Voting for 2012 Captains

Voting for next year’s captains will close at midnight on Sunday, November 27.

If you did not get a ballot, please email Mr. Wimer.

Staples Places 11th at State Open, Weston 21st

By Eliot Schickler

The Staples and Weston girls swimming and diving teams finished in the upper echelons of the State Open meet Saturday at Yale University.

Staples tallied 138 points and finished tied for 11th with Branford and Weston (66) was 21st in the 66-team field. Greenwich (480) won, beating out second-place New Canaan (431.5). Wilton (371), Darien (331.5) and Trumbull (306) placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Lady Wreckers fell short of 10th-place Norwalk (197) but edged 13th place Glastonbury (128), a team they lost to at Class LL.

“It was a great end of the season,” Staples coach Mike Laux said. “The girls put it together at FCIAC, states and opens. Take a look at the opens, the five top teams are FCIAC trams. I’m very happy, each girl did their best.”

The Lady Trojans almost caught 20th-place Watertown (68) and 19th-place Fitch (70) but edged 22nd-place Westhill (65), who is considered to be one of the better teams in the state.

“We do whatever we can at Opens,” Weston coach Tom Grace said. “We don’t have much left after states and whatever we do at Opens is a bonus.”

One thing the Lady Trojans can take pride in is the fact they came along way at Opens. At the beginning of the 2000s, Weston had no one qualify for State Open.

Lady Wrecker sophomore Verity Abel took third in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:04.73 and sixth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:09.14).

“I was fine with how I did at Opens,” Abel said. “I tried my hardest and that is all that matters. After so many big meets, it is hard to perform as well at the last as at the first. In both of the events I just tried to keep my head in the game and stay motivated. Knowing it was the last meet of the high school season made me push myself a little harder in all of my swims.”

Also competing in the 500-free was Lady Trojan junior Olivia Clark (5:12.31), who took 12th. Clark was also 12th in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:09.51).

“Opens was a really cool experience because you swim against people you don’t see in the regular season or at states,” Clark said. “I didn’t swim my best times at Opens but it was still a good experience.”

Weston sophomore Katie Johnson did well sprinting by taking 12th in the 50-yard freestyle (25.0) and 18th in the 100-yard freestyle (54.53). Moreover, Johnson improved from her Class S times in both events (25.04 in the 50-free and 54.74 in the 100-free), which doesn’t usually happen.

“Each of us wanted to perform great and fast and it was a good way to finish the season,” Johnson said. “I was really surprised my times were better at Opens. I went all out in every single race and took it one race at a time.”

Staples senior captain Gabby Wimer was 23rd in the 100-free (55.08).

Also scoring in individual events were two Lady Trojan divers. Junior Hannah Schroeder (308.8) and senior captain Julia DiMarco (289.2) were 21st and 24th, respectively.

The rest of the points were scored by the relays. The Lady Wreckers dropped time in the 200-yard medley relay (1:57.08) by placing 17th, bettering its Class LL time (1:58) by almost a second with junior Alexis Teixeira, sophomore Gabbie LeBlanc, senior captain Caroline Valerio and junior Rebecca Raab. The Lady Trojans were 24th in the 200-medley relay behind the quartet of senior Katie Angelidis, Clark, senior captain Catie Ledwick and senior McCall Kelley.

Staples dropped time from Class LL (1:39.98) in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:39.72) and took fourth with Wimer, juniors Rebecca Raab and Sarah Cooperman and Abel.

“We had a nice taper on Friday and we were relaxed and ready to go,” Cooperman said. “We wanted to place where we were seeded and we were excited about it.”

Wimer said, “Everyone in our relays swam well. We worked on relay starts in practice, which is important, especially in the 200-free because it’s short. We worked on our turns and limit our breathing because breathing slows you down.”

Starting at noon was something the girls had to get acclimated with.

“It was an awkward time to swim but we put on our fast suits and swam hard,” Cooperman said.

Sophomore Dacia Gross, junior Alex Edgar, Ledwick and Johnson led Weston to 23rd in the 200-free relay (1:44.58).

Wimer, freshman Jordan Santarella, Cooperman and Abel powered the 400-yard freestyle relay to 12th place (3:42.07).

“It was a lot of fun helping the team out and it was nice to be the only freshman there,” Santarella said.

Abel said, “Our relays were great and they were a nice way to end the meet.”

Overall, the Lady Wreckers are pleased with how they finished the season.

“We were really happy,” Wimer said. “Our relays did well and our medley relay got faster. I’m happy how we swam as a whole and how the girls stepped up and swam faster.”

Reprinted from the Westport News

Ballots for Captains for 2012

The captains and Coach Laux are creating an online ballot for next year’s captains. A link will be sent on Friday (11/18) to every member of the Swim & Dive Team. You will have until November 27th to vote.

Parking Restricted at SCSU for LL Championship

Parents:

CIAC informs us that the parking lot to the left of the SCSU fieldhouse has been torn up to make room for a new six level parking garage. It will not be available for bus or car parking. You may want to leave a little earlier than originally planned because parking could prove to be a problem.

We checked with the aquatics office at Southern and they suggested that we park near Farnham Hall. It’s building number 24 on the PDF Map. It seems to be a lot smaller than the old parking lot.

Ronald

First Annual Staples Girls Alumnae Swim Meet

The Staples Girls Swim Alumnae invite all graduates and current members of the Girls Swim & Dive Team to the First Annual Alumnae Swim Meet on Saturday, November 26, 2011.The meet will consist mainly of relays.

Warm-up begins at 3:00 pm at the Staples pool. The meet will begin at 4:00 pm and end around 5:00. Pizza and refreshments will be served afterward.

We hope you can join us.

RSVP to Molly Hennessy, Captain 2007, Staples ’08.

Vote for Staples Alumna Swimmer Liz Fry

Elizabeth Fry

Westport resident and record-shattering open water swimmer Elizabeth Fry has been nominated for the 2011 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year.

The nomination recognizes Fry, 52, for “her dynamic spirit in helping others realize their open water dreams while she realizes her own potential in some of the most difficult swims in the world,” according to the sponsor of the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA) awards, Open Water Source. In particular, the nomination recognizes Fry for the two “double crossings” she swam in 2011.

Last June, she set the double crossing record and became the only person to complete the unprecedented 35-mile Ederle Swim, swimming from Manhattan Island to New Jersey, and back. Her time of 11 hours, 5 minutes set the standard for both men and women, young and old. She then became the oldest person to complete the 42-mile double crossing of the English Channel in 24 hours, 39 minutes, with her return journey faster than the outgoing swim from England to France. This was her third attempt to complete the two-way crossing of the iconic Channel, having previously accomplished five successful one-way crossings. She wrapped up her 2011 season with a 13 hour, 25 minute, 25-mile crossing from Vermont, U.S.A. to Québec, Canada.

In addition, Fry has served as the long-standing director of the 25K Swim Across the Sound, one of the nation’s largest open water swimming events, which has raised millions of dollars for the St. Vincent’s Medical Center Foundation.

Fry trains with the Westport Swim Club, a Connecticut Masters team, which is coached by our own Michael Laux. She began her swimming career in Long Beach, New York and attended Camp Akomak, a swim camp in Canada. As a teen in Westport, she swam for the Westport Weston Family Y Water Rats and Staples High School Girls Swim Team. Fry attended college at the University of Connecticut, where she was awarded the John Squires Award for the most improved swimmer as a freshman while earning a degree in Chemistry, and earned graduate degrees at Fordham University.

About the WOWSA Award

According to Open Water Source, the WOWSA award is meant to honor not necessarily the best athlete, but the individual who best embodies the spirit of open water swimming; possesses the sense of adventure, tenacity and perseverance for which open water swimmers are known; and has most positively influenced the world of open water swimming in 2011. This year’s award nominees include twelve women from nine countries. Awards also are given for Man of the Year and Performance of the Year.

Voting takes place online at Open Water Swimming from November 1 to December 31. The winner will be announced and honored on January 1 at the Global Open Water Swimming Conference.

For more information on Elizabeth Fry, visit here.

Click to cast your vote.

If You Lost or Never Received an Invitation

As of this evening, fewer than half of the swim team has replied to the invitation to the annual team banquet.

If you lost your invitation or never received one, you can download a PDF version and still send it by the RSVP deadline.

Ronald Wimer

LL Finals Warm-up and Bus

We will have a 2:00 PM early dismissal for the 11 girls swimming in State Finals on Thursday, so that we can warm up here before we we leave and eliminate the short crowded situation we had at State trials last Saturday.
The bus is scheduled for 3:15 so we should have an hour in the pool before we have to leave, and all the other girls can be there to cheer/support.

Coach Laux

Only 27 People Have Replied to Banquet Invite

As of today (11/11/11), only 28 swimmers, divers and managers have replied to their invitations to the team banquet. Replies are due by November 21 so that we can meet our obligation to give exact numbers to Shorehaven two weeks in advance.

If you plan to attend, but you have not replied, please send your reply card and $40 per attendee to me before next weekend. There has been some confusion about the price. Everybody must pay for their meals. (The team doesn’t have the resources to pay for swimmers and divers.)

Click to view the list of attendees.  Please check to see if your name is checked off. If you didn’t pay for enough meals, update your reply and mail a check made out to “Staples Girls Swim & Dive.”

Ronald Wimer

 

48 Cross Highway
Westport, CT 06880

Lady Wrecker Swimmers Finish in the Middle

By Eliot Schickler

Finishing in the middle of the pack is usually a sign of mediocrity, but not when it comes to FCIAC girls swimming.

The FCIAC has at least six of the top 10 teams in the state. Staples showed its among the 10-15 best programs in the state by placing seventh at the 13-team FCIAC championship Saturday with 165 points, beating eighth-place Westhill (138.5), a team it lost to in the regular season.

“We did really well,” Staples coach Mike Laux said. “After trials, we knew we had a chance to beat them [Westhill] and the girls were excited to do it. The girls swam very well at trials to put them in good position for finals, and they swam well at finals.”

Lady Wreckers senior captain Gabby Wimer said, “I was really pleased with us taking seventh at FCIACS. It’s the strongest conference in the state so we had a lot of competition. It was great that we were able to beat Westhill because they beat us by such a slim margin on Senior Day, so everyone was excited to race them again. Everyone did a great job coming back and swimming faster at finals which was the key to beating them.”

New Canaan (396) won it for the second straight year. Greenwich (334), Wilton (321.5) and Trumbull (233) placed second, third and fourth, respectively. Darien and Norwalk (213) finished tied for fifth.

Sophomore Verity Abel led the Lady Wreckers by winning the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:01.36.

“I was really excited to win the 500,” Abel said. “I didn’t swim it at FCIACs last year and it was kind of unexpected for me. I tried to stay at the same pace and have steady splits.”

Abel was hoping to break the meet record of 5:00 and this spurred her on.

“It was a race against the clock,” Abel said. “I just missed it this year and I hope to get it next year.”

Staples scored more points than any other team in the 500-free. Junior Sarah Cooperman (5:28.03) and freshman Jordan Santarella (5:33.20) placed eighth and 15th in it, respectively.

“I was disappointed with my 500,” Cooperman said. “The training was off because of the changed schedule, but I hope this week, my training is on-schedule and I do well at States. Verity and Jordan did well in the 500 and put a lot of effort into it. It was exciting to watch.”

Abel (2:06.69) also took second in the 200-yard individual medley.

“I had a little less confidence in the IM [than I had in the 500], but placing second was exciting,” Abel said. “It was a thrilling race and I faced great swimmers. It was nerve racking but exciting.”

She began the race with the butterfly and followed with the backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, respectively.

“I tried to go all out in every stroke and in the backstroke, I tried to push it up and go faster,” Abel said. “I figured if I can go out and get a lead, the backstroke was the best stroke for me to do it.”

Abel also anchored the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:42.5) to fifth place and the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:43.91) to sixth. Wimer and and senior captain Caroline Valerio along with Cooperman preceded her in the 200-free relay, and Wimer, Santarella and Cooperman went before her in the 400-free relay.

Moreover, the Lady Wreckers showed fortitude in both races. Staples fell short to Trumbull (3:43.3) but edged Darien (3:43.98) in the 400-free relay, and lost to Norwalk (1:41.75) but beat Darien (1:43.42) in the 200-free relay.

The Lady Wreckers took eighth in the 200-yard medley relay (1:58.7) behind junior Alexis Teixiera, sophomore Gabbie LeBlanc, Valerio and freshman Stacy Kaneko.

Wimer was Staples’ top sprinter, placing eighth in the 50-yard freestyle (25.71) and 10th in the 100-yard freestyle (55.78).

“It was really important for me to get off to a fast start in both races,” Wimer said. “And then in the 100 I had to make sure that I started kicking more in the second half of the race.”

Cooperman took 11th in the 200-yard freestyle (2:01.5).

“I came out of the 200 very happy because I dropped time in it,” Cooperman said. “My coaches Mr. Laux and assistant coach Laura Bedson to kick and streamline and pay attention to my technique, which I don’t normally do and it paid off.”

LeBlanc (1:13) and junior Anita Vohra (1:13.8) were 11th and 12th, respectively in the 100-yard breaststroke. Valerio (1:03.45) placed 14th in the 100-yard butterfly, and Kaneko (1:06.3) made it to 16th in the 100-yard backstroke.

“It puts us in a good position for states and we hope to finish sixth,” Laux said.

Wimer said, “We’re coming off a lot of fast swims, but we’ve also seen what else we need to work on before States. We’re ready for a strong week of training and we’re getting really excited for States and another opportunity to race Norwalk, Trumbull and Westhill.”

Reprinted from the Westport News

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