By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
The boys and girls swimming and diving teams picked up easy wins over first-year program and Bay Colony Conference opponent Bridgewater-Raynham Saturday.
The girls team improved to 2-2 overall and 2-1 in the league with a 79-60 victory, while the boys team improved to 4-1 overall and a perfect 3-0 in the league with a convincing 38-10 win.
Monday’s non-league match-up against Sharon was postponed due to inclement weather. Three meets so far this season have been postponed and not yet rescheduled. Nevertheless, the boys squad is in the running for the Bay Colony Conference title, with two remaining conference matches against Taunton and perennial league-leader Nauset.
On tap this Saturday, Nantucket will host the Bay Colony Conference meet at the Nantucket Community Pool. The diving event will start at 9:15 a.m. to be followed by the swimming competition around noon.
Five conference teams will swim a dual meet format, with multiple heats to accommodate all of the swimmers. In past conference meets, the boys swam everything first and then the girls’ teams competed.
“It is great for Nantucket to be able to host this. We haven’t hosted this meet in about 10 years. We are always the team that is going away and spending the night in a hotel, so we are not in our own beds, which I find is very important. Now it’s at our home pool, so we have that competitive edge,” head coach Jim Pignato said.
The following Saturday, Feb. 9, has been cleared as a make-up date in case of bad weather.
Battle at B-R
Against Bridgewater-Raynham last Saturday, the Whalers matched up against a first-year program with low numbers. The boys team had only one swimmer, while the girls had 10 to go up against the experienced Nantucket squad.
“This is a first-year program and I believe it is parent-run and funded right now because of MIAA rules. Their coach has a lot of enthusiasm. I know they have strong athletics elsewhere, so hopefully they can get swimming up there,” Pignato said.
On the boys side, Nantucket was swimming without a full complement of its own, but took advantage of the situation.
“It was a tough meet. We only had 10 boys. We were missing a few, but we used the opportunity to get personal best times. We set up some races amongst ourselves and the kids responded pretty well to it,” Pignato said.
Beau Garufi swam another solid meet for the Whalers, qualifying for the sectionals in the 100-yard freestyle in 53.63 and put out a decent time in the 200-yard freestyle (1:57.93).
Jeremy Schneider swam a personal best in the 50-yard freestyle in 25.19 and Lorne Paterson had two strong swims in his first-ever 500-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:21.22).
Bridgewater-Raynham’s only swimmer, Doug Hall, finished second in the 50-yard freestyle in 26.87 and third in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:26.53.
On the girls side, the Whalers swept all 11 first-place finishes.
“The score does not represent how the meet was going. We went to exhibition (not counting the scores once the meet is out of hand) fairly early. It was the same focus on the girls side, just trying to swim for personal bests and creating match-ups within our team,” Pignato said.
Ashley Martin and Theresa Head fell just short of the sectional qualifying time in the 100-yard freestyle (1:02.00), a mark they are aiming to reach at this weekend’s championship meet. Briana Vittorini swam the 500-yard freestyle for the first time ever and finished first in 6:30.75. Ellie Smith also swam the 500-yard freestyle and continued to shave seconds off her personal-best time for a new low of 6:50.47.
Carly Jensen took two individual first-place finishes in the 200-yard individual medley (2:37.50) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:23.78).
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