Sacred Heart swims its best at All-Catholics
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sacred Heart closed out its girls swimming season with a second place finish at Wednesday's All-Catholics at Erie Community College's Burt Flickinger Center. Sacred Heart finished with 242 points, its highest finish at All-Catholics in years, according to coach Kristy Michalek.

"We were thrilled," she said. "We just wanted them to swim fast and get best times and a lot of them did. We were so happy and thrilled, especially for the seniors because they swam really hard and had a great meet to go out on."

Seniors Sarah Savattieri, Caitlyn Fields and Liz Subjeck teamed up with sophomore Laura Savattieri to win the 200 freestyle relay in a school record 1:46.56. The old record, set by the foursome earlier in the season, was 1:47.72. Nardin, first overall with 306 points, finished second in the 200 free relay in 1:49.83.

"We knew Nardin was going to be tough to beat but even beating them in one event made the meet in itself," said Michalek.

The girls 400 free relay of Sarah and Laura Savattieri, Subjeck and Christina Ruggiero finished second in a school record 3:58.17. The old record was 3:58.38.

Laura Savattieri broke her own school record in the 100 breast in 1:13.36. She placed second in the event.

The 200 medley relay of Ruggiero, Laura Savattieri, Fields and sophomore Jessica Cichochi took second in 1:58.91. Subjeck placed third in the 200 free (2:04.45) and 100 free (56.90) as did Fields in the 50 free (26.66) and 100 fly (1:03.59). Ruggiero was third in the 200 IM (2:24.16) and fourth in the 100 back (107.92).

Michalek was pleased with her first year coaching at Sacred Heart.

The girls are what helped me," she said. "They were so easy to work with and willing to swim and work hard."

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com