Date: Fri 03-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Caragh-Reilly-Feature

Full Text:

Caragh Reilly Feature

" It seems like a storybook ending, " said Caragh Reilly. " I was kind of

worried that I would get to the last meet and still not have broken the

record. Sometimes pressure like that can make you swim worse. But I'm happy

that I've already broken it and now I can try and do even better. "

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

If time is simply a bridge that links one moment to another, one event to

another, then Caragh Reilly had been standing before a bridge just .18 seconds

long . . . a bridge she desperately wanted to cross because of what was on the

other side.

The .18 seconds was just a fragment of time. An eye blink. A flicker. A tiny

crystal in the shifting sands of time. Yet it was still a tough bridge to

cross, tougher and longer than she expected. But after paying the tolls with

her sweat, her frustrations, and her disappointments, she finally crossed it.

And on the other side was the thing she had been seeking for two years - the

record. With a spectacular 1:02.15 finish in the 100-yard backstroke in

Newtown High School's 102-84 victory over Weston last week, senior Caragh

Reilly - in her final regular season meet - broke the five-year-old record

owned by former team captain Susie White, now swimming with the Ohio State

Buckeyes. " That was great, " said NHS coach Joanne Johnson. " She has worked

very hard this year and it was nice to see her get it. "

A Close Finish

Had the meet not been so big and had the competition in the next lane not been

so keen, then this story might have a different angle and a much different

focus. But Newtown was squaring off with one of its arch-rivals, Weston, and a

victory over the Lady Trojans would not only five the Lady Indians an 8-4

record, but legitimize all the promise the team has shown through the season,

and Caragh Reilly was swimming against Kendra Johnson, one of the premier

backstrokers in the South-West Conference.

The plot-line and the motivation of the characters were in place. All this

story needed was a climactic finish.

And here it was.

The two swimmers matched each other stroke for stroke, but through the first

75 yards Johnson managed to pull slightly ahead. It was at the final turn and

the final 25 yards, though, that Caragh seemed to strive even harder for the

finish and even though she touched the wall just .24 seconds after Johnson,

the record was hers.

" I didn't really think I was going to do it before I shaved and tapered, "

Caragh admitted. " But I knew that it would be tough competition because I was

going up against Kendra Johnson, so I knew that it was going to be a tough

race, but I had no idea I was going to go that fast. "

Caragh's previous best in the 100 back was 1:02.41, .18 seconds off the mark,

but her 1995 best before the Weston meet was 1:04.34, a full 2.11 seconds off

the record.

" It has a lot to do with the competition, " said Caragh. " When I swim

against Kendra, she pushes you to go a lot faster and that helps. I was really

excited. I had no idea I was going that fast and it was kind of overwhelming.

It was such a nice way to end the season. "

A Short Career

Even though Caragh began swimming competitively, and in earnest, when she was

a freshman at Newtown High, she actually got a brief taste of the sport a few

years before, swimming with Newtown FAST (Fairfield Area Swim Team) in her

fourth and fifth grade.

But she left the sport for three years while at the Newtown Middle School and

only when she was ready for her first year of high school did she come across

the idea again.

She had been thinking about playing field hockey, like her sister, Meg, but a

lot of Caragh's friends were thinking about swimming. Decisions, decisions -

but she made the choice and was glad.

" I was hooked pretty soon, " she said. " I loved it. "

Caragh has seen four coaches in her four years with Newtown High School and in

that first year it was John Abrami, who, at the time, was also coaching FAST.

Coach Abrami had Caragh swimming the breaststroke early on, but quickly moved

her to the backstroke where she began improving almost from the second race

on. Her first 100 yards was marked at 1:16, but in her last meet she qualified

for the CIAC state meet with a 1:12. In that meet, however, after shaving and

tapering, she dropped to a 1:08.

" I was so ecstatic that I went 1:08 that I didn't think I could go any

faster, " Caragh remembered. " But by then I was so hooked on the sport and I

wanted to swim year round to see what I could do. "

Her off-season work with FAST had the right effect on her, too, because in her

first meet as a sophomore she shaved two more seconds off her personal best

and came in at 1:06.

" I think part of it was the training, " she said. " When I started swimming

with FAST, I started putting a lot more yardage in the pool. And since John

Abrami was my high school coach, too, it was a lot easier to train in the

off-season. "

She was still better than four seconds off the record her former teammate had

set and had no reason to search the record board, looking for a way to etch

her name next to some of the school's best, but when she shaved and tapered

for the CIAC meet that year and finished 1:02.41, she had her reason.

" When I did a 1:02.41 I started looking at the board because I realized I was

only .18 off the record, " Caragh admitted. " But my race felt so good when I

went 1:02 that I didn't know how I would go faster than that. "

After two years of trying, though, she really began to wonder.

" I was disappointed with my junior season, " she admitted, " because I really

wanted to break the record then and when I didn't I kind of got discouraged

with swimming. But I stuck with it and decided to see how things went my last

year. I came in thinking I would be a little farther along, but I didn't know

how things would go. It sure turned out alright, though. "

Caragh swam a 1:03 in her junior season, not shaved or tapered, and staying

close to the mark gave her one reason to continue.

Her parents gave her the second.

" My parents are very supportive and very motivational, " Caragh said. " I

appreciate that. A lot of times when I'm feeling down or in a slump and my

times aren't getting any faster, they're there and they know what I'm going

through. "

She did well enough a year ago that she finished third in the 100 breast at

the Western Connecticut Conference meet. And even with the dissolving of the

WCC and the formation of the South-West Conference, Caragh, who is suffering

from some rotator cuff tendinitis, has set some higher goals for 1995.

" I'd to take first or second, " she said, " and maybe go under a minute. It's

a very high goal, but, hey, you can dream. I have to be very on. My start has

to be just right and my turns have to be just right for it to happen. "

To Do It All Over

When Caragh looks at the success the Lady Indians have had in 1995 (an 8-4

record, 7-3 in the SWC) and looks at some of the reasons why the team has been

so successful - the freshmen, most of whom have been swimming for years - she

has to wonder what would have happened had she not given up swimming in the

fifth grade.

" I think about it almost every day, " she admitted. " It's a little

disappointing, to think I could have been going this fast a little earlier in

my career and maybe now I'd be going under a minute, but it wasn't ready for

me at the time and I wasn't ready for competitive swimming. I can't say,

really, what would have happened. Maybe I wouldn't have been happy. Burnout is

a big consideration, because at the end of last year I started feeling a

little burned out. "

It's a tough discipline, with practices six days a week . . . three times,

going twice-a-day.

" Swimming can put a lot of stress on you, " Caragh said, " especially if you

have morning practices. You go into school already a little bit tired and then

all day you're thinking you have to get back in the pool. It's a tiring,

stressful thing, but if you love it it's all worthwhile. "

And Caragh loves it, but as to why she loves it . . . well?

" I have yet to find the answer to that question, " she admitted. " I don't

know why and I can't pinpoint one reason why I love it, but I keep going. "

And going faster . . . maybe two seconds faster when the SWC and CIAC meets

are all over.

But since this storybook is written, that would have to be a sequel.