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By Kevin Ryan

For the Sun

The GRC boys and girls swim teams faced off Thursday evening against the reigning Region 9 champion Madison Central Indians at Telford YMCA’s pool. The Lady Cards fell by just 16 points in a score of 91-75, while the GRC men lost 88-25

The Lady Cards stood firm against Central through the whole contest. Through five-of-12 events, GRC trailed the Indians by just 5 points, led by solid performances in the 200 medley relay, a second in the 200 freestyle by seventh-grader Marissa Thomas, a win in the 200 individual medley by junior Libby Taylor, and a second and third place in the 100 butterfly by sophomores Harper Sebulsky and Cooper Moore.

Madison Central started to pull away from there, scoring big points with a podium sweep in the 100 freestyle and first and second-place finishes in the 200 freestyle relay to extend their lead to 20 points.

The Lady Cards clawed back five more points in four of the last five events, placing second and third in the 500 freestyle, second through fourth in the 100 backstroke, first and second in the 100 breaststroke, and second and third in the 400 freestyle relay. J

Taylor led the way in scoring with 12 individual points, followed by  Thomas with eight points, Moore with seven points, Harper Sebulsky with six points and freshman Maggie Manley with five points.

The boys team was overmatched from the start, down 23-10 points after just the first three events and down by 47-17 at the halfway point.

The Cardinals were led by freshman newcomer Ethan Hatfield, who scored 10 points with a win in the 200 freestyle and a second-place finish in the 100 butterfly. Senior Ethan Green scored 5 with his 5th in the 50 Freestyle and 2nd in the 100 Backstroke.

The Cardinal swim team will return to the pool next against Frederick Douglass High School. The date and location of the meet have yet to be finalized.