Date: Fri 08-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Quick Words:

Girls-Swimming-Third-SWC

Full Text:

Lady Swimmers Third In SWC - 1996

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

SOUTHBURY - It wasn't a matter of first place - Lauralton Hall, after all,

already had dibs on that - but for the Newtown High School swim team the

South-West Conference swim championship was a matter of second place.

The Lady Nighthawks already considered themselves one of the three best teams

in the SWC . . . alongside Lauralton Hall, which routed Newtown, and New

Fairfield, which nipped Newtown in its final relay.

Third belonged to the Lady Nighthawks.

What they wanted, though, was second.

But a weak showing in the 200 freestyle relay - after putting three swimmers

in the top six of the 500 freestyle - and a lack of high qualifiers in the 100

backstroke kept Newtown in New Fairfield's wake and so the Lady Nighthawks did

indeed finish third.

"We thought we might have a shot at second," said sophomore Jaime Ryan, who

broke two SWC meet records (200 and 500 free) and was allowed to keep her name

on one (200 free). "If we had placed higher in one or two events, we might

have been able to do it, but we went out there thinking we could take second

place."

The Lady Nighthawks finished behind New Fairfield last year, as well, but over

the course of 12 months had narrowed the gap considerably. The Lady Rebels, in

fact, finished just 31 points ahead of the Lady Nighthawks.

"We knew we would be a lot closer to New Fairfield this year," said sophomore

Jessica Carino, who finished third in the 500 freestyle. "It wasn't exactly

where we hoped to be. Second would have been awesome."

Lauralton Hall, a new powerhouse, finished first with 525 points, putting the

meet in the bank early and breaking the stranglehold the Lady Rebels held on

the throat of area swimming over the last several years. New Fairfield then

took second with 345 points with Newtown taking third at 314 points. Falling a

distant fourth, behind Newtown, was Weston with 214 points.

The Lady Nighthawks remained well ahead of Weston, just a week or so after

swamping the Lady Trojans in their own pool during the regular season, and had

that crack at second place because of the swims of athletes like Ryan and

Carino and Kari Fisher, who finished third in the 200 individual medley, and

tri-captain Becky Crane, who finished second in diving.

Breaking Records

Jaime Ryan might only be a sophomore, but already she is becoming an SWC

superstar.

As a freshman, she set a conference record in the 100 backstroke (broken this

year by Ashley Rader of Lauralton Hall) and as a sophomore she broke two more

conference records in the 200 and 500 freestyle events.

She only got to keep one of them, though, because Danielle Muraca of New

Fairfield also broke the same conference records, finishing behind Ryan in the

200 free and ahead of her in the 500 free.

It was an almost epic tussle between two of the conference's best

freestylists.

In the 200, Ryan - who never did better than a 1:58.89 (a Newtown High pool

record) - was pushed hard by Muraca and just touched out the New Fairfield

swimmer by .16 seconds . . . 1:57.60 to 1:57.76.

"That was the hardest I ever swam," said Ryan, "so I was really happy. It was

my best time by over a second. We swim different races, but she was really

pushing me at the end."

In the 500, Ryan and Muraca were matching stroke for stroke, but Muraca began

pulling away in the final 150 yards. At the last turn, Muraca had about a

stroke lead and finish a body length ahead - 5:12.40 to 5:14.00 for Ryan.

"I kind of knew how she was going to swim (the 500 free)," said Ryan, "and I

tried to swim her race, which was probably why I lost it. I usually got out a

lot faster than I did."

Great Swims

The young swimmers are making their mark.

Freshman Kari Fisher and sophomore Jessica Carino and freshman Sarah Lux made

a pretty big impact for Newtown at the SWC meet.

Fisher went into the meet ranked fifth in the 200 individual medley and was

the only swimmer in the championship heat to improve on her seeded time,

taking third overall in 2:23.56.

Carino was one of three Newtown swimmers in the final heat of the 500 free and

she moved from being a fourth seed (which was by a mere .01 of a second) to a

third-place finisher by shattering her seeded time of 5:56.85 by over seven

seconds (to 5:49.82).

"I was real excited about that," said Carino. "I saw I was seeded fourth, but

seeing some of the girls around me, I knew I had to go hard."

Lux was also in the championship heat of the 500 free, seeded fifth, and

although she fell off her seeded time by about a half-second, fifth was where

she finished in 5:59.06.

Crane, meanwhile, went into the diving finals ranked second behind Sara

Mastropole of Lauralton Hall and although the final three dives did not go as

well as she hoped, she still finished second with 302.15 points.

Mastropole took first with a new SWC record of 379.15 points.

Sophomore Megan Lynch took eighth overall with 234.50 points and freshman

Brianna Littlejohn was ninth (up from a pre-final rank of 11th) with 210.20

points.

In one of the final surprises for Newtown, sophomore Liz Sovern took third in

the 100 breaststroke, moving up from her fourth seed, with a time of 1:16.65 -

five seconds behind Ashley Rader of Lauralton Hall, who took first in 1:11.20

and broke Ryan's SWC record of 1:11.47.

Newtown had other good swims and other good finishes and put the finishing

touches on a fine SWC season in which the Lady Nighthawks were 10-3.

Still, there is more to go.

"The regular season was really good," said Carino, "but we still have the

states and we have a shot to be in the top four after being sixth last year."

The CIAC Class L trials will be held this weekend, with the finals scheduled

for next Tuesday.

SWC meet results:

200 medley relay - 1. Lauralton Hall A, 1:55.07 ; 2. New Fairfield A, 1:55.09

; 3. Pomperaug, 1:59.05; 4. Weston, 2:03.16; 5. Masuk A, 2:09.25; 6. Bunnell

A, 2:10.01. Others - Newtown B, 2:14.43; Newtown C, 2:22.19.

200 freestyle - 1. Jaime Ryan (N), 1:57.60 ; 2. Danielle Muraca (NF), 1:57.76

; 3. Amanda Torske (LH), 2:04.45; 4. Kristyn Sayball (F), 2:06.45; 5. Missy

Melin (LH), 2:11.02; 6. Alicia Dimond (NF), 2:11.03. Others - 9. Jessica

Carino (N), 2:11.70; 26. Liz Sovern (N), 2:25.63; 27. Susan Anderson, 2:26.55.

200 individual medley - 1. Darby Golino (LH), 2:18.90; 2. Kristen Hanner (NF),

2:19.20; 3. Kari Fisher (N), 2:23.56; 4. Kerry Kennedy (W), 2:24.10; 5. Ashley

Rader (LH), 2:24.73; 6. Stephanie Nickse (N), 2:25.81. Others - 9. Kate Ryan

(N), 2:30.67; 12. Moira Curran, 2:33.11.

50 freestyle - 1 (tie). Patricia Finnerty (NF) and Martha Kroll (LH), 25.52;

2. Kelly Colburn, 25.72; 3. Christina Hauschild (NF), 25.85; 4. Sarah

Humphreys (LH), 26.18; 5. Michelle Baskerville (M), 27.11. Others - 8. Sara

Leddy (N), 27.19; 17. Lauren Coulter (N), 28.76; 37. Lauren Kalb, 30.01.

Diving - 1. Sara Mastropole (LH), 379.15 points ; 2. Becky Crane (N), 302.15;

3. Lacey Coyle (F), 282.35; 4. Caroline Close (JL), 282.15; 5. Annie

Tomasiewicz (LH), 273.40; 6. Kate Lundon (LH), 271.40. Others - 8. Megan Lynch

(N), 234.50; 9. Brianna Littlejohn (N), 210.20.

100 butterfly - 1. Amelia Finnerty (NF), 1:00.06; 2. Kristin Sayball (F),

1:02.28; 3. Shannon McInnis (LH), 1:03.87; 4. Chloe Kregling (LH), 1:04.32; 5.

Amanda Torske (LH), 1:04.51; 6. Sarah Humphreys (LH), 1:05.02. Others - 7.

Kari Fisher (N), 1:05.87; 8. Moria Curran (N), 1:07.99; Kate Ryan (N),

1:11.92; Lydia Raub (N), 1:17.78.

100 freestyle - 1. Martha Kroll (LH), 55.50; 2. Patricia Finnerty (NF), 55.56;

3. Kerry Kennedy (W), 56.43; 4. Kelly Colburn (P), 57.11; 5. Christina

Hauschild (NF), 57.78; 6. Sara Leddy (N), 59.96. Others - Lauren Coulter (N),

1:03.45; Lisa Zinn (N), 1:04.25.

500 freestyle - 1. Danielle Muraca (NF), 5:12.40 ; 2. Jaime Ryan (N), 5:14.00;

3. Jessica Carino (N), 5:49.82; 4. Sarah Brown (W), 5:54.37; 5. Kristin Rzasa

(LH), 5:56.05; 6. Sarah Lux (N), N), 5:59.05. Others - Susan Anderson,

6:30.00.

200 freestyle relay - 1. New Fairfield A, 1:44.63 ; 2. (tie) Newtown A and

Pomperaug A, 1:46.24; 3. Lauralton Hall A, 1:47.18; 4. Masuk A, 1:55.95; 5.

Jonathan Law A, 1:57.10.

100 backstroke - 1. Amelia Finnerty (NF), 1:02.76; 2. Darby Golino (LH),

1:03.12; 3. Kristin Hanner (NF), 1:03.34; 4. Meghan Maguia (LH), 1:05.07; 5.

Meredith Clayton (LH), 1:05.53; 6. Shannon McInnis (LH), 1:06.11. Others - 7.

Stephanie Nickse (N), 1:07.34; Laura Ermini, 1:15.36; Alyson Nickse, 1:19.08.

100 breaststroke - 1. Ashley Rader (LH), 1:11.28; 2. Missy Melin (LH),

1:14.64; 3. Liz Sovern (N), 1:16.65; 4. (tie) Caitlin Ryan (LH) and Lauren

Henty (P), 1:18.26; 5. Sarah Lux (N), 1:18.30. Others - Lisa Zinn, 1:23.02;

Lauren Kalb, 1:24.21.

400 freestyle relay - 1. New Fairfield A, 3:47.30; 2. Lauralton Hall A,

3:50.42; 3. Newtown A, 3:52.63; 4. Weston A, 4:08.81; 5. Pomperaug A, 4:10.58;

6. Jonathan Law A, 4:13.59.