Historic Day for Williston Swimmers

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The girls swim team traveled to Rhode Island over the weekend and captured their first NEPSAC title in team history, scoring a record 431 points on route to a convincing victory over two-time defending champion Dana Hall.  Each and every member of the team recorded personal best times on the weekend and the atmosphere was electric.  The meet opened with the 200 Medley Relay team of Sally Alrutz, Natalie Aquadro, Maya Soley, and Anabelle Farnham setting the pace with a win in a new meet and school record time of 1:52.13.  In the second event of the meet, the 200 Freestyle, Anabelle Farnham and Emily Yeager swam to a second and a fourth place finish respectively and the team was in a great position after the first two events.  Natalie Aquadro picked up a bronze medal in the 200 IM, making it three years in a row that she had made the podium in this event.  The 50 freestyle saw ninth grader Annika Johnson emerge as a top sprinter, finishing a strong 4th place with the 16th fastest time in school history.  The diving event was held on Wednesday, but the points were added on Saturday night, as the divers put together a 1,4,6 finish including a school and meet record performance by Gabrielle Mercier scoring 455.45 and qualifying for All-American Consideration.  Sally Alrutz, Maya Soley, and Jasmin Movassaghi followed up in the 100 fly with a 2,7,8 finish and the Wildcats had taken the lead.  Tenth grader Anabelle Farnham then swam to a second place finish in the 100 freestyle with the fourth fastest time in school history.   The race of the night, however, came in the longest event of the meet, the 500 freestyle.  Trailing at the midway point, tenth grader Maya Soley overtook the defending champion in the event down the stretch to win her first individual NEPSAC title after dropping her best time over 10 seconds to finish with a winning time of 5:24.96.  The team of Annika Johnson, Jasmin Movassaghi, Emily Yeager, and Maya Soley then put together a 2nd place finish in the 200 Freestyle Relay.  As the meet was drawing to a close and the result still in doubt, the final events were riveting.  Ninth grader Sally Alrutz won her third individual NEPSAC title winning the 100 backstroke, followed by a strong 10th place finish by senior Leeanna Albanese.  The breaststrokers then took over to seal the victory for the Wildcats.  Natalie Aquadro led the way with a second place finish marking the fourth year in a row she has finished either first or second in this event.  She was followed by Sabrina Liew in 8th and Skylar Nieman in 10th place and their 35 combined points put the meet out of reach for the rest of the schools.  The final event of the night saw the team of Sally Alrutz, Emily Yeager, Natalie Aquadro, and Anabelle Farnham convincingly win the 400 freestyle relay in a school record time of 3:40.59 to close out an incredible night of swimming.

The boys swimmers had plenty of highlights on the night as they swam to a 5th place finish in a very competitive meet.  Junior David Fitch was named the Babcock Award winner as the Outstanding Performer of the meet as he put together school and meet record performances in the 50 Freestyle (21.10) and 100 Freestyle (46.88).  Fitch’s time in the 100 Freestyle qualifies him for All-American consideration.  The 200 Freestyle Relay team of Calvin Frye, Chris Lansill, Mark Wei, and David Fitch took home the NEPSAC title in thrilling fashion as Fitch entered the water in third place and anchored the relay in a blistering 20.40 seconds, the fastest relay split in team history.  The 400 Freestyle Relay team of Calvin Frye, Jason Albanese, Chris Lansill, and David Fitch also made the podium with an impressive third place finish.  Every boy on the team scored points and swam great as the team looks to build on a strong performance heading into the offseason.

– David Koritkoski

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