Nitros fare well on road

BURBANK — For most of the season, the members of the Glendale High boys’ swimming team figured that their meet against Burbank would give them an idea where they would stand in Pacific League competition.

Earlier in the season, the Nitros suffered losses to league powerhouses Crescenta Valley and Arcadia. However, they still hadn’t lost sight of the fact that they had a chance to grab a hold of third place.

Glendale took full advantage of the opportunity, as it got a pair of individual victories from senior Kyle Ferguson to notch a 96-73 road victory against Burbank on Friday afternoon in a dual meet.

Glendale’s girls’ team got impressive outings from sophomore Katalina Sher and senior Casey Sripramong to earn a 97-71 victory.

Ferguson won the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute 56.72 seconds before capturing the 100 butterfly (56.64) to spark the Nitros (5-2, 3-2 in league) past the youthful Bulldogs (2-5, 2-3).

“It’s the meet that we pointed to all season based on the times we saw,” said Glendale first-year Coach Pat Lancaster, whose team captured six races. “We know that CV and Arcadia are the elite teams, and that we’ve beaten the other teams.

“Burbank’s got some speed. It’s a great meet to have before heading into league prelims, it was gut check for our guys.”

Matt Hovsepian, Arthur Hovhannisyan, Ferguson and Nick Lim got the Nitros off to a good start by teaming up to take the 200 medley relay (1:49.54). Glendale also got victories from Lim in the 100 freestyle (52.29), Hovsepian in the 100 backstroke (1:03.45) and Hovhannisyan in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.93).

In the girls’ portion of the meet, the Nitros finished first in eight races. Sher and Sripramong each won a pair of individual events and worked together to help Glendale (5-3, 3-2) win a relay event.

Nitros senior Jade Wilia won one individual race in addition to propelling Glendale to two relay victories.

“We don’t have a lot of depth with people having gone on spring break and other things,” sad Lancaster, who competed without senior Shaggy Abolian because of job obligations. “So, we have to rely on our front-line swimmers and they did it again for us.”

Those front-line swimmers turned out to be Sher, Sripramong and Wilia.

Sher took the 200 freestyle (1:57.73) before winning the 500 freestyle (5:12.30) to dismantle Burbank (1-6, 1-4). Sripramong finished first in the 50 freestyle (26.26) and the 100 butterfly (1:03.40).

Wilia captured the 100 backstroke (1:16.80). She accomplished that feat in addition to grouping with Kat Ter-Oganesyan, Jackie Bettelli and Sripramong to take first in the 200 medley relay. Wilia capped her outing by teaming with Noor Ghssoub, junior Jenny Lee and Sher to take the 400 freestyle relay (4:07.37).

Lee, junior Mariam Narinyan, Sripramong and Sher helped lead the Nitros to a victory in the 200 freestyle relay (1:51.20).

“It’s a good challenge for us, and an exciting meet from our end,” Lancaster said. “We are happy to get two wins.”