Annual Gag Gift Party

Save the date: Saturday, December 4th at 4 PM. Fun, food and camaraderie hosted by Margot Bruce: 9 Winding Lane.

Staples Excels at State Open

By Eliot Schickler

Mission accomplished for both the Staples and Weston girls swimming teams.

Staples set a preseason goal of cracking the top 10 at the State Open championships and Weston, who won the Class S title four days earlier, is happy to see its ranks at State Open swell from previous years. The Lady Wreckers placed ninth at State Open with 219 points last Saturday at Yale University out of 47 teams and the Lady Trojans (93 points) was 19th.

“I was thrilled,” said Staples Coach Mike Laux, who was not at the meet because he was sick. “For us, the season ended at States and this was another opportunity to swim and see if we can do better. Overall, the team achieved and exceeded its goals.”

Weston Coach Tom Grace said, “The girls were spent after Class S finals and it’s another meet. It’s good to have the representation that we had. Class S schools usually don’t have the depth to do well at both State finals and State Open and if I had to choose a meet to focus on, I’d choose finals any day of the week.”

Greenwich (579.5) won and New Canaan (544) took second. Pomperaug (252) and Hall (246) and Hall placed seventh and eighth, respectively to edge the Lady Wreckers. Both teams had dominant swimmers, Elizabeth McDonald for Pomperaug and Jessie Ustjanauskas for Hall, who figured in half of their teams’ points, tipped the balance in their teams’ favor.

“We were really happy with a ninth-place finish because our goal was to come in the top 10,” Staples senior captain Stephanie Nussbaum said. “The team spirit and the support we gave each other helped us do well.”

Lady Wrecker senior captain Molly Loftus said, “That was awesome and we were excited. We had a good attitude going into Opens after coming off of Class LL.”

The Lady Trojans qualified all three relay teams, which they didn’t do in the past, and three girls swam in five individual events, another high watermark for them. From 2000-03, Weston didn’t have anyone make it to State Open.

“It’s hard for Class S schools to do well at Opens against schools like Greenwich,” Lady Trojans senior co-captain Karen Bottger said. “I was very pleased because it was a good way to end the season. We had the most girls in my time at Opens and it’s awesome to see so many [Weston] girls there. We’re progressing nicely and I couldn’t ask for a better ending.”

Lady Wrecker freshman Verity Abel was the best performer from both schools. Abel dropped .02 second from Class LL in the 100-yard backstroke and set a school record by placing second with a time of 57.59. The junior Ustjanauskas (56.85) won the 100-back.

“I was really focused on the event because it’s new to me,” Abel said. “I worked on my turns and streamlines and I looked to see where the other swimmers are.”

This isn’t Abel’s first school record. She is the record holder in the 100-yard butterfly and although she didn’t eclipse her own standard in it, she still swam well and took fourth in the 100-fly (58.05).

“I had a little more difficulty because the walls are flat and I’m not used to it,” Abel said. “I went all out and I tried to have a strong kick and maintain it throughout the race.”

Abel was a part of a third Staples record being shattered by anchoring the 400-yard freestyle relay team (3:39.44) to seventh place.

“It’s always fun and an honor to anchor it,” Abel said. “All the girls tried as hard as possible and we wanted to set the record. We breathed as little as possible and had strong kicks.”

Laux said, “It’s exciting for them to have their best race in the final event in the final meet of the year.”

Junior Gabby Wimer, sophomore Sarah Cooperman and Loftus preceded Abel.

“It feels awesome,” Wimer said. “It was a team effort and everyone did what they were supposed to do. I was nervous because it was the last event and the last event of Molly’s high school career and I wanted to do well. Having Sarah, Molly and Verity and the rest of the team cheer for me, helped.”

Cooperman said, “We were all really excited because we knew how close we were to the record. The motivation helped us go out and swim fast.”

Loftus said, “That was amazing and the best way to finish my high school career. It was our last shot and we were positive going into it. We didn’t have too much pressure in it and we figured why not, we can break the record.”

Weston took 17th in the 400-free relay with Bottger, sophomores Alex Edgar and Olivia Clark and freshman Katie Johnson.

Wimer, Nussbaum, Cooperman and Loftus powered the Lady Wrecker 200-yard freestyle relay team (1:42.66) to 10th place, a .20 improvement from Class LL (1:42.86).

“Everyone was motivated to swim and we wanted to make Mr. Laux proud and fulfill our goal for the season,” Nussbaum said.

Freshman Dacia Gross, junior Katie Ledwick, Johnson and Bottger carried Weston’s 200-free relay (1:44.45) to 17th place.

Staples senior captain Schaefer Andrews took 11th place in diving (340.20) last Friday at Hamden (held separately from swimming).

“I was really happy with what I did,” Andrews said. “I was hoping to finish 10th and I was .15 short of it, but it was a competitive meet and I felt I held my own. I tried to have fun with the meet, which helped.”

Bottger (1:56.77) and Loftus (1:58.88) placed seventh and 17th, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle.

“I didn’t have my best time but I wasn’t bummed about it because I was more focused on Class S,” Bottger said. “I was happy with the 200-free because I only added a second to it [from the Class S championship meet].”

Loftus wasn’t pleased with her 200-free but rebounded by taking 13th in the 500-yard freestyle (5:13.55). Clark (5:19.92) and Bottger (5:21.97) were 23rd and 24th, respectively in the 500-free.

“I tried not to be focused on swims that weren’t my best because I can’t go back in time and change it,” Loftus said.

Wimer dropped .51 seconds from Class LL in the 100-yard freestyle and placed 17th (54.85) in it.

“I was happy I moved up in the rankings, which was helpful to the team,” Wimer said. “It’s my first individual event at Opens, it’s one of the fastest events and it was exciting to swim it.”

Junior Caroline Valerio, freshman Gabby LeBlanc, Abel and Nussbaum carry the 200-yard medley relay team (1:56.37) to 14th place. Weston’s 200-medley relay team of sophomore Lydia Sykes, Clark, Ledwick and Edgar took 20th (1:58.36). Clark finished 21st in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:10.69).

“It was a fun meet and a great way to end our season even though we didn’t have our coach there,” Nussbaum said. “Everyone stepped it up.”

Reprinted from the Westport News

Banquet Responses are Due

Please send in your RSVP to Mrs. Bruce. We need to give Shorehaven a firm number next week. Mrs. Bruce is missing responses from half of the team.

Practice on 11/22 for All Varsity & JV

Monday, November 22 Practice for Staples Girls Swim and Dive will be a fun “Play and Learn to Play Water Polo” from 2:30 to 4 pm for all girl swimmers, both varsity and jv.

Hope to see you there!

Coach Laux

Water Polo Alumni Scrimmage

THANKSGIVING  2010
COED WATER POLO SCRIMMAGE AND ALUMNI GAME

Who: Open to all

When: Wednesday, November 24th,
3 pm start, arrive earlier, by 2:30/ 2:45 to make up teams

Where: Staples Pool

Until When: We will play until 5:30 pm, depending on numbers

What should you do? : Come and play Water Polo!!!

And tell any alums!

Bus to Yale for State Open

The bus will leave Staples High School at 9:00 am to go to Yale University for the swimming State Open.

Lady Wreckers Place Third at Class LL

By Eliot Schickler

There’s no better time to peak than at the Class LL championship. That’s where the Staples girls swimming team peaked with a third-place finish on Wednesday with 467 points in the 20-team field at Wesleyan University, 33 points away from second place.

“Where the type of team that gets better as the year progresses,” Staples Coach Mike Laux said. “We felt we could do well after trials because we did well there and got our swimmers into the right heat. Doing well at trials set us up for finals.”

Greenwich (958.5) won Class LL convincingly and no one came close to this powerhouse, who won its fifth Class LL title in six years. The Lady Cardinals returned to the top after settling for second in 2009 to Cheshire. Ironically, Cheshire moved down to Class L this year and finished second to New Canaan. Glastonbury (499.5) placed second.

Although the Lady Wreckers didn’t beat Glastonbury, they defeated Trumbull (448) and Amity (448), who were tied for fourth. Staples lost to Trumbull in the first dual meet of the year and finished behind the Lady Golden Eagles at FCIACs.

“It feels really good because we worked hard this year and I’m happy that it came together in the end,” Lady Wreckers senior captain Stephanie Nussbaum said. “I’m proud of all the girls. Going into the meet, I knew we could finish third but we had to swim well. Everyone swam well and I saw it coming.”

Senior captain Molly Loftus said, “We were very ecstatic when we found out. Everyone executed the best swims possible and everyone was supportive of each other, which made our performances possible.”

Loftus had one of those top swims by winning the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:03.44.

“I was really excited because it was my best time,” Loftus said. “I didn’t expect to go this fast. It was a pleasant surprise and I’m glad to do it for the team.”

She credits her teammates for her success.

“A big part is not only the physical aspect but having a team support you and cheering you on helps you go faster,” Loftus said.

Sophomore Sarah Cooperman (5:19.67) placed seventh in the 500-free.Also scoring in the 500-free for Staples were senior Caitlin Wiederecht (5:45.33) and senior captain Margot Bruce (5:55.96), who finished 16th and 23rd, respectively.

“We were working a lot on streamlining this week and everyone was nice and motivating, which helped me a lot,” Cooperman said.

Loftus also won her heat in the 200-yard freestyle (1:56.17) and had the fourth fastest time in the meet. However, because she was in the B-heat instead of the A-heat because eight girls had better times at Class LL trials, she had to settle for a ninth-place finish.

“I was really pleased with that swim,” Loftus said. “Even though I didn’t finish fourth because of the heat, at the end of the day, I’m happy with my performance. The excitement of the meet helped.”

Cooperman (2;00.18), Nussbaum (2:04.58) and Wiederecht (2:08.34) were 10th, 18th and 23rd in the 200-free, respectively.

Freshman Verity Abel was the Lady Wreckers’ other big winner in the meet. Abel won the 100-yard backstroke (57.61) and set a Class LL record.

“I was really shooting for first place,” Abel said. “I was thrilled to swim it and I was driven to help the team get a high place overall.”

Junior Caroline Valerio (1:04.84) and sophomore Alexis Teixeira (1:05.88) placed 13th and 14th, respectively in the 100-back.

Abel also earned All-State honors in the 100-yard butterfly (57.70) by placing third and setting a new school record. Valerio (1:03.59) was 16th in the 100-fly.

“I focused mostly on the 100-fly before FCIACs but after winning the 100-back in FCIACs, I focused more on the back,” Abel said. “At States, I remembered the fly is also my event and I tried to get a best time in that.”

Senior captain Schaefer Andrews also earned All-State by taking third place in diving (354.25). Junior Michelle Mastrianni (245.80) was 16th in diving.

“It feels great to be All-State,” Andrews said. “It’s a great way to end my diving at staples. I think my key to success was a combination of hard work, concentration and the ability to have fun in the meet. Class LL is very competitive and it feels great to reach my goal of being a top three finisher.”

Andrews will be diving one last time for the Lady Wreckers as the ninth-seed in the State Open in tonight’s diving event in Hamden.

Junior Gabby Wimer grabbed fifth in the 100-yard freestyle (55.36). Nussbaum (58.00) was 16th in the 100-free.

Knowing that everyone was cheering for me and having really good turns, helped,” Wimer said.

Wimer was 12th in the 50-yard freestyle (25.70). Freshman Gabby LeBlanc took 15th in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.10) and 16th in the 200-yard individual medley (2:22.37).

Staples was a place short of All-State honors in the 200-yard freestyle (1:42.86) and 400-yard freestyle (3:39.61) in taking third in both events. Wimer, Nussbaum, Cooperman and Loftus place third in the 200-free relay and Wimer, Cooperman, Loftus and Abel grab the bronze in the 400-free relay.

“We had the entire team behind the blocks cheering for us and Laux was there to help us,” Loftus said. “Instead of getting nervous, we were psyched to be there and used it to our advantage.”

Teixeira, LeBlanc, Abel and sophomore Rebecca Raab carry the 200-yard freestyle relay team (1:56.80) to sixth place.

“It’s been a very rewarding season and the girls have come a long way since the beginning of the season,” Laux said.

Nussbaum said, “In the past couple of meets, Mr. Laux emphasized the importance of this meet and he motivated us to swim well at it.”

Andrews isn’t the only one competing in the State Open for the Lady Wreckers. Their swimmers will aim for a top 10 finish tomorrow at Yale University.

“We’re in very good position and we hope to carry it to State Open,” Loftus said.

Reprinted from the Westport News

Lady Wrecker Swimmers Better Than Record

By Eliot Schickler

Sometimes, a team is much better than its record. Take the Staples girls swim team as a prime example. Despite finishing its dual meet season with a 4-5 record, the Staples team is better than those numbers. The Lady Wreckers finished with that record after facing five of the seven best teams in the state, with only one easy opponent.

In fact, Staples is better than 10-1 Brookfield, who finished second in the SWC and 11-0 Pomperaug, the SWC champion. We’ll know that for sure after the class and State Open meets.

The Lady Wreckers finished below .500 because no out-of-conference team was willing to face them because they feared the outcome and they didn’t face three teams in the FCIAC.

Staples Coach Mike Laux tried to rectify this during a two-week hiatus when his team faced no one, even though he tried to schedule meets against Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe from the FCIAC and East Lyme in a non-conference meet.

From Oct. 2-14, the Lady Wreckers had no dual meets and Ludlowe had no meets from Sept. 30-Oct. 13. Warde had only one meet in this period.

“We never had anything like this before when we had two weeks off,” Laux said. “Having the additional meets is another opportunity to qualify for States. I would have liked to have a couple more meets.” What should be mandated was that all teams in the FCIAC would be required to face each other. This way, the Lady Wreckers would have faced Ludlowe, Warde and St. Joseph and finish the dual meet season at 7-5. In most leagues, not every school has a swimming team and each team competes against each other during the regular season. This should be true in the FCIAC.

Moreover, Staples had only nine dual meets this year and in years past, it had 11 or 12 meets. If every team were required to face each other and ducking an opponent wasn’t allowed, the Lady Wreckers would have had 12 opponents, a manageable number of meets.

Being a classy team, the Staples captains don’t fault the teams that ducked their squad. If the shoe were on the other foot, none of his captains would duck an opponent and, if anything, would relish the challenge.

“In a perfect world, it would be the best thing [facing every FCIAC opponent], but it’s complicated having too many meets,” Lady Wrecker senior captain Stephanie Nussbaum said.

Staples senior captain Molly Loftus said, “I think it would be fair [if we faced everyone in the FCIAC], but it’s up to them if they want to race against us and we would have loved to race them. We don’t want to race against teams who don’t want to race us. We look forward to race against our opponents no matter who they are.”

The Lady Wreckers proved their strength by finishing sixth out of 12 teams at FCIACs last Saturday, the top half of the conference. Proof of how challenging the league is, they are confident they can finish fifth at Class LL.

“Our schedule has us swim against the top teams in the FCIAC,” Nussbaum said. “If we faced the weaker teams, we’d be better than 4-5, but swimming against the best teams prepare us for FCIACs and States. I think we’ll show how good we are at states and finish in the top five.”

Staples competes “against some really great teams and we did well against everyone, which is what counts the most,” Loftus said. “It’s always good to have a good record, but at the end of the day, what counts is what we do in championship meets and we definitely have the potential to do well in them.”

While on the subject of swimming, one other thing that needs to change is the scoring system. It’s plausible for a swimmer who completes his or her race (this includes the boys season this winter) in 59.8 seconds to finish behind someone in the standings who completed the race in 1:01.2. This doesn’t make sense according to the rules of basic math, but if someone finishes in the top eight positions at trials, they are locked into the top eight no matter what they do at finals and those in the middle eight are locked there. The rationale behind this is to make sure no one coasts at trials. This is wrong and someone with the faster time should always be placed ahead of the slower time, regardless of heat.

That’s how track is scored and this is how swimming should be scored as well — the one with the fastest time wins the race.

Reprinted from the Westport News

Divers Earn 595 Points at LL States

Schaefer got 3rd with 350 points and All States. Michelle got 16th with 245 points.

Address of State LL Trials

State LL Trails will be held on Saturday 11/13 at East Hartford High School:

869 Forbes Street
East Hartford
(860) 622-5200

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