By Bob Tutunjian
During Friday evening’s swim meet, Providence and Detroit were tied going into the final 2 relays with 28 points each. But the “Varantians” were able to win both events to edge Detroit 38-34. They were led by three golds from Lynne Tutunjian and firsts in all three relays. Detroit didn’t win any events, but had three silvers from Meline Topouzian and six more in the relays and other events. Worcester and New Jersey tied with 13 points each, and Greater Boston was just behind with 12. They were followed by Montreal (10), Philadelphia (7), North Andover (5), Granite City (3), and Racine (2).
Women’s Swimming
It was Lynne Tutunjian winning triple gold after settling for 13 points last year. Lynne first won the 25 freestyle in 13.87, ahead of Karoun Tcholakian and Talia Oknayan, both from Detroit. She then edged Montreal’s Faye Khatchadourian in the 50-yard breaststroke, clocking a time of 37.20. Areknaz Khaligian won bronze to score for Racine. In the last individual event, Lynne won a close 25-yard butterfly in 13.87, just in front of Worcester rookie Lauren Greenhalgh and Faye. Lauren and Faye had won gold in earlier events to accumulate 13 and 10 points, respectively. Faye took first in the 50 free with a time of 32.56, besting Meline Topouzian and Nevart Varadian of Providence. Greenhalgh then won her first event in the 100 free, clocking 1:04.69 with Meline and Nevart behind again. Lauren took her second gold in the 50 backstroke at 34.88, while Meline won her silver and Nevart took her bronze. Lauren is entering her senior year at St. Peter Marian high school in Worcester and is a member of their swim team.
Finally the girls’ 4×25 relay saw only 2 teams entered, with Detroit jumping out to an early lead after the first 2 swimmers. But Lynne Tutunjian came back to establish a slight lead and rookie Tarvis Hintlian held off Detroit to win in a time of 1:00.81. The Tandourjians were close behind at 1:01.47.
Men’s Swimming
In the men’s events, there were a host of new medalists helped by the absence of all 3 of the 2013 gold medalists: Matt Khatchadourian (Montreal), Mike Kaiserian (Philadelphia), and Eric Movsesian (Greater Boston). Newcomer Patrice Melikian from Greater Boston started things by winning the 50 freestyle in 25.82. Nick Dolik from Detroit and Chris Tarzian of New Jersey took silver and bronze. Patrice claimed his second gold in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:00.46. Jersey’s Adam Boyajian took second and Detroit’s Raffi Markarian was third. In the backstroke, Philly’s Mark Santerian was golden after finishing second last year. His time of 35.74 was ahead of Nick Dolik and Providence’s Mike Tutunjian in third. The other two individual events were short on entries, but Adam struck gold in the butterfly, just ahead of Stephen Hagopian from Granite City. Their times were 36.64 and 37.53, respectively. John Mahlebjian was the lone swimmer in the 50-yard breaststroke, finishing in 1:04.34, and scoring 5 points for his North Andover chapter.
The men’s swimming relays were highly contested events this year with six teams entered in each. Philadelphia jumped out to an early lead in the 4×50 yard medley relay, with Mark Santerian in the backstroke. But track athlete Andrew Hintlian showed his strength in the butterfly by closing a 15-yard deficit and giving a lead to Steve Tutunjian, who finished it out for Providence in 2:25.86. The same “Varantian” team also came from behind in the 4×50 freestyle relay to win in 1:56.81. Detroit finished in second in both races.
Guest Contributor
This is very exciting. Who was the sponser of these events?