By: Maggie Foight
The Wilson girls’ team was elated when they realized they had won the competitive invitational for the first time in seven years. They couldn’t have done it without their intense synergy (team spirit); from start to finish, the girls were hardly sitting at all but were rather lining the sides of the pool, cheering on their teammates!
The Wilson boys’ team found success at the meet as well. They placed second overall, just behind North Penn by a margin of five points. The Bulldogs were ahead for the majority of the meet, but the Knights pulled ahead in the last few events. Wilson Relays isn’t all about the fast swimming, however. It is also a chance for the swimmers to have a bit of fun while competing. Besides the standard 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay, events included others that aren’t often seen. Lengthened, mixed or stroke-specific relays and more made the invitation more memorable and exciting. There was even a 200-yard mixed freestyle relay event with four girls and four boys per team. Besides the whirlwind racing, Wilson Relays is one of the most lively invitationals around. There’s a long-standing tradition of Wilson swimmers leading a “hype-up” session behind the starting blocks before the meet begins, and this year, the seniors (who decide on the music and theme together) chose to parody a popular and recently released Netflix movie, “Birdbox.” Bird chirping filled the natatorium as freshman Megan Russo climbed onto a starting block, imitating listening for the sound as if a part of the movie. She, like the rest of her teammates, wore a headband over her eyes in a makeshift blindfold, pretending to hide from the unknown, villainous “thing” that drove people insane in the film. As a final touch to her ensemble, a cardboard box was perforated with holes as if it contained live birds; this was, once again, a nod to the box the main characters clung to in “Birdbox.” As other teams sent additional costumed people behind the blocks to join the Wilson team, Bulldog chants, barks and whoops charged up the swimmers until everyone was shouting and cheering, bouncing around in one large crowd of enthusiasm! Though the events and success, hype and celebration were similar to that of past Wilson Relay invitationals, there were some changes to this year’s meet. The Ultimate Relay -- where four athletes work together to swim all of the individual and relay events of a traditional dual meet -- was cut from the event list, as were the alumni relays. It was difficult to convince teams to stay and put up an Ultimate team as it was a long event (about 25 minutes compared to two or four minutes). Most teams preferred a shorter meet so they could get back home (most traveled a significant distance to compete). The alumni relays were cut for a different reason. There were few alumni that could participate considering the time, effort and finances involved. Since the alumni relays used to fundraise for the Snyder Family Scholarship Fund (a scholarship for college-bound swimmers), the meet organizers decided that a different type of fundraiser should be arranged in place of it. In lieu of the alumni relays, Roy Snyder, the man behind the name of the pool and the Wilson boys’ head swim coach, helped to organize a silent auction in the Lower House gym. The offered goods to bid on were primarily some of Snyder’s own artwork, which has been known to sell quite quickly (he had a display in West Reading earlier this year during one of the festivals held there). The silent auction fundraiser was very successful (and the swim team is so proud of Coach Snyder)! The meet in its entirety was a superb invitational full of fun and fast racing. As always, great thanks are due to the organizers, volunteers, and donors for orchestrating such a spectacular event!
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Dylan EdelmanWilson Senior Archives
February 2020
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