The boys 200-meter freestyle relay team competed in WPIAL last week, and junior Tarik Usanovic competed in two solo events.
None of the Baldwin swimmers placed. But the relay team was really excited to finally compete, after last year they missed qualifying by 0.03 seconds.
The team consisted of Usanovic, sophomore Matteo Cuenca, and seniors Brayden Kuch and Tanner Zalar, with junior Nathan Loshelder as an alternate.
Kuch felt that the team was ready to compete and also felt they had unfinished business from missing WPIALs last season. At WPIALs this year, they swam a great race, Kuch said.
“The team overall did really well. We even dropped a second from our time,” he said.
Going into the meet, the team felt nervous, but well prepared. The Pitt facility where they were competing at felt more intense than a regular season meet and held more people, Kuch said. They knew the competition was going to be better than they had faced in the regular season.
In the practices leading up to this meet they worked a lot on relay starts and quick takeoffs.
“Slamming the walls as hard as you can to make a big splash is something coach really emphasized,” Kuch said.
Kuch said a challenge they had was one end of the pool felt slower, which made it hard to maintain their speed. Despite that obstacle, they did not panic and stuck with their plan.
Racing against the top swimmers really pushed them to swim even harder. The fast pool and better competition helped them perform better than Kuch expected.
“I felt like I was going to go really slow, but I swam my best time,” Kuch said.
Overall, the team was proud of their performance and happy with how everything went, he said.
In addition to the relay, junior Tarik Usanovic competed in two individual events, the 50 meter freestyle and 100 meter freestyle.
This was Usanovic’s first time competing in WPIALs, and he felt that individually he did well. He had worked on his starts and speed, which came though for all of his races.
“My 50 freestyle was really good – I dropped a second. Then in my 100 freestyle I dropped a second and a half,” Usanovic said.
