Pine Bush’s boys’ swimming team did not relax over the holidays and then came out and traveled to Middletown, Tuesday, Jan. 5. And the Middie Bears could do little to stop the Bushmen, who won the meet 134-51 and won every event but the 100-breasststroke. Middletown’s Brian Robert’s beat Pine Bush’s Zane Taylor by nearly two seconds in that event with a time of 1:05.28.

“The guys were really tired. We worked really hard over the Christmas break,” said Kevin Blackwell, who coaches the swimmers for Pine Bush.

The work obviously paid off. The Bushmen were 1-2-3 in the 200- freestyle, 50-freestyle, 100-freestyle and the 500-freestyle.

The Bushmen won all three of the relays, going 1-2 in the 200 and 400-freestyle relays. In the 200-freestyle relay, Pine Bush’s winning team beat its second place team by almost 10seconds with a time of 1:32.56.

In the 400-freestyle relay, the team that won the 200-freestyle relay beat their second-place teammates by more than 25 seconds with a time of 3:23.11.

“Their times could have been a little bit faster,” said Blackwell. “All three of the relays, we’ve been faster already.”

Nick Boncek, who swam on the winning 200-medley relay, 200-freestyle relay and 400-freestyle relay teams, also won the 100-butterfly with a time of 55:72.
Virgilio, who swam in the, 200-medley, 200-freestyle and 400-freestyle relays with Boncek, won the 50-freestyle with a time of 23.05, almost a second a half faster than Scott Sitzman, his teammate.

Matt Salle won the diving competition, garnering 253.50 points, beating Milo Licata his teammate in second place, by almost 81 points.

By Bond Brungard
sports@tcnewspapers.com