By Allison Goldsmith
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Justine Paradis breaks her six dive record in a meet against Coyle-Cassidy on Sunday. |
I&M Sports Editor
The boys swimming and diving team coasted to a dominating victory over a short-handed Coyle-Cassidy squad, 64-16 Sunday at home. The girls team, however, fell to the Warriors 99-84.
The Whalers’ scheduled meet at Sharon on Friday was rescheduled to yesterday, too late for this edition of Sports.
With the victory over Coyle-Cassidy on Sunday, the boys’ team improved to 4-2 overall while the girls fell to 1-4 on the season. Nantucket is scheduled to host Barnstable on Saturday at 1 p.m. and travel to Taunton on Wednesday.
The Whalers picked up one more state qualifying time on Sunday. Sophomore Beau Garufi earned another bid to the state meet with a 2:13.87 personal-best finish in the 200-yard individual medley. It is the second qualifying time for Garufi, who is the only individual member of the boys team to qualify for the state meet so far this season. He has also qualified in the 100-yard breaststroke.
On the girls side, Justine Paradis re-set her previous six-dive Nantucket High School record of 176.55 with a score of 178.1 on Sunday. The junior diver needs one more meet score above 178 points to qualify for the state championships.
Ainsley Ellis bested her previous state-qualifying times in the 200-yard freestyle (2:06.02) and the 100-yard backstroke (1:05.45).
Boys swimming
The boys matched up against only three swimmers from Coyle-Cassidy on Sunday. The opposing swimmers competed in two individual events each, covering only six of the 11 total events. Nantucket, which stopped calculating its points after the 100-yard butterfly event, swept first, second and third place in every event except the 100-yard breaststroke. Even in that event, the Coyle-Cassidy swimmer was disqualified and did not earn any points toward the Warriors total of 16 points.
“They only brought over three boys. I let the guys pick their own events. I wanted some kids to get an opportunity to swim something they would never swim or something they would consider swimming,” head coach Jim Pignato said.
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Beau Garufi swims to a first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:05:98 against Coyle-Cassidy on Sunday at home. |
Among the first-place finishes for the Whalers, Henry Farrell, Garufi, Harrison O’Rourke and Parker Graham took top honors in 2:01.64 in the 200-yard medley relay. Hunter Burnham finished first in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:05.81, while Caleb Mitchell took the 50-yard freestyle sprint in 26.15.
Burnham took home his second first-place finish of the meet in the 100-yard butterfly (1:10.58) and freshman Lorne Paterson scored first in the 100-yard freestyle (1:01.83). O’Rourke cracked the six-minute mark in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:51.85 and picked up another
individual first in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:07.20.
Will Martin put up a strong 1:15.12 finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, Pignato said.
Girls swimming
The girls loss to Coyle-Cassidy was the first to the Warriors in Pignato’s four-year tenure as head coach.
“It is same story with girls. We have the talent but we don’t have the numbers. It starts to get frustrating when you start to get beaten by teams that don’t have a lot of talent,” he said. “Our kids swam great. They know what kind of situation they are walking into each meet. They know they don’t have the numbers to win, but they swim great each time.”
The Whalers put up a number of personal- and season-best times, and finished first in seven out of 12 events.
“I definitely wanted this one. This was one we needed in order to stay above .500 and we didn’t get it. Having those extra few kids, it is an easily-won meet. For them to just put anyone up and score a point in those events, it is just frustrating,” Pignato said.
Despite the lack of depth, the Whalers were still mathematically eligible to win the meet as late as the 100-yard backstroke. But with first- and third-place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke, Coyle-Cassidy knocked Nantucket out of contention.
In addition to Ellis’ two personal best times, Meaghan Lynch posted a personal best in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:22.45 and Haley Cabre picked up a season-best time in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:37.50.
Ashley Martin earned first-place finishes in the 50-yard freestyle (27.87) and the 100-yard freestyle (1:02.84).
Junior diver Tiffany Lee scored a season-high 132.10 points to earn second place in the diving event. The one-two finish ahead of the Coyle-Cassidy diver pulled the Whalers to within nine points at the halfway mark of the meet. Lee, who scored 17.75 points higher than in her last meet, included a reverse one-somersault dive she had learned at practice the day before.
Reach Allison Goldsmith at sports@inkym.com
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