Rebels Led at the Half but the Cougars Came Roaring Back to the Finish

After a couple of weeks of multiple canceled practices and athletes missing workouts due to illness and family obligations over winter break, Centennial faced off with Champlin Park for its third dual meet of the season on January 5, 2023.   The Cougars entered the meet confident for the win, despite the fact that its swimmers only had one team practice over the previous six days and it was working with a meet lineup that required many of the team’s varsity swimmers to race in events that they were not accustomed to swimming.

The final score of the meet, Centennial 110 and Champlin Park 76, proved the Cougars’ pre-meet confidence was appropriate, but the course of the meet did not run as smoothly as Head Coach Pete Crawford had foreseen while he was planning out the meet lineup.  After the first five events of the meet, the Rebels had a 6-point lead over the Cougars and Centennial’s coaching staff developed a slight case of the jitters.

The jitters were unwarranted though because starting with the sixth event, the Cougars dominated the rest of the meet by taking first and second in the 100 Butterfly; first, second and third in the 200 Freestyle Relay; and first, second and third in the 100 Backstroke. 

Coach Crawford was very impressed with how his team rebounded from the rough start to the meet and walked away with a victory for the start of 2023.

First place finishes for Centennial were:

• 200 Medley Relay:  Caleb Cregan, Isaac Nguyen, Max Scheurer, Joesph Murray
• 100 Butterfly: Max Scheurer
• 500 Freestyle: Ben Condon
• 200 Freestyle Relay: Isaac Nguyen, Alex Larkin, Joesph Murray, Ben Condon
• 100 Backstroke: Max Scheurer
• 100 Breaststroke: Talen Greeson-Stormoen
• 400 Freestyle Relay: Max Scheurer, Jacob Taylor, George Atkinson, Ben Condon