The Dearborn High and Divine Child girls’ swim teams stepped out of league action on Tuesday night for a dual meet between in-city rivals.
Both teams entered the matchup in need of a win. Host Dearborn was looking for its second dual-meet victory of the season and the first since beating crosstown and KLAA East foe Fordson on Sept. 15. Divine Child came into Tuesday still looking for its first win in four dual meets, most recently coming off a loss to Fordson on Sept 27.
With six first-place finishes, the visiting Falcons were able to build up a nice advantage early and walked away with a 48-39 victory over the Pioneers.
Divine Child picked up all six of its wins in the first eight events, allowing the team to grab a 41-21 lead.
It started with a free six points in the 200 medley relay after Dearborn's team was disqualified. The Falcons' foursome in that event was Amelia Brown, Lauren Ratcliffe, Ella Dziobak and Bridget Williams (2:14).
That same relay team for Divine Child also took first in the 200 freestyle relay (2:01) while another quartet for the visitors, Nhi Ngyuen, Aline Price, Alayna Brown, and Temperance Gorman, placed third (2:43). Dearborn's Sophie DeKoning, Zahraa Marji, Sindus Harb and Giada Gallina teamed up to finish second (2:36).
Several of the aforementioned relay swimmers for Divine Child picked up first-place honors in the individual events as well.
Amelia Brown touched the wall first in the 200 IM (2:55). This was another big swing event for the Falcons, as Gorman finished second (3:42). For Dearborn, Harb placed third (4:01).
Williams and Ratcliffe finished first (29.50) and third (30.17) in the 50 freestyle with Dearborn's Adrianna Deep in between in second place.
Dziobak meanwhile had a pair of first-place finishes, as she won the butterfly (1:03) and the 500 freestyle (5:29). Dziobak was against just one Dearborn swimmer in each of those events, that being Claire Simon in the butterfly (1:19) and Gallina in the 500 freestyle (7:36).
Gallina came out on top in the 200 freestyle (2:44) with fellow Falcons Ngyuen (3:09) and Alayna Brown (3:30) placing second and third.
In the backstroke, it was Simon (1:18) and Deep (1:21) finishing 1-2 overall while Price (1:48) for Divine Child rounded out the top three.
Sydney Smith picked up a pair of wins for Dearborn at the meet. The first came in the 100 freestyle (1:02), beating out both Williams (1:03) and Amelia Brown (1:13).
The other win for Smith came in the breaststroke (1:27). Smith's Pioneer teammate Harb placed third (1:33) while Ratcliffe for Divine Child finished runner-up (1:32).
Wrapping up the strong finish to the night for Dearborn was the team of DeKoning, Simon, Deep and Smith cruising to a win in the 400 freestyle relay (4:35) over their Divine Child counterparts of Ngyuen, Alayna Brown, Price and Gorman (6:17).
Dearborn will return to KLAA action on Oct. 6 when they host Livonia Stevenson at 6:30 p.m. Divine Child will partake in a tournament at Detroit Country Day on Oct 8. The Falcons' next dual meet is Oct 13 at Farmington Hills Mercy at 6 p.m.
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