By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
The boys and girls swimming and diving team hit the lanes for their first competitive meet of the season on Saturday, finishing third out of eight teams overall at the annual Bay Colony Conference Relay Carnival in New Bedford.
Nauset and Barnstable finished first and second, respectively. Nauset earned 152 total points with five first-place finishes among the 12 events. Barnstable racked up 102 points, while the Whalers totaled 74.
“Overall what I pulled from it was that other teams in our league definitely have a lot of swimmers. That is going to be one area especially on the girls side where we will be lacking. We definitely have talent over the other teams, but when we can’t fill lanes and we lose points to people who can just complete the race, that’s where we are going to struggle,” head coach Jim Pignato said.
Nantucket picked up one first-place finish in the boys 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Harrison O’Rourke, Jeremy Schneider, Beau Garufi and Hunter Burnham finished in a meet-record time of 1:42.11.
The Whalers finished second in a close 500-yard freestyle relay battle against Nauset. Haley Cabre, Sam Toole, Ainsley Ellis and Burnham competed in varying legs of 50 yards, 100 yards, 150 yards and 200 yards of freestyle, respectively.
Justine Paradis was the only diver from Nantucket to compete in the diving event. To earn points at the relay carnival, a male and female diver must compete three dives apiece. Nantucket, however, had no male divers. Paradis performed her three dives and earned 81.70 points, which would have put her sixth overall out of nine teams of two divers.
“Justine looked like the most dominating diver there,” Pignato said. “It goes to show you where she is and where she is going to go in the rest of the season.”
The coed relay meet included 12 events: 11 swimming events and one diving event. The girls and boys competed in same-sex 200-yard medley relays and 200-yard freestyle relays. The remaining seven swimming events were mixed gender: 400-yard butterfly, 400-yard breaststroke, 400-yard backstroke, 400-yard medley relay, 400-yard individual medley relay, 400-yard freestyle relay and a 500-yard freestyle relay.
The Whalers open regular season dual-meet competition today against Oliver Ames. On Friday the Whalers will travel to Sandwich where they will compete against three other swimming programs in the inaugural Cape Cod Classic. The Classic is a new addition to the schedule this season and was developed by Pignato and Nauset assistant coach Justin Bohannoa. Nauset, Nantucket, Barnstable and Sandwich will swim the same format as a regular dual meet, with two heats per event to accommodate all of the swimmers.
Reach Allison Goldsmith at sports@inkym.com
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