By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
It was victory across the board for the Whalers swimming and diving teams in their opening dual meet against Oliver Ames last Thursday. The girls squad won 92-83, while the boys came out on top 87-52.
Also this week, Nantucket participated in the inaugural Cape Cod Classic and each team finished in third place. The girls placed behind Barnstable and Nauset, while the boys were behind Nauset and Sandwich and in front of Barnstable. Both teams missed out on points from the final relay event because they had to leave early to catch the boat.
The Whalers (1-0 girls, 1-0 boys) will now take a hiatus from competition until after the holiday break, when Holliston will be on-island Saturday, Jan. 6 for the first home meet of the season.
In the first week of the season both girls and boys swimmers and divers put up postseason qualifying results.
“It was nice to actually swim in a dual meet. Our first meet was the relay carnival which is more of a team focus. In the dual meets, we start to look at individuals on the team more. Overall it was positive. Definitely coming away with two wins is a great way to start the season,” head coach Jim Pignato said.
Among the individual results, Justine Paradis broke her own standing six-dive record with a score of 176.55 against Oliver Ames, topping the mark of 164.55 she set as a freshman. The junior diver added a first-place finish with 161.45 points at the Cape Cod Classic on Friday. The two scores over 160 points qualified her for the sectional meet in February.
Haley Cabre also qualified for the sectional meet in the 100-yard butterfly (1:13.15) during the Classic and Ainsley Ellis qualified in the 100-yard backstroke (1:08.21) against Oliver Ames. Ellis also qualified for the state meet in the 200-yard freestyle (2:07.16) and 100-yard freestyle (58.13) events, both at the Classic.
Harrison O’Rourke qualified for the 100-yard butterfly with a 1:01.50 mark against Oliver Ames and Beau Garufi earned a trip to the state meet in the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:07.99, also against Oliver Ames.
Boys swimming
The boys swim team matched up against a much smaller squad in Oliver Ames last Thursday. The Whalers took full advantage, posting 10 first-place finishes out of 11 events, including four sweeps of first, second and third place.
“We definitely out-numbered them. I didn’t put a very aggressive line-up forward. I had everyone swimming three times to get exposure to our new kids. I wanted to get them into more individual events and get the more swims,” Pignato said.
O’Rourke and Garufi picked up where they left off last season with strong first-place finishes in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard breaststroke events, respectively. Garufi also finished first in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:22.38. Jeremy Schneider earned a first in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:14.32 and Sam Toole took first in the 100-yard freestyle in 57.96. Freshman Henry Toole had a strong first meet with a second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:14.32.
At the inaugural Cape Cod Classic, the boys swim team was up against three other swim teams. The Whalers finished with 70.50 points, good for third behind Nauset (113.50) and Sandwich (88).
“Overall it was a really good experience for all the Cape schools to get this off and running. Being the first year there were some glitches, but as we get more used to it, it will become a bigger tradition. We are planning on doing it next year,” Pignato said.
“On the boys side we put a more aggressive line-up forward, putting the top swimmers in the maximum amount of events they could have. The final score isn’t really reflective because we had to leave to catch the boat. We definitely had a lot of our best swimmers in that last relay. If we could have stuck around, I think they boys would have caught Sandwich and finished second.”
Among the individual finishes, O’Rourke finished second in the 50-yard freestyle in 24.20, just short of the first-place finisher, Tim McGrath of Barnstable, who touched the wall at 24.17. O’Rourke got his revenge in the 100-yard freestyle with a first-place finish over McGrath 54.48 to 54.70. Henry Toole and Garufi took second in the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard breaststroke, respectively.
Girls swimming
Despite low numbers for the girls swimming and diving team this season, the Whalers used their depth across the board to earn the win over Oliver Ames. Nantucket took 10 of 12 first-place finishes.
“It was a very close meet. This was the closest Oliver Ames has ever really gotten to us,” Pignato said. “We had an early disqualification that made the meet closer than it should have been, so we were really bouncing back from that.”
The meet was tied at 66 points apiece following the 200-yard freestyle relay. First-place points from Ellis in the 100-yard backstroke and Meaghan Lynch in the 100-yard breaststroke put the Whalers on top heading in to the final relay. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Ashley Martin, Janeen Manghis, Cabre and Ellis took first place to seal the meet.
Among the other first-place finishes against Oliver Ames, Ellis took first in the 200-yard freestyle (2:13.72), Martin took first in the 50-yard freestyle (28.16) and the 500-yard freestyle (6:26.58) and Cabre earned a first place in the 100-yard butterfly (1:13.94).
“We were definitely a stronger team, but their numbers kept it close,” Pignato said. “They definitely did well. We put our best meet line-up forward. It definitely was not where I thought we would be in terms of times. We are a little slower than where I would like to be right now.”
At the Cape Cod Classic, the Whalers’ lack of numbers hurt their final point totals.
“Three people could score from each team. That hurts us as a team when we only have nine swimmers and the other team is coming in with 20 swimmers,” Pignato said.
Ellis earned valuable points for the Whalers with a first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle and a third-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle. Paradis earned first-place points in the diving event with a 20-point margin of victory over Mollie Flaherty of Nauset.
Reach Allison Goldsmith at sports@inkym.com
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