By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
The girls and boys swimming and diving team split the final home dual meet of the season Saturday against Barnstable. The boys finished strong and defeated the Red Raiders 101-75, while the girls fell behind early, ultimately losing 88-54.
Tuesday’s final regular season dual meet at Nauset was postponed due to inclement weather and rescheduled for Wednesday, too late for this edition of Sports.
The Whaler boys, who improved to 5-1 overall with the victory over Barnstable Saturday, should ultimately finish second in the Bay Colony Conference behind Sandwich, which wrapped up a perfect 7-0 league mark this week. The girls fell to 0-4-1 overall.
Both teams will attend the Bay Colony Conference Championships this weekend. It will be the final opportunity for swimmers to qualify in individual and relay events for the upcoming sectional and state championship meets. Nantucket divers will compete at Sandwich Friday afternoon and then Sunday the boys teams will swim first at 10:30 a.m. followed by the girls at 2:30 p.m. also at Sandwich.
Saturday against Barnstable, the Red Raiders boys team kept the meet close through the early events and even into the second half. But the Whalers swept four first-place finishes down the stretch to take the victory.
“I think it was a great meet overall for us. We put some kids in events they wouldn’t normally swim,” head coach Jim Pignato said, adding that he stacked the final events of the meet to ensure victory.
Among the top swims Saturday, senior Trevor Lockley qualified for state championship meet with a personal best in the 100-yard backstroke, taking first in 1:01.82. He was the only individual swimmer other than senior Beau Garufi to qualify for the state meet since Henry Butler qualified in the same event in 2005.
“Trevor has made this a goal of his from the beginning of the season and he has just been shaving seconds off every time he swims,” Pignato said. “This was the third-fastest time we have ever had on our team (in the 100-yard backstroke).
With that said, there is still a lot of room for improvement. He could clean up his stroke, he could work on his turns and that time could drop even more.”
Garufi also swam season bests Saturday, topping the 200-yard individual medley (2:06.18) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.34). Lorne Paterson swam a season best in the 50-yard freestyle, taking first in 24.55, and Sam Toole also notched a season best in the 100-yard butterfly (1:07.63).
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Henry Toole, Henry Farrell, Lockley and Garufi finished in a season-low 3:53.53.
Sophomore Sean Fitzgibbon dropped two and a half seconds off his 100-yard freestyle to take second in 57.42. John Higgins and Ray DeCosta filled in for the Whalers in the 200-yard freestyle to earn valuable points. The additional 10 points from divers Will Lendway (147.45) and Gaven Norton (106.85) were key in holding off the Red Raiders.
Seeing red
The girls team was overmatched by the larger and faster Red Raiders squad, but still swam on pace with their better times this season. Despite failing to pick up a single win, and losing top swimmer Carly Jensen to injury midway through the meet, the Whalers notched three season-best finishes and swam well across the board.
“We had a pretty decent meet in terms of our times,” Pignato said.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Ellie Smith, Katelyn Zieff, Jesse Lang and Merrill McCluskey lowered the team’s sectional-qualifying time to 1:57.56, earning a second-place finish. Lang also swam a season best in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:14.58 and Smith swam a season low in the 100-backstroke 1:18.26.
The Whalers are still looking to qualify some individual swimmers in events by the end of the season. Pignato stacked the 50-yard freestyle with his fastest sprinters Saturday in the hope of picking up a new low time against the top Barnstable sprinters. Jensen (28.78), Merrill McCluskey (29.14) and Zieff (30.00) came up short of the 27.90 cutoff, while Barnstable’s Casey Ostrander took the event in 25.76.
|
