Girls Swimming - Section VI Championships
East shatters school records early
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville East's Janelle Munroe qualified for this weekend's New York State Championships in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 59.79 at Thursday's Section VI preliminaries. Photo by Mike Lynaugh

It was a record setting Section VI championship meet last week for Williamsville East's girls swimming team.

Several school records fell as the Lady Flames finished third overall (211) behind Kenmore West (258.50) and Lockport (249). The event was held at Erie Community College's Burt Flickinger Center last Thursday and Saturday and was a qualifier for the New York State Championships, also held at ECC, on Friday and Saturday. Swimming prelims begin at noon on Friday and 10:15 a.m. on Saturday. Diving will follow on both days.

"This year, we've tried not to peak for sectionals, meaning that we thought we were good enough that we would be able to make the state times at sectionals and still go on and do our best times at states," said East coach Mike Doefler.

East peaked at Thursday's sectional preliminaries, qualifying the 200 medley relay of Bailey Woodling, Kristen Ostanski, Janelle Munroe and Jennifer Anthone (first, school record 153.66) and 400 free relay of Woodling, Tori Mayer, Munroe and Anthone (second, 3:41.36). In individual events, Anthone qualified in the 50-yard freestyle (first, 24.66) and 100 free (first, school record 53.51), Munroe qualified in the 100 butterfly (second, 59.79) and 100 backstroke (first, school record 101.15) and Woodling qualified in the 100 fly (third, 1:00.36).

Williamsville North's Kelly Battaglia finished eighth in the 200-yard individual medley during prelims and finals at the Section VI Championships. Photo by Mike Lynaugh

"We swam the lights out on Thursday night," said Doerfler. "All of our possibilities of going to the state meet we did on Thursday which took the pressure off for us on Saturday. On Saturday, we didn't swim quite as well but improved in the relays."

At finals on Saturday, the East 200 medley relay edged Orchard Park, 1:52.20-1:52.83, setting another school record. It's the first time OP had been defeated in the medley relay since 1997. The old East record before the meet was 155.05.

The 400 free relay finished third in a school record time of 340.51.

"We've been close the last couple years of sending a relay and by the luck of things, never able to go," said Doerfler. "This year, everything fell together and they swam out of their minds. I got to give them all of the credit. (Assistant coach) Chris Miller and I were both just ecstatic."

Anthone was beat by Orchard Park's Hannah Whistler in the 50 free, 24.62-24.28, to take second but won the 100 free in 53.56. It is the fourth straight year Anthone has qualified for states in both events.

Munroe tied her school record from prelims in the 100 back, winning in 1:01.15. She placed third in the 100 fly in 59.93.

Woodling was fourth in the 100 fly in 1:00.63 and just missed out on the state cut time in the 50 free, finishing sixth in 25.50. (The state cut time was 25.22).

Mayer finished seventh in the 200 and 500 free. Kelsey Bradbury took eighth in the 500 free and was in the 200 IM consolation final. Bradbury is an alternate for the 400 free relay at states as is Kelsey Crawford for the 200 medley relay.

Williamsville North

North finished fifth overall with 140 points despite only winning 1-meter diving (junior Casey Matthews in a personal best 524.60 points).

"We didn't have all personal best times," said North coach Doug Cassidy. "We did so well at ECICs (won Division AA) that it's kind of hard to duplicate that even though we had real good prelims on Thursday then fell off by a few tenths or a second in the some of the events on Saturday."

Matthews was dominant in winning her fourth consecutive section diving title. Her score was 76 points higher than last year, largely due to a higher dive difficulty. She scored just over 150 points in her last three dives - reverse 11/2 pike (44.85, 2.3 dd), inward double somersault (60.20, 2.8 dd) and reverse 11/2 somersault with a full 11/2 twist (45, 2.5 dd). All three are new dives for Matthews as is the backflip 21/2 twist.

"She dove consistently as she almost always does at championships but there's no question that bumping up her degree of difficulty over the previous season has made a big difference," said Cassidy.

While her point totals on her last three dives were impressive, Matthews thinks she can do better.

"I had a really consistent meet, she said. "I hit pretty much every single one of my dives. The last three, I averaged 6's so I know I can do better on those but I had a great score."

Lockport's Ashley Jones of Lockport and Niagara-Wheatfield's Sarah Colton finished second and third, respectively, behind Matthews.

Matthews is a favorite to win a New York State title this Saturday at ECC. She placed second last year to Valley Central's Kristen Meier of Section IX. Matthews won a state title in 2004.

"There's no question that she could win it," said Cassidy of Matthews. "Kristen Meyer is back and I'm sure she is improved as well. The two of them will be the two to watch."

"The prospects for Casey are going to be very good for next week," he added. "She should certainly surpass her score of last year and depending on how everybody else does, will be right up at the top."

"I'm looking forward to it," said Matthews. "It will be important for me to earn a state title for the first time since freshman year. With more dives this year, I'm confident I can do it."

Matthews is the only person from North to qualify for states. The 200 free relay of Britney Talty, Kelly Battaglia, Abby Zwierchowski and Cammy Farkas and the 400 free relay of Battaglia, Farkas, Maggie Schmidt and Sarah Bachwitz each placed fifth overall with personal best times (200 free, 1:44.76; 400 free, 3:52.75).

The 200 medley relay of Abigail MacDonald, Erin Cavagnaro, Battaglia and Farkas swam its fastest time on Thursday at prelims in 1:59.18 but were disqualified for a false start on Saturday.

North also swam well in individual events.

In the 500 free, Becky Akers finished sixth in 5:35.20, dropping her time of 5:35.20 from prelims.

Schmidt swam a personal best 26.39 in the 50 free, placing second in the bonus final. Her split time in the 400 free relay of 57.72 was her fastest time by over a second. Schmidt also placed seventh in the 100 back (1:06.53).

MacDonald swam a personal best in the 100 back, finishing sixth in 1:03.55. She also was third in the 200 IM consolation final.

Battaglia was eighth in the 200 IM in 2:20.25.

Sweet Home

Sweet Home finished seventh overall with 117 points and qualified two swimmers for states.

Bethany Fried qualified for the 500 free in prelims, winning the event in 5:14.92. She was third at finals with a 5:22.73. Fried just missed the state cut time in the 200 free, finishing fifth in 2:00.64.

Paige Gutowski advanced in the 200 IM prelims with a second place time of 2:13.60. She was second at finals in 2:14.85. Gutowski missed the state cut time in the 100 breast at prelims by a hundredth of a point (1:09.62, state cut time 1:09.61). She finished fifth at finals in 1:09.90.

Sweet Home's 200 free relay of Gutowski, Fried, Kaitlin Mergler, and Caitlin Schwinge finished fourth in 1:44.68. The 400 free relay of Gutowski, Mergler, Fried and Sarah Mazuchowski was sixth in 3:53.53.

Amherst Central

Sarah Masters' fifth place finish in 1-meter diving led the Lady Tigers. Masters finished with a score of 386.45. The score did not qualify her for states.

The 200 medley relay of Eva Lankes, Kaelyn Sullivan, Michelle Niblock, and Brianne Burton finished sixth in prelims (1:58.95) and seventh in finals (1:59.14). The same four won the 200 free relay consolation final in 1:45.85, lowering their prelim time by .68.

Burton finished eighth in the 100 free. She also made the 100 breast bonus final. Lankes was fifth in the 50 free consolation final and made the 100 back bonus final. Niblock made the 100 fly consolation final.

Amherst finished 13th overall with 73.50 points.

Williamsville South

Jennifer Rogers was fourth in the 200 free consolation final in 2:08.46. She also made the 100 back consolation final.

Alaina Laszweski was fifth in the 100 fly consolation final and made the bonus final of the 100 back. Erin Rogers made the 200 free bonus final.

South finished 24th overall with 14 points.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com