Whitehall swim coach Pete Rile and assistant coach Dave Seeloff knew the Zephyr girls meet against Freedom would be a close one prior to its start, and by meet’s end, the Zephs pulled out an 84-83 come-from-behind victory over the Patriots on Jan. 4 at Whitehall.

“We told the girls before the meet started, ‘This is gonna be fun, right down to the end,’ and we’ve been on both sides of that fun with one-point wins or losses, and they’re still fun,” said Coach Rile.

Freedom led after Event 8, 35-27, and after Event 14, 51-43.

“We thought it was coming down to the 400 free relay,” said Rile. “We lost a place in the medley relay, which was a four-point swing, and breaststroke by .02 seconds. That’s a two-point swing. We had a swimmer in the 500 get disqualified when it was a guaranteed two points. So you’re looking at eight points right there that would have made that relay kind of meaningless. Even so, it was meaningful.

“We had to win it, and the fact they didn’t have a second relay and we had finished one, we’re trying to emphasize to the kids that you don’t have to get the place necessarily, but you’ve got to make sure you’re available to get something. Having that third relay in the 400 free was like a safety net. We’ve had way too many disqualifications this year, and it would be just our luck to lose another relay and needed that one and we only had two, so it’s nice to have that cushion.”

Ryann Giedl led off the winning 400 relay, followed by Megan Wallitsch.

“When I got in, we already had a lead, which was nice, and I had to keep the lead,” Wallitsch said. “It was

very exciting.”

Kelly Wallitsch was third to dive in, and Emma Sargent swam anchor.

“My coaches told me right away that I needed to get a bigger lead, so I was sprinting really hard,” said Wallitsch. “It was a lot of pressure. At the end, it was really exciting. The [Freedom] girl picked it up, and it was close, but we got them.”

While no relay foursomes are set in stone at this point in the season, Rile was happy with the performance of this combination.

“They did a great job,” he said. “We emphasize, you can’t leave it up to the anchor to win it. You’ve got to try and win it with the first swimmer, the first and second, the first, second and third, and leave the anchor just to finish the race. So we try and emphasize to Kelly that she’s a strong swimmer. She had a chance to make it up there against who she was swimming. You’ve got to rely on the whole team.”

Whitehall missed an opportunity for second-place points in the 200 medley relay, coming in third by a touch, but Megan Wallitsch and Ryann Giedl placed 1-2 in the 200 freestyle with times of 2:33.36 and 2:34.02, respectively.

Freedom took first-place points in the 200 IM, 50 free, 100 butterfly, and 100 free, but Whitehall stayed within reach with 2-3 finishes in the IM, the fly, and the 100.

Giedl swam the distance to first place in the 500 free with a time of 7:01.90, and Kelly Wallitsch was first in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:14.86.

“I could see that I was ahead for most of it, but I didn’t want to slow down,” said Wallitsch. “I wanted to try and get my best time. I was about a second off my best for this year.”

Freedom’s girls placed first and third in the 100 breaststroke, setting up the 400 free relay showdown.

Gia Chhetri, Serenity Pauley, Alexis Quach, and Luciana Osorno won third-place 400 free relay points for the Zephyrs, and Shiane Botas, Brianna Alfaro, Samantha Abdalia, and Yozlin Pina placed fourth in the Zephyr girls first team win of the season.

The Whitehall Zephyrs are scheduled to host East Stroudsburg South on Jan. 17. The Cavalier girls defeated Freedom, and Freedom’s boys defeated the Cavaliers this past Tuesday at Freedom.