On Saturday the 27th of February at the University of Delaware, the Girls Swim Team for Wilmington Friends School finished third place in the state at the DIAA (Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association) Swimming State Championships. This is not only a major accomplishment for the Girls Swim Team, but also for Friends, as this beats the current record of the team’s placing at states, with the previous best being eighth place. The team roster for the girls that competed were Margeaux Pantano, ‘16, Kate Saber, ‘20, Demetria Ruhl, ‘16, Caroline Wren, ‘16, Blair Atkins, ‘17, Atim Kilama, ‘18, Ashley Chompre, ‘20, and Anna Erskine ‘18. This year, the team was hoping to achieve top five, and the team was very excited on making third place. The event started on the previous Wednesday, where the preliminary rounds for boys took place. On Thursday, the preliminaries for girls took place, in which there were 11 total events.

Out of these events, the top 16 swimmers from each event go on to the Final Round, and these top swimmers are split into two groups of 8, with one group being the top 8 swimmers and the other group being those who placed in 9th to 16th.

All swimmers who gain a place get points, and in relay races the points are doubled. In the three relays, those who competed for Friends placed ninth place for the 200 Medley Relay, and fifth for both the 200 and 400 Freestyle Relay. Rankings from all of the events included Margeaux Pantano at ninth place in both the 200 and 500 Freestyle, Caroline Wren at 34th place and Anna Erskine in 67th place for 50 Free, Demetria Ruhl at eighth place in the 200 Individual Medley and at 18th place in the 100 Fly with an All-State honorable mention, Blair Atkins at tenth and eleventh place for the 50 Freestyle and 100 Breaststroke events respectively, and Atim Kilama, who was second place in the 50 Free and 14th place in the 100 Fly, earning second team in All-State. Notably, there were also two eighth graders on the team, Kate Saber and Ashley Chompre. Ashley earned first team in All-State and got sixth and fourth place in the 100 Fly and 100 Breaststroke respectively, and Kate got tenth place in the 200 Free and 21st place in the 100 Backstroke.

Friends came out with 171 total points, beating out Archmere and Cape Henlopen, coming in fifth and fourth places respectively, barely beating out Cape by 2.5 points. Swim Team Captain, Margeaux Pantano‘16, commented, “I was so impressed with how well everyone swam, everyone swam as hard as they could, and you could tell. We all had great seed times, and were expected to do really well, and everyone did, and I’m so proud and honored to be a part of such a wonderful team.” She also said, “The whole team was so excited since 3rd is the best we’ve ever placed in the state, and to go from our best placement being 8th place to 3rd was an outstanding way to close out my high school swimming career, and couldn’t have asked for a better team to share this victory with.” When asked about anyone who stood out in particular, she said, “I can’t pick one person who stood out in the team, everyone performed so great. I think that everyone improved so much this season.”

Robin Lebauer, Swim Team Head Coach, says, “The girls performed historically well, the best ever at Wilmington Friends. They finished in third place, which is the best finish for girls by far.” He was very proud of the improvements and achievements that the girls made at the event. “They didn’t just win, they also blew away the competition,” he commented. Blair Atkins, ‘17, and Demetria Ruhl, ’16, other Swim Team Captains, responded well to the win that they achieved. Demetria said, “I think that everyone who went to States really stood out in their own way- It was really a team effort, as 7 swimmers came back to finals to score points for the team.”

Atkins, when asked about her performance and the team’s performance at the meet, commented, “I felt like I did pretty well, I dropped 2 seconds off my breaststroke time. I’m not a year round swimmer and I don’t drop times that much. We did really well this year, and this is the best we’ve ever done.” When asked about how it felt to get third in the state, she replied, “It was pretty awesome, and it felt awesome to do something that great.”

Overall, the Girls Swim Team put in a lot of effort and improved a lot over the season. They have done the school proud, not to mention, they helped in setting Friends history.