The Friday night swimming events were dominated by two triple gold medal winners from Providence to help them win the meet at Clark University. The Varantians scored 62 points, which was 21 points more than Greater Boston. A resurgent Philadelphia team ended up in third with 34 points, and Detroit scored 22 points. North Andover took fifth place with eight ahead of Middlesex West’s five points. New Jersey and Granite City completed the chapter scoring with three and one points, respectively.

Women’s SwimmingHigh scorer Courtney Boghosian (Providence) (Photo: Mark Gavoor)Courtney Boghosian from Providence won three events competing in her first Olympics. The senior at Lincoln High School placed second in both the 200 and 500-yard freestyles in the 2022 Rhode Island State High School Championships. Boghosian is also a member of the Gators swim club boasting top times of 25.37 and 54.10 in the 50 and 100 freestyle as well as 28.60 and 59.64 in the 50 and 100 backstroke. She started off by winning the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.59, which was just an arm reach ahead of Alique Stepanian from Greater Boston. Stepanian also swims for the Gator club (at a different location) and has posted a 25.83 in the 50 free, so a close race was expected. Philadelphia’s Stella Babaian placed third in this event. Boghosian next took the 50 backstroke in 29.25 while Noemie Semerjian (Philadelphia) edged out Beiyna Chaparian of Greater Boston for second. Boghosian won her third gold in the 100 freestyle with a time of 58.22. Babaian won the silver ahead of Nora Vartanian (Greater Boston). The first event on Friday was the 25-yard freestyle, and it was also the closest race of the evening. Stepanian touched out last year’s champion Natalia Oganesian (Providence) by 0.17 seconds with a time of 12.11. Vartanian won the bronze. Stepanian won her second gold by edging Oganesian again in the 25 butterfly touching in 12.93 seconds. New Jersey’s Ani Kelly placed third in that event. Oganesian was able to grab a gold in the 50-yard breaststroke in 37.35 seconds. Nyrie Bouloutian from Philadelphia and Araz Dulgarian of Middlesex West won silver and bronze, respectively. Finally, the girls 4×25 freestyle relay saw Greater Boston win the title with a time of 57.00, just ahead of Providence and Philadelphia. The winning women’s 100 relay team from Greater Boston: Alique Stepanian, Nora Vartanian, Anoush Krafian and Beiyna Chaparian (Photo: Arev Kaligian)Men’s and Co-Ed SwimmingGor Bagumyan (Providence) starts strong in the 50 yard butterfly (Photo: Arev Kaligian)In the men’s events, second year swimmer Gor Bagumyan took three golds in fairly easy fashion. Bagumyan had the unusual advantage of swimming at his college pool with his coach looking on. At Clark, Bagumyan has put up top times of 21.45 in the 50-yard freestyle and 46.68 in the 100. He started by winning the 50 freestyle in 23.44 which was a body length ahead of Detroit’s Armen Vartanian and Vahe Kzelian from Philadelphia. Bagumyan beat the same two swimmers in the 50-yard backstroke touching the wall in 30.56, but this time Kzelian won the silver. The Varantian flash won his third gold in the 50 butterfly with a time of 26.53. Vartanian finished in second once again, and Sebu Najarian of Greater Boston took the bronze. Najarian had earlier taken first in the 100-yard freestyle in 1:12.34 with Alex Movsessian (North Andover) and Daron Pogharian (Philadelphia) behind. The 50 breaststroke was a close race as North Andover’s Richard Minasian edged Garnik Khararjian from Philadelphia in 43.00. Matthew Boghossian of Providence placed third in the event.

The first men’s swimming relay was the 200-yard medley where Detroit won in 2:17.22, while Providence and Philadelphia grabbed the next two places. Detroit later took the 200 freestyle relay clocking 1:55.00. Providence came from behind to top Greater Boston for second place.

The co-ed relays were the final two events of the competition. The Providence 4 x 50-yard freestyle team shattered the AYF record with a time of 1:50.61. David Ayrassian joined Bagumyan, Boghosian and Oganesian to break the old record that Greater Boston set last year by over six seconds. The same quartet then set a mark of 2:06.92 by winning the newly added 4×50 medley relay. Greater Boston and Philadelphia placed second and third