By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

There’s always a little extra excitement in the air at a Riverlands vs. Belle Terre swim meet, and Thursday night was no exception.

This time, Riverlands was able to defeat its rival from just down the street and in the process move to 2-0 on the year with a 373-166 win over the Piranhas.

“The kids were excited to win like we did,” said Riverlands Coach Carla Lambert. “They knew they swam well. They just want to get better and better, and that’s what they’ve been doing. I’d say 95% of our kids improved their times.”

Riverlands led 69-39 after the freestyle events, and only built the lead from there.

Matthew Torres, Maddie Guidry, and Grace Richoux all won three individual events to pace the Stingrays on the way to victory.

For Belle Terre, Gage Alleman, Cari Jane Roussel and Alexis Bailey all took three first place finishes to lead the Piranhas.

“The kids swam great,” said Belle Terre Coach Laura Bailey. “Everyone gets excited for this meet, with everyone close to home. We usually have a big crowd show up for this meet, and we did.”

Belle Terre peaked in the breaststroke event, where the team scored 43 points.

Riverlands, meanwhile, shined in the backstroke, scoring a meet high 77 points in that event.

Lambert said she saw a major improvement in the relay events, as well as the butterfly.

“I thought those were our strong points,” she said.

Bailey, meanwhile, has been searching for some of her swimmers to step up in the butterfly. She praised one who has.

“David Gurley has shown a lot of improvement in a short time there,” said Bailey. “He dropped two seconds off of his time, which shocked me. That’s a significant drop.”

Jeremy Moore, Kyle Wilking, Will Torres and Anna Guidry each won two events for Riverlands. Rounding out the first place winners were: Jack Chapman, Daniel Jaubert, Jeffery Cupit, Jack Young, Sarah Carambat, Dominique Perrilloux, Laura Hane, and Merryn Guidry.

For Belle Terre, Tyler Songy and Madison Torres each won two events. Rounding our first place winners for the Piranhas were Morgan Torres, Rebecca Grote, Lindsey St. Pierre, Ashton Torres, James Krawczyk, David Gurley, and Christopher Guillot.