Piranhas missing several key swimmers in loss to Lavacherie Monday night

BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

LAVACHERIE-In baseball you have to have hitters to win, in basketball you have to have shooters to win and in swimming you have to have swimmers to score points.

Playing with a shortened roster of swimmers, the Belle Terre Piranhas fell short against a good Lavacherie team Monday night, 320-220.

The story of the meet was the final three strokes of the contest.

After Lavacherie jumped out to a 60-48 lead after the backstroke, Belle Terre hung with them in the backstroke, 54-54l

However, that was the closest the Piranhas would be as they were defeated 63-41 in the breastroke, 52-37 in the butterfly and 42-28 in the medley relays and 49-21 in the free relays.

Some of the bright spots for the Piranhas are familiar names. Cari-Jane Roussel took home places in all four strokes, placing third in the backstroke and taking home first-place finishes in the freestyle, breaststroke and butterfly.

Keegan Gillies also had a solid meet, taking home first place in the freestyle and backstroke and finishing third in the breaststroke.

The Belle Terre coaching duo of Monica Scioneaux and Kellie Logan were somewhat pleased with their squad’s performance considering the shortened numbers they were dealing with.

“It was a hard loss for us,” Logan said. “We were missing some of our top swimmers. Lavacherie just came out and swam really well. They had a good meet.”

Scioneaux echoed her fellow coach’s sentiments.

“I think one of the biggest problems that we were facing was that we were missing several of our heat one swimmers,” Scioneaux said.

After such a solid performance in the backstroke, Logan thought the squad could come back to challenge in the meet.

“We definitely thought that we could come back,” Logan said. “We had some strong swimmers. But it is like we said, you get first, they get second and third. The points really start to add up.

“Through all the individual races it was pretty close until the fly and they (Lavacherie) have always been strong on fly.”

Logan and Scioneaux did both agree that there was a bright spot individual that did shine despite the final score of the meet.

“Rebecca Grote really had a solid meet,” Scioneaux said. “She did really well in the backstroke as well as the butterfly.”

The coaching staff did take several positives out of the loss.

“For the most part we are continuing to improve, Scioneaux said. “There were a couple of hiccups, but overall the starts were much better. We still need to continue to work on our turns.

“We still need improvement. We still need to keep working. There is still plenty of time and room for improvement. We have another meet on Thursday night at home and the kids are really excited about that.

“I think that is going to be a very fun and energetic meet. Hopefully we will perform well and improve on the things that we have worked on in practice and it will result in a better overall performance.”

Tyler Songy-1st free

Sean Doody-1st free, 1st back

Keegan Gillies-1st free, 1st back, 3rd breast

Kelsey Felton-3rd free, 1st fly

Gage Alleman-3rd free

Cari-Jane Roussel- 1st free, 3rd back, 1st breast, 1st fly

James Krawczyk-3rd free, 1st fly

Fran O’Hanlon-3rd free

Garrett O’Hanlon-3rd free, 3rd fly

Jamie Roussel- 1st free, 1st back, 3rd breast

Brittany McMurry-33rd free

Matt Stell-3rd free, 3rd fly

Lauren Broussard-3rd free

Hayden Roy-1st back, 1st breast

Rebecca Grote-3rd back, 3rd fly

Hillary Ruiz-1st back

Blaine Tatje-3rd back

Cody McMurry-1st back

Ashton Torres-3rd back

Scott Lawless-1st back

Emma Hoss-1st breast

Madison Torres-3rd breast

Hunter Songy-1st breast

Lelia Boudreaux-1st breast

Jesse Malbrough-1st breast

Rebecca Simon-1st breast

Coti Roussel-1st fly

Taylor Duhe-3rd fly

Laura Bailey-3rd fly