had all his best times, my captain,” Kolis said. “He did very well. … A lot of them had their best times.”