Home 'Sweet Home' for Amherst girls swimming
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

The Amherst Central varsity girls swimming team has a new pool for home meets.

Amherst will swim all home meets at Sweet Home High School. Amherst had swam all home meets at Amherst's Middle School pool.

Amherst Central coach Ann Crittenden said the switch was to accommodate six-lane scoring (Amherst Middle School pool has five lanes) and allow junior diver Sarah Masters to score points. The Amherst Middle School pool does not have the necessary resources for diving.

"It's a little bit of an inconvenience for our swimmers but it will benefit us all together," said Crittenden who is joined by coach Kim Skomra.

"They (Amherst) needed help, and we are trying to do what we can to help them," added Sweet Home coach Dan McCarthy.

Amherst practiced until the first week of school at Sweet Home and will practice at the middle school during the season.

Having Masters score diving points at home meets is huge. Masters, who swims with Wings Diving, placed second at last year's ECICs.

"We had her sub in some relays (last year) but it was not a great experience because she's not able to do what she's good at," said Crittenden. "Now she gets a little bit of the spotlight for the home meets and some extra points for us that we can count on."

Crittenden describes Masters as internally motivated with great focus and a good work ethic.

Some of the team's featured swimmers are seniors Brianne Burton and Eva Lankes, who Crittenden said will swim many different events, seniors Kristin Scaringi (distance, middle distance freestyle) and Andrea Pratt (breaststroke) and juniors Michelle Niblock (backstroke, freestyle, butterfly) and Kaelyn Sullivan (breaststroke, middle distance freestyle). Burton, Niblock, Scaringi, and Pratt are captains.

Eighth grader Emma O'Connor will swim butterfly and individual medley once in a while as well as backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle events.

Crittenden said senior Melissa Tschamler has benefited from the team learning "total immersion", a way of swimming that focuses on balance, active streamlining, rhythmic weight shifts, and traction.

Crittenden said team goals are to improve stroke work that should lead to individual improvement and incorporate total immersion to produce stronger swimmers. She also hopes Masters qualifies for the New York State Championships which will be held again at Erie Community College's Burt Flickenger Center Nov. 17-18.

Amherst is classified as a Class A school. They were Class AA.

Amherst Central

2006 Schedule 9-26 at Pioneer............. 4:30 p.m. 9-29 at East (Transit Middle) 6 p.m.

10-3 Iroquois................. 4:30 p.m. 10-10 Maryvale .................. 6 p.m. 10-13 W.S. East ................. 6 p.m. 10-17 at Lake Shore .... 4:30 p.m. 10-19 Cheektowaga .......... 6 p.m. 10-26 ECIC swimming (Sweet Home)................................. 1 p.m. 10-27 ECIC diving (Sweet Home 2 p.m. 10-28 ECIC (Sweet Home) swimming and diving finals ..... 9 a.m. 11-9, 10, 11 Section VI Championships (Erie Community College Aquatic Center)............. TBA

*All home meets are at Sweet Home High School.

Sweet Home

The Lady Panthers' main team goal is pretty simple.

"(We want) to improve our overall team record," said Sweet Home head coach Dan McCarthy.

Sweet Home finished 3-5-1 last year.

McCarthy has an experienced returning group led by senior Bethany Fried, who is on varsity for the fifth straight year. Last fall, Fried qualified for the New York State Championships in the 200and 500-yard freestyle. In addition to those events this season, she will also swim on the 200and 400 free relays. Fried is a captain as are seniors Kelly Lozina and Andrea Bellavia.

"They all bring enthusiasm, leadership, and depth," said McCarthy.

Other key returning swimmers include freshman Paige Gutowski, the school record holder in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke, and sophomore Kaitlin Mergler, who will compete in the 50, 400, and 500 free as well as the 200 free relay. Gutowski was an ECIC and Section VI finalist in the 200 IM and 100 breast. She can also swim in the 200 and 400 free relay.

McCarthy said newcomer freshman Jessica Andriatch, who swam modified, is eager to swim any event.

Sweet Home opened Tuesday at West Seneca West but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press.

Sweet Home 2006 Schedule 9-22 at Orchard Park ....... 5 p.m. 9-26 Hamburg............... 4:45 p.m. 9-29 Jamestown ................ 5 p.m. 10-3 at Clarence........... 4:30 p.m. 10-6 North..................... 4:45 p.m. 10-10 at Frontier............... 5 p.m. 10-13 Lancaster............ 4:30 p.m. 10-26 ECIC swimming (Sweet Home)................................. 1 p.m. 10-27 ECIC diving (Sweet Home 2 p.m. 10-28 ECIC (Sweet Home) swimming and diving finals ..... 9 a.m. 11-9, 10, 11 Section VI Championships (Erie Community College Aquatic Center)............. TBA

Sacred Heart

New coach Kristy Michalek has been gone from Sacred Heart for five years but to her nothing has changed.

"The girls are still so sweet and caring and great to work with," said Michalek, a 2001 grad who earned All-Catholic honors all four years. "The school, Athletics Director, principal and parents have been so supportive and helpful. It's great to see the Sacred Heart community from this kind of perspective. All I knew it was from being a student."

Michalek, who went on to earn Atlantic 10 All-Conference swimming and All-Academic honors at St. Bonaventure University, is joined by Sacred Heart classmate Beth Budniak, an All-Catholic swimmer who attended Niagara University.

Michalek did not have a set lineup as of this writing but felt strong swimmers returning include seniors Caitlyn Fields (butterfly, freestyle), Liz Subjeck (distance), and Sarah Savattieri (backstroke, freestyle, relays) as well as sophomores Laura Savattieri (breaststroke) and Christina Ruggiero (individual medley).

Subjeck, Fields, and Ruggiero placed second at last year's

All-Catholics in the 200 free, 100 fly, and 500 free, respectively. Fields, Laura and Sarah Savattieri and Subjeck were second in the 200 free relay. Laura Savattieri and the 400 free relay of Fields, Ruggiero, Jessica Cichochi, and Subjeck came in third. Sacred Heart finished third overall with 293 points.

Fields, Sarah Savattieri, Subjeck, Michelle Rua and Jessica Lauer are team captains. Michalek said Rua and Lauer should add depth.

Michalek said a team goal is to beat Nardin and to see the girls improve their times throughout the season.

"We came in with a lot of freshman and would love to see them get into the meets and get best times," she added.

"They're a great group of girls," she continued. "I was expecting

coaching to be a lot harder than it was and the girls made it a lot easier so I'm looking forward to a great season."

Sacred Heart 2006 Schedule 9-25 Mt. St. Mary's............ 4 p.m. 9-28 Buffalo Seminary ..... 7 p.m. 10-2 Mt. Mercy .................. 5 p.m. 10-5 Nardin ........................ 7 p.m.

10-12 Holy Angels............. 5 p.m. 10-16 Mt. St. Mary's.......... 5 p.m. 10-19 Buffalo Seminary ... 7 p.m. 10-23 Mt. Mercy ................ 4 p.m. 10-26 Nardin ...................... 6 p.m. 10-30 Holy Angels............. 6 p.m. 11-8 All-Catholics - ECC-City TBA

*All regular season meets are held at Buffalo State College.