By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
Ainsley Ellis and Beau Garufi represented Nantucket swimming at the Division II State Championships last weekend and broke three school records between them.
“Overall, I give a lot of credit to both Ainsley and Beau. Being the only people representing their school at their respective meets, you don’t have the team atmosphere anymore to get yourself pumped up to swim and to get that adrenaline going is difficult,” head coach Jim Pignato said. “To be able to break three records is great to see. I think you have to credit that to preparation. We did all the right steps in the weeks leading up to this meet. We try to keep the intensity up as much as possible in practice for them, while the rest of the team is slowing down.”
Garufi capped off a stellar junior season by knocking down two of his own school records. In his first appearance of the meet, Garufi dropped five seconds off his personal-best 200-yard individual medley, finishing sixth in 2:03.79. He had re-set the school mark at 2:08.36 earlier in the season.
“I knew coming into this meet, I could see it in Beau, he was ready to do something good, but he completely blew away my expectations in the two races,” Pignato said.
In the 100-yard breaststroke, Garufi lowered his previous school record of 1:02.92 to 1:00.73. He finished in third place, only .01 seconds behind rival Nauset swimmer Matthias Christensen.
“If it were a 101-yard event, Beau would have won. He caught him on that last 25 and almost out-touched him. But not beating Matthias was completely secondary. The fact that he went one-minute is what really mattered to him,” Pignato said regarding Garufi’s college-level time in the event.
“The results we saw this weekend for him were a credit to what he has done all season long and in the off-season. He swam year-round this year. When you do that preparation and taper properly this is the result you see.”
After breaking two school records in the 100-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke in the South/Central sectional meet the weekend before, Ellis went after the 200-yard freestyle record on Sunday. The senior swimmer set the mark at 2:00.97 in her freshmen year and had not reached it since.
“Coming into this meet, it was our goal to go under two minutes in the 200 free. She swam it a lot this year and we just never could get down under two minutes,” Pignato said.
Ellis was in lane one of a 10-lane pool, but had the added bonus of being next to Duxbury’s Kaitlin Buckley, who eventually won the race. With the fast pace, Ellis swam a career low 1:59.39 and finished in fourth place.
In the 100-yard freestyle Ellis missed the record she had set the week before by only .22 seconds, finishing in a solid sixth place in 55.02.
“That meet capped off a really great, dominating career for her. She has been the backbone, the go-to person for her four years. Filling that void next year is going to be a difficult task,” Pignato said.
|
