NEWARK – Salesianum won seven races and piled up the points with a deep lineup on the way to its sixth consecutive DIAA Boys Swimming and Diving Championship on Saturday at the University of Delaware’s Rawstrom Natatorium.
The Sals won all three relays and got two individual victories each from seniors Tommy Janton and Alek Elder, who said their fourth straight team title felt different than the others because of the team environment.
“I really can’t put it into words. It’s really something special. Just having all of our team members here together and the excitement the team brings, pushing me through everything,” Janton said.
“Even through COVID and things like that since my sophomore year when I was really sick coming into finals, the team spirit brought me to my full potential to who I am today with my fourth state title.”
“For me, throughout this year, I’ve bonded with a lot of different people I didn’t already know ahead of time, and I created a lot of connections,” Elder said. “I felt like I was part of something bigger, and now that I’m a senior I created a family environment, which was nice.”
The Sals started strong by winning the 200-yard medley relay, as Janton and Elder joined with Bryce Patterson and Teddy Tsakumis for a time of 1:34.07, just .69 of a second off the state record the quartet set Wednesday in the preliminaries.
Elder won the 200 individual medley in 1:51.00 and the 100 breaststroke in 55.57, giving him a total of seven individual state championships during his four years at Salesianum.
Janton won the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly for the third straight time in each event. He had to make a helpful adjustment in the butterfly.
“Leading up to it, I was a little bit sketchy going into prelims on Wednesday because I knew I had to watch my underwaters,” Janton said. “This time I just really had my head in the game, and I was ready to go. I brought home a title for Salesianum. It was awesome.”
Tsakumis, Jackson Fanelli, Kyle Skelly and Brandon Burke gave the Sals a victory in the 200 freestyle relay, and Janton, Skelly, Burke and Elder capped off the afternoon with a victory In the 400 freestyle relay.
Salesianum coach Chip Hanning was happy to see the hard work his seniors put in pay off with a fourth title to their collection.
“This is special because this is the most recent. We had a great senior class of guys this year, led by Tommy and Alek. Just look at what the other seniors have done like (Jackson) Fanelli and Brandon Burke,” Hannig said. “They’re a great group of guys. They worked hard all year as always. It’s certainly well deserved for them also to finish their career with their fourth state title.”
Sallies finished with 374 points, well ahead of runner-up Charter of Wilmington with 189. The Force were boosted by individual state titles from Max Moen in the 200 freestyle and Noah Reice in the 100 freestyle.
Ty Wilmore won the 500 freestyle to help Wilmington Friends finish third overall with 169 points.
Other state champions included Archmere’s Thomas Conaty in the 50 freestyle and Salesianum’s Griffin Scully in the 1-meter diving.
DIAA Boys Swimming and Diving Championships
At Rawstrom Natatorium
200-yard medley relay: 1, Salesianum (Tommy Janton, Alek Elder, Bryce Patterson, Teddy Tsakumis), 1:34.07. 2, Charter of Wilmington 1:37.03. 3, Wilmington Friends 1:40.81. 4, Brandywine 1:41.91. 5, Tower Hill 1:42.09. 6, Sanford 1:43.61. 7, St. Mark’s 1:44.01. 8, Newark Charter 1:44.02.
200-yard freestyle: 1, Max Moen, Charter of Wilmington, 1:41.22. 2, Ty Wilmore, Wilmington Friends, 1:41.74. 3, Ryan Woodzell, Caesar Rodney, 1:44.70. 4, Kyle Skelly, Salesianum, 1:44.88. 5, Brandon Burke, Salesianum, 1:45.68. 6, Jackson Fanelli, Salesianum, 1:46.75. 7, Josh Juhasz, Charter of Wilmington, 1:50.08. 8, Jalen Stewart, Wilmington Friends, 1:53.49.
200-yard individual medley: 1, Alek Elder, Salesianum, 1:51.00. 2, Jude Winnington, Middletown, 1:55.66. 3, Sritan Pittala, Newark Charter, 1:57.46. 4, Joseph Duquette, Mt. Sophia Academy, 2:00.13. 5, Carson Kalish, Sanford, 2:00.84. 6, Yaseen Belkadi, Tower Hill, 2:02.19. 7, Joshua Smith, Brandywine, 2:02.91. 8, Joey Bond, Middletown, 2:03.46.
50-yard freestyle: 1, Thomas Conaty, Tower Hill, 21.39. 2, Aaron Stevens, Conrad, 21.48. 3, Zachary Redding, Appoquinimink, 21.51. 4, MJ Hoban, Sanfor, 21.83. 5, Cole Zippe, Newark Charter, 22.23. 6, Ameer Bashir, Wilmington Friends, 22.39. 7, Michael Novacescu, St. Andrews, 22.50. 8, Teddy Tsakumis, Salesianum, 22.54.
1-meter diving: 1, Griffin Scully, Salesianum, 327.05. 2, Joseph Brooks, Charter of Wilmington, 270.75.
100-yard butterfly: 1, Tommy Janton, Salesianum, 49.06. 2, Breyden Wright, Sussex Central, 50.05. 3, Jude Winnington, Middletown, 50.97. 4, Max Moen, Charter of Wilmington, 51.25. 5, Michael Novacescu, St. Andrews, 51.81. 6, Niles Commodore, Tatnall, 52.84. 7, Yaseen Belkadi, Tower Hill, 52.95. 8, Cameron Byrd, St. Mark’s, 54.68.
100-yard freestyle: 1, Noah Reice, Charter of Wilmington, 46.56. 2, Zachary Redding, Appoquinimink, 46.99. 3, Thomas Conaty, Tower Hill, 47.21. 4, Kyle Skelly, Salesianum, 47.80. 5, Brandon Burke, Salesianum, 48.48. 6, MJ Hoban, Sanford, 48.51. 7, Jackson Fanelli, Salesianum, 48.85. 8, Jalen Stewart, Wilmington Friends, 49.67.
500-yard freestyle: 1, Ty Wilmore, Wilmington Friends, 4:40.49. 2, Ryan Woodzell, Caesar Rodney, 4:45.51. 3, Conner Verbanas, Wilmington Friends, 4:51.97. 4, Carson Kalish, Sanford, 4:52.47. 5, Brian Fleming, Cape Henlopen, 5:00.48. 6, Ethan Hann-Deschaine, Brandywine, 5:00.85. 7, Holden Tighe, Cape Henlopen, 5:01.89. 8, John Camfield, Salesianum, 5:03.93.
200-yard freestyle relay: 1, Salesianum (Jackson Fanelli, Teddy Tsakumis, Kyle Skelly, Brandon Burke), 1:28.97. 2, Tower Hill 1:29.51. 3, Cape Henlopen 1:31.39. 4, St. Mark’s 1:31.75. 5, Wilmington Charter 1:33.26. 6, Brandywine 1:34.10. 7, Sussex Academy 1:34.33. 8, Indian River 1:35.76.
100-yard backstroke: 1, Tommy Janton, Salesianum, 48.50. 2, Joseph Duquette, Mt Sophia Academy, 52.37. 3, Breyden Wright, Sussex Central, 52.72. 4, Sritan Pittala, Newark Charter, 53.21. 5, Josh Juhasz, Charter of Wilmington, 53.58. 6, Keizen Ameriks, St. Andrews, 54.64. 7, Ethan Moen, Charter of Wilmington, 54.84. 8, Cameron Byrd, St. Mark’s, 56.61.
100-yard breaststroke: 1, Alek Elder, Salesianum, 55.57. 2, Noah Reice, Charter of Wilmington, 57.86. 3, Aaron Stevens, Conrad, 59.06. 4, Joey Bond, Middletown, 59.79. 5, Jaxon Laux, Sussex Academy, 1:02.68. 6, Connor Monaghan, Concord, 1:02.77. 7, Francis McGurk, Salesianum, 1:03.14. 8, Coleman Woodard, Delmarva Christian, 1:04.46.
400-yard freestyle relay: 1, Salesianum (Tommy Janton, Kyle Skelly, Brandon Burke, Alek Elder), 3:10.92. 2, Wilmington Friends 3:17.69. 3, Brandywine 3:19.70. 4, St. Andrews 3:23.60. 5, Cape Henlopen 3:24.56. 6, Newark Charter 3:25.06. 7, Sanford, 3:26.78. 8, Wilmington Charter DQ.
Team scores: 1, Salesianum, 374. 2, Wilmington Charter, 189. 3, Wilmington Friends, 169. 4, Brandywine, 146. 5, Tower Hill, 137. 6, St. Andrews, 122. 7, Newark Charter, 111. 8, Sanford, 107. 9, Cape Henlopen, 105. 10, St. Mark’s, 99. 11, Middletown, 81. 12, Sussex Academy, 66. 13, Caesar Rodney, 64. 14, Concord, 62. 15, Conrad, 55. 16, Tatnall, 53. 17, Mt Sophia Academy, 51. 18, Sussex Central, 44. 19, Appoquinimink, 35. 20, Indian River, 34. 21, Archmere, 23. 22, Delmarva Christian, 15. 23, Lake Forest, 4.
