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Record-setting North roster set to hit pool Despite losing 10 seniors from last year's enormous roster, Williamsville North is bigger than ever. The Spartans picked up some younger swimmers, to increase its roster from a school-record 60 last year to 63 this fall. Like last year, the mass quantity of swimmers has made Cassidy divide the team into three different practice squads - A, B, and C - who swim different shifts in lanes by the side of the pool. "Having managed it last year, I'm a little bit smarter about what to do and what not to do," said North coach Doug Cassidy. "I've said 'if anyone can figure out how to do it, it's us' and that's from working together with the rest of the coaching staff and the kids and their dedicated parents." Cassidy has five senior captains who he has leaned on to give younger kids one-on-one attention and "be a coach". They are Erin Cavagnaro, Casey Matthews, Kerri Bubar, Tristen Chiarmonte and Britney Talty. "This gives them a great opportunity to demonstrate leadership and fill a sense of team unity," Cassidy added. Cassidy said Cavagnaro can swim any event they need her to swim and swim it well. Cavagnaro can swim the 500-yard freestyle and is an excellent butterfly and individual medley swimmer. She can also swim in the medley relay. Matthews is a returning New York State champion in 1-meter diving (see Matthews story). Bubar is a good freestyle and butterfly swimmer, and qualified for sectionals in the butterfly. Chiarmonte has a real strong backstroke, but can also swim IM and freestyle events. Talty is strictly a 50 and 100 free swimmer. Talty helped the Spartans' 200 free relay take fifth at last year's Section VI Championships. North's top two swimmers are sophomores Cami Farkas and Maggie Schmidt, who started as eighth-graders. Farkas is a distance freestyler, who can also swim sprinting events and is good at the 100 butterfly, Cassidy said. Schmidt has a good chance of hitting state cut times in freestyle or backstroke events. She took seventh in the 100 back at sectionals. Also returning are junior Abigail MacDonald, sophomore Abby Zwierzchowski, freshman Nicole Malkowski and eighthgrader Clare Battaglia. Cassidy said MacDonald, who was sixth in the 100 back at sectionals, has a good shot at the state cut time in the event. Mac- Donald was also a consolation finalist in the individual medley. Cassidy said Zwierzchowski's greatest strength is the freestyle sprints, but she also swims a good butterfly and a decent individual medley. Zwierzchowski, daughter of North assistant coach Kathy, swam a personal-best time at ECICs in the 200 IM (finished fifth). She also qualified for sectionals in the 50 and 100 free. Battaglia, who did well in the 200 IM at ECICs last year, has good strokes across the board, said Cassidy. Malkowski was within a second of qualifying for sectionals in the butterfly. North finished 2006 as ECIC Division I champions (7-0), its first division title since 2000. North will see what they're made out of early on. They opened with Orchard Park on Tuesday and host Clarence on Thursday and Jamestown on September 26.
"Those are going to be our three toughest rivals," said Cassidy. "If we can get past those three, we're going to be pretty solid." |
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