By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE—After eight consecutive seasons saw Riverlands defeat its down-the-road rival Piranha Swim Team. PST turned the tide in their own favor Monday night — and in dramatic fashion at that.

The Piranhas edged Riverlands by the slimmest of margins, winning 277.5-273.5 on a night that came down to the final relay events. Riverlands led 224.5-186.5 headed into relays and needed to win 13 relay races to win. The Piranhas hit that mark on the nose.

“I didn’t know we’d won,” PST coach Blaine Tatje said. “I’d thought we’d come up one win short.  I knew we each had a DQ, but they had two. It really came as a shock … It’s crazy improvement from last year. I thought we’d be better this season but didn’t think we’d come this far.”

Cole Volion, Calix Hammett, Eli Boudreaux, Chris Hammett, Colby Watkins, Reece Reinbolt and Tyra Watkins  led PST (4-2) with two victories each. 

Allie Mixon, Jeremiah Emery, Tanner Louque and Cari Jane Roussel rounded out Piranha winners with one first place win each. 

For Riverlands, Mia Oncale, Aubrey Westbrook, Alex Noel and Grace Richoux each took three victories to lead the Stingrays (2-3).

Kody Cancella, Jack Chapman and Anna Guidry each won two events while Luke Bordelon, Addison Ory, Shae Waguespack, Thomas Chapman, Lauren St. Martin, Valerie Perilloux, Maddie Sympson, Jordan St. Pierre, Jacob Palmature and Natalie St. Martin each captured one win.

Tatje said after the freestyle relay, he and his team huddled up.

“We knew how many relays we needed and the kids made it happen,” he said.

Coupled with PST’s 287.5-263.5 victory over Hill Heights Tuesday night, PST’s final regular season record stands at 4-2, good for third place after going 1-5 a year ago.

The Piranhas finished third in last year’s Swim League Invitational, something Tatje said the team springboarded off of into this season.

“We’re really excited about this year’s Invitational,” he said. “Two years ago we had 50 kids swimming. Last year we had 65 and now we’ll have 82 kids. We feel like we’ve got a great shot to improve even on this regular season finish.”

The Invitational will take place July 11, 12 and 13 at Riverlands.