By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – For most of the night Thursday, Piranha Swim Team kept itself within striking distance of its first victory of the season. But visiting Sun Villa cemented a 303-238 victory via a strong performance in the relay events.
PST trailed 113-103 through two events, losing the freestyle (61-47) but winning the backstroke (56-52). Sun Villa won each of the next two events, the breaststroke and butterfly, to extend its lead to 219-182. 
The Sharks all but clinched the night’s competition with a strong showing in the medley relay, outscoring PST 49-21 in the event. The teams finished the night by swimming to a draw in the freestyle relay, each side posting a score of 35.
Piranha Swim Team coach Blaine Tatje compared the meet to his team’s close loss to Hill Height’s earlier in the season, noting the team’s improvement from the matchup between PST and Sun Villa a year ago. The Sharks banked a 363.5-174.5 win over the Piranhas in 2012.
“A year ago, the score was so much more lopsided. So for us to see the constant improvement … like I said after Hill Heights, it feels like a win for us,” said Tatje.
Colby Watkins led the Piranha charge, winning first place in three individual events.
Cameron Volion, Alexandra Rutledge, Colton Duhon and Elliot Veron followed up with two wins each, while Preston Falgout, Kyla Cage, Sarah Lang, Sophia Simon, and Justin Jase each captured an event win each for PST.
Tatje said that he feels the Piranhas are building momentum. Though the loss dropped PST to 0-4 this season, the scores have been tighter and the individual wins more plentiful.
Representative of that is the team’s projected entry into the season-ending River Parish Swim League Invitational. 65 swimmers have signed up to compete for PST, compared to 48 a year ago.
“We hosted a year ago, and only had 48. When you’re the host team, you certainly expect more,” said Tatje. “This year, we’ve got almost our entire team set to go. There’s a lot more enthusiasm this season.”