Jennifer Murach, a Bel Air senior, and Katy Novotny, a freshman from Fallston, were the individual standouts, and Fallston, John Carroll and Bel Air dominated the relays as the county swimming season opened Thursday.
The top event was the girls 100-yard freestyle, as the standard of 54.83 seconds was broken twice, by Murach at Edgewood Middle School, 54.80, and by Novotny at North Harford Middle School, 53.92.
Murach also lowered the county record in the girls 50-yard freestyle from 24.70 to 24.66, and was part of a record-smashing girls 200-yard medley relay team, which dropped the mark from 1:59.85 to 1:56.96. Completing the relay team were Jamee Eben, Kathy Rising and anchor Anna DeMott.
Novotny's other record came in the 100-yard backstroke, where she recorded 1:00.73 against the previous standard of 1:01.15.
Sophomore Jeff Warwick of Bel Air accounted for the night's other county record with a 2:01.07 in the boys 200-yard individual medley. The previous record was 2:03.27. He also won the 500-yard freestyle.
* At Edgewood Middle School, Bel Air was first with 255, followed by C. Milton Wright's 157 and Joppatowne's 142.
Besides Warwick, double winners were Bel Air boys Erik Jankowiak in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle and Jeff DeHart in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke.
Of the eight individual events, Bobcats girls and boys each won seven and took four of the six relays.
C. Milton Wright and Joppatowne registered two firsts apiece, as each won one individual and one relay. Wright's Jodi Kraus won the girls 100 butterfly in 1:17.32, and Joppatowne's Mike Hemelt won the boys 100 breaststroke in 1:12.82.
The two schools took charge of the 200 freestyle relay, as the Joppatowne girls won in 1:57.23 and the Wright boys won in 1:42.51.
* At Magnolia Middle School, John Carroll placed first with 243, followed by Edgewood's 137, North Harford's 112 and Harford Tech's 24.
There were five double winners: Kim Stackhouse, John Carroll, in the girls 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle; Beth Goodwin, North Harford, girls 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle; Chris Cavallero, North Harford, boys 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle; Chris Brandon, John Carroll, boys 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly; and Liam Smith, John Carroll, boys 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
John Carroll won five of the six relays: girls 200-yard medley, 2:08.2, and 200-yard freestyle, 1:58.6; boys 200-yard medley, 2:34.9; 200-yard freestyle, 1:53.3; 400-yard freestyle, 4:28.8.
