Vineland High School Boys Swimming

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP - The Vineland High School boys swim team suffered a heartbreaking 96.5-86.5 loss to the Egg Harbor Township Eagles in the teams' first dual meet of the season.

Vineland performed admirably and even found themselves in a position to win the meet, despite being outscored 13-3 in the diving event - or so they thought.

After Bryan Masilotti, Chris Stenger and Mike Smith took a 2-4-5 finish in the 400 free and the Vineland 200 free relays of Andrew Radcliffe, Justin Reimels, Jerry Capriotti and Mike Oliva and Troy Cervini, Harry Longini, Smith and Masilotti took a 1-3 finish to put Vineland up eight with three events to go, head coach Brian Newton was informed that Masilotti had been awarded third place in the 400 free, instead of the second he had previously been given.

Apparently, the backup timing system of Egg Harbor Township judged Egg Harbor Township's Logan Miller touching Masilotti out for second, while the electronic scoreboard hangingin the natatorium showed that Masilotti got second. Upon realizing the discrepency, the head official gathered the other officials and the decision was made to go with the judgment of the backup timing system, awarding Masilotti third.

The switched decision narrowed Vineland's lead to six and ended up costing them the meet. Egg Harbor Township took a 1-2-5 finish in the 100 backstroke to tie the meet at 65.5. The Eagles then followed up with a 1-2-4 finish in the 100 breaststroke, putting them up eight, 88.5-80.5. The two points taken away from Vineland in the 400 freestyle were then officially huge, as Egg Harbor Township's lead heading into the final event was stretched from six to eight. Had the lead remained a six, a 1-3 Vineland finish in the 400 free relay would have tied the meet at 91.5. Instead, the 10-4 advantage from a 1-3 finish would not have been enough and the Vineland coaching staff was forced to split the 'A' relay in a last-ditch effort to take 1-2 in the event and win the meet. The move was unsuccessful against the Eagles' stacked relay, which took first to Vineland's second and third, ending the meet with a 96.5-86.5 Egg Harbor Township win.

Oliva was Vineland's only double winner of the meet, taking the 50 freestyle (25.43) and storming late from third place in the 100 free to win in 58.60. Radcliffe won the 200 IM (2:27.90) and took second in the 100 free (58.66). Masilotti (200 free - 2:14.83) and Capriotti (100 fly - 1:08.88) were Vineland's other event winners.

Vineland assistant coach Jack O'Donnell pointed out after the meet his biggest problem with the controvesial call that ended up costing Vineland the meet. O'Donnell consulted the NJSIAA rule book, which stated the policy for place-judging discrepencies. According to O'Donnell, the touchpads and electronic scoreboard has the final say in place-juding unless one of them malfunctions. In the case of a touchbad malfunction, the decision goes to the officials' judgment of placing. If the officials' ruling isnt unanimous, it then goes to the backup timer. The problem with the officials' decision is that they noticed the discrepency between the backup timer and electronic scoreboard and resorted straight to the last end of the chain - the backup timing, despite there being no malfunction in the touchpads.

The Fighting Clan (0-1) will try to put the loss behind them as they travel to Atlantic City Tuesday to take on a very fast Viking team that is looking like the early front-runner to win the Cape Atlantic League American Conference championship. The meet is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.