[New] Powhatan swim takes on Colonial Heights at SwimRVA

ROBBY FLETCHER Sports Editor

Powhatan’s swim team continues to excel at the midpoint of its season, adding another stellar performance to its resume in a meet hosted by Colonial Heights at SwimRVA on Jan. 12.

The meet, also featuring New Kent, had a collection of big performances from the Powhatan Indians, who placed first as a team in the girls competitions with 125.50 and second on the boys side with 82 points. The boys swimmers were just behind the Colonials, who finished with 88 points.

The Indians had a big win early in the girls 200-yard medley relay that was started by senior Summer Kantanen and freshman Kayla Blinn and closed out by sophomores Jenna Autry and Elizabeth Vallent. The group won by a nearly two-second difference with a final time of 2:09.76. That same group later won the 200yard freestyle relay in 1:54, five seconds ahead of New Kent in second place.

After winning the medley relay, Vallent and Blinn later came in first and second in the 200 individual medley, with Vallent continuing her impressive performance with a time of 2:35.13, while Blinn finished in 2:45.86.

Blinn’s next big win came in the 100-yard freestyle, which saw three Powhatan swimmers take the top-3 in Blinn, freshman Lauren Scythes and junior Katherine Harrison.

Later in the girls 200-yard freestyle, Scythes and fellow freshmen Hayden Russell were atop the standings, with Russell winning the competition in 2:13.83 and Scythes coming in at 2:21.28. Russell also won the 500yard freestlye in a landslide victory that saw her dominate on the way to a 5:48.76 time. Her best lap came in at 31.49 seconds.

Kantanen was also not finished winning for her school, as the senior swimmer won in a true photo finish against Colonial Heights senior Emma Moody in the 50yard freestyle. Kantanen won by 0.02 seconds in the race, finishing with a 28.36-second result. Autry also won a second race for Powhatan, swimming a 1:09.62 in the 100-yard butterfly event.

On the boys side, senior Cole Malkerson built off a strong performance at the Hawk Invitational with a win in the 100yard butterfly, recording a time of 1:00.40 to beat a field of five swimmers.

Malkerson later kicked off the 200-yard freestyle relay followed by freshman Zach Kantanen, juniors Nathan Orban and Brandon Vallent. That group won by a five-second difference compared to the second player New Kent group, finishing with a 1:43.16 time.

In one of the final events of the evening, Vallent added one more win to the scoreboard for the Indians, taking first place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:10.77. New Kent’s Olivia Allen came in second in 1:11.99.

Powhatan will once again take

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They followed that performance up with one just as impressive against the Benedictine Cadets, a powerhouse program in the VISAA that is coming off a 10th place finish in the East Coast Catholic Classic on Jan. 6 and 7. Powhatan looked like the stronger program at Cosby though, with Utley again kicking things off in Powhatan’s favor with a second period pin in the 138-pound matchup.

Benedictine earned points in the next five matchups to take a 26-6 lead, but they wouldn’t score again from that point on. Senior Chris Davis got the Indians back on the right track in the 190-pound matchup against Terrell Zotalis-Holland, quickly throwing him to the ground and pinning him in 1:17.