| NYCHSAA site | Cut Times | Convert your times | ||
| Women's Captains | Danielle Arens | Brianna Riley | ||
| Men's Captains | Ben Bertuch | Mike Forgione | Chris Sullivan | |
| Diving Captain | Jack Volpe | |||
Please read Tryout info carefully
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Girls Swim Team Info for NEW swimmers Blue Cards: “Blue Cards” are picked up in the AD’s (Athletic Director, Mr. Donal Buckley) Office. The Blue Card, proof of current physical, and insurance money are brought to the Nurses’ Office. Once approved, the nurse then stamps the blue card, which is then brought back to the AD’s Office and the athlete is put on the “Cleared to Participate” list for swimming. Tryouts: Tryouts this year for all NEW swimmers will be held on Tues. Sept. 7th at 6 AM at Half Hollow Hills Natatorium. Practice: Practices are held every Tues. and Thurs. mornings from 6-7 am at Half Hollow Hills Natatorium (our “home” pool). The swimmers are then bussed to St. Anthony’s for school. Meets: Our season consists of approx. 7-8 dual meets vs. other Catholic Schools in the NSCHSGAA League. Our “home” meets are held on Sat. evenings. We also have one non-league meet in Jan. (boys and girls teams) vs. Paul VI which is a travel meet every other year. This year will be a Home meet that we will be Hosting. Attendance is required at this special meet. Champs: “Champs” is a two day Trial/Final pre-seeded meet. It is mandatory to attend this meet whether you are swimming in the meet or not. For more info on Champs: please see the article in the “Coaches Corner” of our website. www.FriarSwimming.com States: Qualifying times are posted on our web site. Please click on the “cut times” button. Web Site: Our team web site is: www.FriarSwimming.com General Info: We are one Varsity team consisting of all grades 9-12. |
All Swimmers must be Cleared with the AD's office to tryout. BLUE Cards must be turned in. NO Exceptions
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Attention All Swimmers to Tryout |
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All students who wish to participate in interscholastic sports must submit a valid sports physical examination form to the School Nurse. The sports season includes tryouts. The physical shall be valid for a period of twelve months. If the physical is more than 30 days old at the time of tryouts, a Sports Interval Health Form (form available on the school website) must be completed and mailed or brought into the school nurse before the first day of tryouts. Along with our forms, please include a sports insurance payment of $10.00. The school nurse will be in her office on Wednesday, August 18th; Thursday, August 19th; Friday, August 20th; Monday, August 23rd; Tuesday, August 24th from 8:30 AM-1:00 PM and on Wednesday, August 25th; Thursday, August 26th from 9:00 AM-Noon. |
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Thank you to all the swimmers and volunteers who participated in the 2nd annual Waves of Hope Swim. We had a great time, swam pretty fast, and most importantly raised another $10,000 for Juvenile Diabetes. Congratulations to Michael Mattera and Julianne Koch our 1st place finishers. Great job! Christine Swartwout (Friars '11) |
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** All American ** Congratulations! |
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The National
Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA) has
announced that Friar sophomore,
Christian Yeager,
has qualified as
All-American
in the 200 Individual Medley for the 2009-10 season.
Click here for a list of 2009-10 All-Americans in each event |
| Newsday recognized St. Anthony's Men as Long Island's top swim team | click here |
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Friar Men win Catholic States Crown routing LI's Public Schools at the State Federation Meet. CHSAA won the New York State's Top Section Title. Sophomore, Christian Yeager made Automatic All-American in the 200 IM with a Senior Nationals Time of 1:52.67. Christian also earned All-American Consideration in the 100 Back with a time of 52.49. Christian also set team records in the 200 IM & 100 Back. Mike Forgione hit a Junior Nationals cut in the 100 Free and set new team records in the 50 Free & 100 Free. .The 400 Free Relay of Mike Forgione, Sean Sullivan, Bryan Galan & Christian Yeager also achieved an All-American Consideration time & set a new Friars Team record (3:12.07). |
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Notice
(May 9, 2010) |
The women's state
qualifying times have been updated (and made faster). Click the "cut times" link on the menu bar for the new times. |
| 5th Annual Sister Lucide Alumni Meet |
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Saturday,
June 12th
Alumni (Friar Gold) vs. Varsity (Friar Black) |
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All-American Scholar Team Award
The Friars Women & Men's Teams have been nominated for the
NISCA "All-American Scholar Team Award."
The following are our teams top averages:
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Girls:
Callie Caputo
Kirsten Smith
Chloe Hyland
Caroline Lydon
Victoria Melone
Colette Carman
Catherine Hess
Beth Hughes
Alison Sinicropi
Megan Skrypek
Christine Swartwout
Jackie Zoine
Meghan Harley
Morgan Krause
Marielle Pavek
Amanda Barry
For a combined average of:
95.548
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Boys:
Ben Bertuch
Adam Drago
Joe Guistino
Monte Jiran
Conor Hayes
Stephan Brandt
James Krawczyk
John Mitchell
Kent Bischoff
Ian Glessing
Chris Hidalgo
Aidan McShane
Christian Yeager
Matt Krug
Stephan Sidor
Matt Taddeo
For a combined average of: 94.692
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| Special Thanks to Brother Antonio and our Team Moderator Mark Capodanno for their hard work and help with this application. Although our entire team roster gets submitted, our top 16 are combined for one cumulative GPA. | |
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Friars State Qualifiers
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| Christian Yeager | Bernil Carmichael-Lopes | Chris Cannon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bryan Galan | Sean Sullivan | Monte Jiran | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kent Bischoff | Aidan McShane | Mike Forgione | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CHSAA Champions Friars win the 2010 CHSAA Swimming & Diving Championships.
Friar swimmers won 9 of the 11 swimming events, including all 3 relays, capturing the NYCHSAA title. “Pinch me… am I dreaming”?
Are you kidding? What the heck is a “pinch” going to do? I just got speared by Mike Forgione, landing in a sea of Friars… and reality still hasn’t hit me! St. Anthony’s Swimming/Diving Team are numero uno! That’s right… Undefeated!!
We had a team meeting a week before Champs. Team spirit was soaring. Coming off the incredible Fordham Prep. dual meet where we finally celebrated a long awaited victory, individually we were ready. But once our meeting concluded, I believe we finally understood what at team effort this challenge was going to require. As I was speaking to them, the focus in their eyes was changing and heads starting nodding in agreement. A lineup was going to be written to get the Friars the greatest number of points possible. And so, over three nights and finally a coaches meeting at Coach John’s house, the Friar entry was ready to be submitted. Fordham and Chaminade are two incredibly talented and deep teams. They can score four entries in almost every event. With our A and B entries the strongest in the league, it was so important to have our C and D entries not only ready physically, but mentally confident, as well! Coaches Beth, John, and Scott succeeded tremendously in that respect. To see the results… read on my friend, read on.
Saturday started off good… but just like the cold bleachers that we sat on, the Friars froze up. About half way through the day, we were losing a bit of focus. Luckily, we had guys making it back and in positions to move up on Sunday in Finals. As it turned out, in order to win, we were going to have to do just that. If the meet was scored at the conclusion of Trials (get this one Friar Fans.. talk about a close meet!) the scores would have been Fordham Prep 716, St. Anthony’s 711, and Chaminade 706. So heading into Finals, our team knew we needed more. It was the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, and I couldn’t be happier. Looking into the eyes of my team I saw a fire that wasn’t going to be put out by the water in the pool at Eisenhower. Not on February 7th, 2010. This was going to be OUR day. The Saints and the Colts have no idea what intensity is. Coach Scott said it the best, “We were perfect”! Every single swimmer on Sunday either held their spot, or did what we were looking for… moved up! EVERY ONE. And that is what I call “perfect”.200 Medley Relay We swam the 200 Medley Relay on Saturday, almost as a trial run. The relay had already qualified “in season” (twice to be exact), so we had room to experiment. Not being seeded first in the 200 free relay opened our eyes to a weakness that could be improved. Our ace in the hole was going to be Mike Forgione. We intentionally didn’t declare Forge on Saturday (swim two relays) to see if we could win the 200 Medley without him. The newly designed relay didn’t disappoint! Christian Yeager, Bernil Carmichael-Lopes, Chris Cannon, and Bryan Galan not only looked impressive in Saturday's Preliminaries to seed us first… but did WIN the Final event on Sunday with a new St. Anthony’s record, of an All-American Consideration time of 1:37.35! What’s the best part of that relay besides the 56 points we got? Not one of them is a senior! Three tenths off the CHSAA State record… and they’re all coming back!200 Free The 200 Free turned out to be one of our early pleasant surprises. A big focus was put on both Matt Vacchiano and Mike Graziano. Both were seeded right on the border of even coming back for finals and we needed those points. Yes, we put pressure on them, and they handled every bit of it! All four of our 200 freestylers gave us top performances. Michael Graziano, just a year into his swimming career, dropped two seconds on Saturday to make it back, then swam and incredible 159.64 and moved up 3 spots! Graz gave us the first example that we needed to win, and we just stayed on that roll all day! Matt Vacchiano was determined to swim well and dropped 6 seconds to his best scoring for us with a 158.75! John Mitchell had adrenaline to burn. There were multiple times I actually had to calm him down and sit him on the bleachers to keep him under control. Muhammad Ali in his prime would have been proud. Two events in, and Mitch is chanting “Victory”! He showed us what we needed out of our Friars to win: A 1:58.00 200 freestyler went a 1:55 at Chaminade, then to a 1:53 at Fordham. (yes Mitch, we need better… no problem!) At Trials, he went a 1:52.21, then moves up 3 spots with an incredible 1:51.33 in Finals! Oh man… we were on a roll! When I discussed what the coaching staff was looking to do with Sean Sullivan, being that he can swim any event for us, he simply looked at me and said “Whatever it’s going to take for us to win, Coach”. He’s a talented individual, who is all for TEAM. Sean moved up a spot with a new St. Anthony’s Team Record of 145.48!200 Individual Medley The 200 IM was a huge event for the Friars. We had 3 in Finals… and Joey Parisi in the consolation heat! Joey had the meet of a lifetime. He couldn’t do wrong. I was hugging Coach John in celebration of his 2:06 swim when he qualified for the consols on Saturday. Moving up and going 2:05.41 on Sunday… I was ecstatic with that swim! With Parisi already scoring big for us, we step into Finals with Black and Gold everywhere. Monte Jiran was as confident as I’ve seen him in his four year career. One of the quietest swimmers I’ve ever had, but was the first one to come up to me and enthusiastically say “I’m going to swim GREAT today”! And he was correct. Monte’s 6th place 201.89 IM gave the Friars their 7th State qualifier! Kent Bischoff was also a key finalist, as we had to decide in which event he would score higher. With his State Qualifying 200.57 4th place finish I believe we chose wisely. Swimming is a sport of fractions of a second. Races can be won by 1/100’s of a second, but not with Christian Yeager’s 200 IM. Christian WON by over 5 seconds. Total domination of the event! His 154.63 1st place finish was the Friars 2nd event WIN of the day and qualifies for All-American Consideration !50 Free Cameron Black was another Friar with an entire breakthrough season. He became a legitimate consistent scorer for us, and was needed to come up big in the 50 free. This is a nail biting event with no room for error. Cameron Black had his best flat start 50 with a 23.92! Last year Chris Cannon had his best swims in the 50 which landed him in a swim-off just for a place in finals. Although he swam even faster, he didn’t get that coveted 8th place spot in Finals. This year, he made sure there was no swim-off! Cannon had another personal best 50 free with a 22.55 and yes… in Finals! Here is where the Friars were really starting to be noticed as a threat to win it all. Mike Forgione and Bernil Carmichael-Lopes were both standing on the middle blocks. They started as 1-2… and they finished as 1-2!! Bernil swam an incredible 21.97 2nd place finish, and Forge gave the Friars their third 1st place finish with a blistering 21.85! Diving Since acquiring Coach Beth 5 season’s ago, she immediately made the Friar Divers a huge force to be reckoned with. Although our veteran diver, Megan Skrypek got sidelined with a broken wrist, our remaining four divers moved forward with Megan cheering them all the way. Our Diving Captain, Jack Volpe took control, and did an incredible job of leading veteran John (Jack) Farren, and our two new divers, Noel Theroux (14th) and Chris Hidalgo (15th). Our divers did so well, that they scored 17 points higher then seeded and actually tied Chaminade at 65 points apiece! To top off the diving performance that was a pleasure to watch, John Farren medaled with a 7th place Finals finish, and Jack Volpe broke the St. Anthony’s 11 dive diving record with a 3rd place finish with 385.85 points! What’s better then the 65 points the diving team scored? None of them are seniors!100 Fly “Wake up Connor Hayes… he has to swim”! That’s right, Hayes came down with mono right before Champs. Sleeping 15 hours a day and trying to muster up as much energy as he could… the Friars still needed him. Who else to get the butterfly-ers going but butterfly expert Coach Scott? When I heard him getting into their heads and the intensity of his speeches… man, I wanted to swim! I mean, these guys were pumped! Somehow, Hayes swam a personal best 56.30! Aidan McShane was as tough as nails. Although he swam great on Saturday, he just wasn’t satisfied. With tremendous confidence, he swam a 56.00 for a much needed 11th place finish! Chris Cannon was just tenths of a second off the State cut the last three times he swam the 100 fly. Before he went to swim, I showed him a piece of paper I had in my pocket. He looked at it, immediately recognizing that it was my list of guys going to states. Cannon looked at the paper, and then looked at me. With all the confidence in the world, Cannon said “pencil my name in there now, Coach”. Whew… I knew this was going to be a great swim. He swam his personal best AND became our 8th State Qualifier with a 54.00 7th place finish! Bryan Galan was driving me crazy. The 100 fly couldn’t come fast enough for him. He was like one of my kids on a road trip… “How much longer”? “Is it the 100 fly yet”? After pacing the bleachers, pacing the pool deck, it was time to unleash Galan on Eishenhower. He ripped up the pool to an awesome 53.60 swim!100 Free Stephen Brandt was seeded with a season best 53.11. The coaches have been talking to him about this one swim for two weeks. Stephen went home on Saturday with a huge smile on his face because he made it back for Sunday with a personal best 52.71. It was really great to see the support his teammates gave him. That was it. Overnight, Brandt became a competitor. He wasn’t just there to swim… he had a purpose. I thought he was going to do well when he stated “I’ve never been so ready for a swim”! Well, he proved that when he blew his heat out of the water, looked up at the clock and threw his arm up in the air in celebration. He was looking at a 51.91! The party continued with St. Anthony’s fastest 100 freestyler ever stepping up on the block. Standing in the middle, with half the heat filled with Fordham and Chaminade, Mike Forgione was ready to make his statement. Right from the start and out in a 22.65, Forge was out in front and never looked back. The result, another new St. Anthony’s Record at 47.32 and the Friars 4th first place finish! 500 Free Four Friars await their shot to score in the 500 free. Bouncing off the walls like Ricochet Rabbit (am I dating myself here?) John Mitchell was more then ready. Touching out both Chaminade swimmers with his personal best 507.50 got the entire team on their feet. Senior Monte Jiran, with a tremendous amount of distance experience, moved up huge dropping his time to a 502.31. Kent Bischoff struggled to get comfortable in Trials. Not the case in Finals. The 2 mile Waves-of-Hope Champion drew upon his distance talent and found his groove in the second half. Kent’s splits dropped, and so did his time. Breaking 5 minutes, with a 458.95 gained huge points for the Friars. Stepping up in the Final heat, and donning the Black and Gold Friar cap, was our top seed Sean Sullivan. Although he made it look easy, Sean’s splits were amazingly consistent. As Coach Scott kept reading me the same 28 second split, I kept repeating, “again... again?” His pace never faltered; in fact it only got better, as all of Eisenhower watched another Friar swim to a first place finish. Sean’s new St. Anthony’s Record of 443.76 was our fifth first place finish! (Yeah, I could get used to this!).200 Free Relay We come to where I believe was the biggest turning point of the meet. We were seeded behind the favored to win, Fordham Prep relay. With the use of Chris Cannon in the Medley Relay, we freed up Mike Forgione to make our 200 Free Relay faster. Faster? They were lightning! Forge led us off with a 21.83, followed by Sean Sullivan’s 22.80. Kent Bischoff’s sprinting was rock solid and he gave us a 22.30. With our relay and Fordham’s relay just about neck and neck, our anchor Bernil Carmichael-Lopes took off. Although it was close as they sprinted their first 25 yards, Bernil executed the BEST flip-turn I’ve ever seen and came out a full body length ahead. The Friars didn’t even wait for the first place finish (our 6th by the way) the eruption of cheers came from both the team and from the bleachers overhead, where the Friar parents were screaming all day! I took a moment to take it all in. My heart was pumping out of my chest. I told Coach Scott that I couldn’t even slow my heart rate down. I turned around to see our team marveling over Bernil’s turn, and celebrating the Relay victory. Forgione, Sullivan, Bischoff, and Bernil yielded another St. Anthony’s record breaking, All-American Consideration time of 128.21! That was the first time in years that I witnessed the faces of the mighty Fordham team drop. The Friars are threatening their title!100 Backstroke As we head into the 100 back, nobody dressed in Black and Gold could sit back down. We are ready to follow up our relay victory with another of our strongest events. Mono-man, Connor Hayes, started us off moving up 3 spots with an awesome 100.20 that he would sit and recover from for a full 5 minutes before making it back to our bleacher. The consolation heat was a convincing full second victory for spark plug Joey Parisi, swimming a 17 point 57.44! The Final heat was not a huge margin of victory, but what mattered was that the battle turned out to be a Friar victory. Bryan Galan dropped almost a full second as he powered to a 4th place 54.17. That swim was actually his 4th individual State Qualifying event… the most on the team this season! I’ll give you one guess as to where Christian Yeager finished in his 100 backstroke. You see a pattern here, don’t you! That’s correct… Yeager gave the Friars another Team Record, breaking his brother’s former record time (nice to keep it in the family, isn’t it!) with a 52.94 and our 7th first place finish!100 Breaststroke Cameron Black stepped up all weekend. His first 100 breast accomplishment was dropping over 3 seconds to make it into the consolation heat. He swam a 108.10 to move up a few spots and get the Friars 11 more points. Aidan McShane was more then ready for his Finals swim. Moving up from 8th to 5th with his 102.11, he became our 9th State Qualifier that will be going to Buffalo! The Friars were grabbing every point they could, and Bernil Carmichael-Lopes once again made it exciting. As one of the best finishers you’ll ever see, it was the final stretch to the wall that gave him the .04 second margin for the Friars 8th first place victory! Bernil’s amazing 59.34 is another St. Anthony’s record as well as an All-American Consideration time! 400 Freestyle Relay For the 1st time in St. Anthony’s Swimming/Diving history we sit with the CHSAA Championship in site. There is only one event left to swim. Coach John pulled our relay swimmers aside, as we now know that all we have to do is finish in the heat. Starts were to be held “safe”, as raising that Championship plaque over our heads is only a few minutes away. The Friars knew there was going to be some quality relays, but we were not short of any swimmers. We had four top sprinters eager to get the job done. Michael Forgione led us off, and got us our usual early lead. We kept building from there, as we knew no lead was safe from Holy Trinity’s Jack Wagner. So we built the best lead we could. Sean Sullivan stretched it out even further with a 49.04, and Bryan Galan increased our lead by swimming a 49.31. We now throw it all in the hands of sophomore Christian Yeager. Although the relay win is not imperative to the Championship, Christian wants to finish in style. Jack Wagner chased him down for 100 yards. The result was only a difference of 15/100’s of a second… for the winner… with their incredible 9th first place finish of the meet, a new Friar 400 Freestyle Relay Record of 314.61!
The celebration will be burned into our memories forever. As our Captains hoisted up our 1st Championship plaque, the team flooded the pool. sit ... a site I couldn’t wait for our team to experience. Every member of the team was bestowed a Champion. Team shirts soaked, arms raised with fingers pointing to the heavens… we are number one! Whether you were swimming your guts out in this meet, flipping and twisting off a springboard with disciplined acrobatics, cheering with the team in the bleachers, or screaming from the stands… you were a part of this monumental achievement!
Special thanks to Brother Gary and Don Buckley for all of their continued support. To all the parents who never forget to set the alarm clock to 5:00 am. Our moderator, Dr. Mark Capodanno, who keeps all the loose ends tied tight together. To Ray Yeager, who keeps our web site the best there is. My dear friends who coach with me, Coaches Beth, Scott, and John (you guys are the best!). And to all the alumni of this incredible Friar Swimming and Diving Team; you will be happy to know that it’s a very special group of athletes who finally achieved the Championship for this wonderful program you help build to what it is today.
Finally, to the 2010 Friar Swimming and Diving Team… I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed watching you compete. I thank you for an experience of a lifetime. It is well deserved that each and every one of you is titled…. CHAMPION!!
Coach Dan McBride is awarded NYCHSAA Division "A" Coach-of-the-Year! |
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Summary from Preliminaries Friar swimmers finish prelims and are poised to make a run at defending Champs, Fordham Prep. The Friars' 200 Medley Relay is the top qualifier going into Sunday's finals, finishing 0.03 seconds ahead of Iona Prep. in Saturday's Prelims. In the 200 Free, Sean Sullivan is seeded 4th going into Finals. John Mitchell is 14th and Matt Vacchiano ripped off 6 seconds from his seed time to qualify 20th. Michael Graziano rounds out the Friars swimmers in the 200 Free, qualifying 24th. Christian Yeager is the top qualifier in the 200 IM, with Kent Bischoff 3rd and Monte Jiran 6th with a State Qualifying time. Joey Parisi qualified in 14th for Sunday's Finals. In the 50 Free, Michael Forgione is the top qualifier, 0.10 seconds ahead of 2nd seed Bernil Carmichael-Lopes. Chris Cannon finished 8th while Cameron Black qualified in 22nd. In the Butterfly, Bryan Galan is the Friars' top qualifier heading into the Championship Finals, finishing 6th in prelims with a state qualifying time. Chris Cannon finished 7th. Connor Hayes qualified in 12th and Aidan McShane finished 15th. In the 100 Free, Michael Forgione is seeded 2nd in Sunday's Finals. Stephan Brandt finished 19th for the Friars. Sean Sullivan set a new team record in the 500 free, qualifying in 2nd place for finals. Kent Bischoff finished 11th, Monte Jiran finished 12th, and John Mitchell finished 14th. The Friars' 200 Free Relay qualified in 2nd place for the Championship Finals. Christian Yeager is the top seed in the 100 back and defending NYCHSAA Champion, Bryan Galan, qualified in 4th. Joey Parisi finished in 10th place while Connor Hayes finished 19th. Bernil Carmichael-Lopes set a new Friars record in the 100 Breaststroke, qualifying in 2nd place for Sunday's finals. Aidan McShane will also swim in the Championship Heat, qualifying in 8th. Cameron Black finished in 14th place. The last event of the Prelims was the 400 Freestyle Relay, where Friars swimmers qualified in 1st heading into Finals.
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| Divers kick off Champs "Friar" Style | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jack Volpe
breaks Friar's Diving Record
Friar Divers earn 65 points to kick off our Championship weekend. Jack Volpe was our top point scorer breaking the St. Anthony's School Record taking 3rd place with 385.85 points. Our most improved athlete this year, John Farren, was also a Finalist taking 7th with 314.15 points. Both of our divers in their rookie seasons, earned consolation points with Freshman Noel Theorex placing 14th, and Sophomore Chris Hidalgo placing 15th. Congratulations Coach Beth on another job well done! |
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| Get information regarding Champs & all meet results from the | ||||
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Friars top Fordham Prep
and remain unbeaten, winning the NYCHSAA dual meet title. |
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No Ties!
HOLY COW!! I still can’t believe those times were swam at a DUAL MEET!
I just have to say that I work with the most amazing coaches. Coaches Beth, Scott, and John are simply amazing! Our lineup was brilliant, and the divers were spectacular! I couldn’t be more blessed to have such a staff.
From the minute the Friars stepped on the Fordham University pool deck, I knew the night was going to be special. As it turned out, the only nervous one was me. With my belly full of Pepto, and double checking all my paperwork to make sure I had everything in place, my coaches and team of incredible athletes were beaming with confidence and psyched like I haven’t seen all season! We knew this lineup was different, and as it turned out… magical. Going up against the reigning Champions, Fordham Prep, and leading that team is the extremely intelligent Coach Dom Galimi, its not a task that’s taken lightly. It was only one year ago that the Friars stood on that deck and swam to a “tie” with the mighty Fordham. Going home without a way to get just one more point, began a new quest for the Friars. Be at least one point better this year! Our first task was to beef up our Medley Relay. We didn’t just beef it up… Coach John said throw on a few extra patties! Our 1st place finish of Yeager, Bernil, Galan, and Forgione, swam to an incredible, State Qualifying, St. Anthony’s record breaking, 1:38.64! (SQT #1). Yes, you read that right, a 1:38 at a dual meet. I know…shocked me too! What really made the event special was the B relay’s 3rd place scoring finish. Parisi, McShane, Hayes, and Cannon swam a 1:42.22… a relay that most teams wish was their A relay! Those guys set the tone that became contagious for the Friars.
We had to make a lineup change. Sean Sullivan was our hidden key. He started his night winning the 200 free with a State Qualifying 148.12! (that’s SQT #2). Right behind Sean, was Jiran with his personal best 149.80, and Mitchell with a awesome touchout at a 153.39! Krawczyk dropped 8 seconds to his best 204.71. Our 200 IM was going to be lead by Christian Yeager. Yeager won the event with a State Qualifying 155.74! (did I mention this is just a dual meet?)(SQT#3). Right behind him was another surprise move of Kent Bischoff moving to the IM, and he didn’t disappoint with a State Qualifying time of 200.43! (SQT#4). Are you ready for this? Joey Parisi dropped 3 seconds off his personal IM with an awesome 206.89! What a swim. And Nick Johns, moves closer to his A Champs goal with a 242.61. (Go get ‘em on Sat. Nick!).
Two events that I traditionally don’t fill as strong as other events are the 50 and 100 freestyles. That’s another thing we wanted to change, as Fordham showed strong showings in both those events vs. Chaminade. Did we change them? I asked Coach Scott, how often do you see 3 swimmers in a dual meet go a “22” in the entire 50 free event? How about from ONE TEAM! That’s right… Forgione, Bernil, and Galan ALL went 22! In fact, it was Forgione, 22.13, Bernil 22.44, and Galan 22.49. Think there’s anything else special about those times? Good Guess! (you’re getting good at this!) ALL THREE are State Qualifying Times! (ok, where am I… that’s SQT’s #5, #6, and #7). At this point, I really did run out of State Qualifying forms. Now I’m actually at a meet asking for a copy machine. Yep, a first for me!
There was no pressure on our divers. Coach Beth prepared them for exactly what they were going up against. The best diving team in the league. But guess what, pressure was on them as they were to face the second best team, the Friar Divers! Watching the Fordham 4, Coach Beth continued to give them instruction, and keeping them focused on their own dives, we just kept getting better and better. The main goal was to get as much experience for Champs which is going to be right back on those same boards on Feb 5th, but something amazing was happening. All the Friar Divers scores were climbing! As a result, Volpe, Farren, Theroux, and Hidalgo gave us a bonus as they finished a higher then expected 3,4,5! (remember guys… 78 points at Champs, right Jack!)
I did mention beefing up the freestyle events. The 100 free was a double pounder! The next 1-2 punch was the 1,2 finish of Forgione, breaking his OWN St. Anthony’s record with a 48.10 (SQT #8) and Bryan Galan with his “always all out” effort 49.22 (SQT #9). Monte Jiran backs up the Friars in any event possible. When we need an IM’er, we have Monte. We need a Distance Freestyler, we have Monte. When I need a backstroker… a breaststroker… you name it, we have Monte. Tonight, we needed a sprinter, and we had Monte… scoring big with his 51.38! Hoey finished his much improving 100 with a 101.7.
Our next success was our move of Sean Sullivan to the 500 free. Not much a move really, he’s our current St. Anthony’s record holder! And he’s STILL the record holder, as he broke his own record with a State Qualifying time of 448.10! (SQT #10). Kent Bischoff had such a huge lead on his “man to beat” that Coach John shut him down on the final 100 yards, (because he and Sean were anchoring the next relays) and he still went a 504.29! Mitchell is one tough swimmer. He has been improving seconds at a time, and this was no different with his 516.48 finish. Sam Vaca will follow right in Mitchell’s shoes. Still new to the sport, and one of the teams’ hardest workers, Sam has swum multiple events for the Friars this season where he has gained much experience. Here he went his best in the 500 with a 609.50 finish.
Our next group of relays were carefully picked and evenly spread out. Knowing how fast the Fordham relay is, we didn’t want any less then a 2,3 finish, and that’s exactly what the Friars did. Everything is actually going better then planned! Leading us off was Galan 23, Cannon 23, Jiran 23, and anchoring the relay after the 500 was Sean Sullivan with a 22.31! Our B relay was right behind them with Brandt 24, Black 23, Vacchiano 24, and anchoring after swimming the 500 was Kent Bischoff with a 22. 46! (should all our sprinters swim a 500 before they race?)
I looked at Christian Yeager and he was discussing his upcoming event with our Moderator Dr. Mark Capodanno. Looking as psyched as he was, I decided to see how fast he was planning on going. So I asked him what he was going to go. He replied “a 53?”. I said “a 53, what”? Christian thought, then said “a 53 point sssix??” I said “c’mon Christian, you look ready, what are you going to go all the way out to the hundredth!” He finally shot out with complete confidence… “I’m going to go a 53.64 Coach!” Would you believe he actually won the 100 backstroke with a State Qualifying, St. Anthony’s record breaking 53.68! (SQT #11). Only .04 off the prediction! Crazy! Continuing the Friar charge in the 100 back, was Joey Parisi, who absolutely had a night with his 58.57! And Conor Hayes was solid as a rock with his 100.05! Our nice surprise in the 100 back was AJ Phelan qualifying for A Champs with his 114.55! (sorry AJ… you’re out of the meet on Sat! Congrats!)
The Friars were on their feet, cheering on the side of the pool all night. Feeling the excitement of the finish in sight for the Friars, even the stands started rising to their feet. Here Bernil took over the 100 breast right off the block with his quick start. With the crowd growing louder, Bernil swam a State Qualifying Time of 100.49 (SQT #12) and winning the event. Rounding out the depth of the Friars was Aidan McShane with a 103.82 and Cameron Black with his best 109.96! Joe Guistino dropped his A Champ qualifying time to a 118.85!
Last year’s 400 Free Relay felt like a heartbreak. We had the lead until our relay fell to the Fordham Rams. We wanted to make sure that wasn’t the case this year. We led off with St. Anthony’s fastest 100 freestyler, Mike Forgione, who got our Friar lead with his 48.92. Then we never looked back. Bischoff went a 50.71, Yeager a 50.54, and finished with Sullivan’s 53.01. Of course they were backed up with another great relay of Cannon, 54.13, Jiran 52.65, Mitchell 53.38, and Parisi 53.15. But, it was the eruption of cheering and smiles when Kevin Flynn touched the wall for our final finish and completing the Friars Undefeated Dual Meet Championship! No ties. No Co-Champs.
We’ve completed the first part of our quest and finished successfully. What am I most proud of? It may be that not every name was mentioned here… but every single member of this team DID compete in this meet. ALL of them. An entire team effort. Just as we did all season long. We now look to Champs. Where we will once again put forth an entire Friar Team effort. Whether you’re swimming, cheering, or just praying for our Friar victory. We’ll do it as a TEAM!
LET’S GO FRIARS! |
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| Slide Shows provided by L. Jiran | Slide Show 1 | Slide Show 2 |
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| Friars meet & defeat Virginia. |
Friar swimmers took an early lead and never looked back, defeating Chaminade by 26 points. Senior Captain Michael Forgione broke his own team records in the 100 & 200 freestyles, winning both events and leading the Friars to victory. Junior Bernil Carmichael-Lopes added 2 more victories, as the Friars remain unbeaten in the NYCHSAA. Juniors Bryan Galan & Sean Sullivan each added 1st place finishes. Bryan defended his 2009 NYCHSAA title in the 100 backstroke, easily outpacing his Chaminade rivals. Sean swam to a 1st place tie in the 100 fly. Kent Bischoff dominated the 500 free, while fellow sophomore Christian Yeager won the 200 IM. The team was without freshman Conor Ryan, who was recently diagnosed with a blood clot in his neck. Conor was discharged from the hospital on Sunday yet was pool-side in support of his Friar compatriots. The Friars won all 3 relays. Virginia here we come! |
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Congratulations!
Scooby's Scouts is named the top Family Teamin Suffolk County! |
| Ben Bertuch swims the 500 free leading the Friars to 4-0 |
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The Friars sweep, with a different winner in each
individual event. Cameron Black won the 200 free. John
Mitchell in the 200 IM. Ben Bertuch took the 50 free.
Jack Volpe continues his 1st place streak winning the diving.
Pete Lanwes won the fly. Connor Hayes in the 100 free.
Joey Parisi was our unofficial winner, but Freshman Sam Vaca was the
official winner of the 500 free. Chris Sullivan won the 100
back. And finally, Joe Guistino not only won the 100 breast,
but qualified for "A" Champs. After just 4 meets, the
following Friars have already qualified for "A" Champs: Ben Bertuch Cameron Black Stephan Brandt Kent Bischoff Chris Cannon Bernil Carmichael-Lopes Drew Cohen Mike Forgione Bryan Galan Connor Hayes Monte Jiran Conor Ryan Chris Sullivan Sean Sullivan Sam Vaca Christian Yeager Mike Graziano James Krawczyk Pete Lanwes Aidan McShane John Mitchell Joey Parisi Matt Vacchiano Joe Guistino |
| Friars move to 3-0 with win over Iona Prep |
| The Friars swam incredible in the surprise meet of the season... with surprises of their own. Following Forgione and Bischoff's 1-2 finish, Mitchell went a 1:55 in the 200 free. Jiran and Parisi were a powerful duo in the 200 IM and 100 back. Galan was dominating in the 50 free. Our divers were flawless! Volpe was in top form. I was so impressed with the improvement of John "Jack" Farren who took 2nd, and Skrypek 5th, gave the Friars the first point cushion of the meet. Keeping the Friars in front with our highest scoring event of the evening was Galan, Hayes, and Cannon in the 100 fly. Graziano and Vacchiano came up big for us in the 500 free. McShane, Black, and Ryan in the 100 breast gave the Friars enough points for the win! |
| Friars Swimmers
& Divers stay perfect ...
defeating Holy Trinity at the HHH Natatorium. |
| Slide Show compliments of L. Jiran |
| Friars get 1st Win of the Season |
The Friars look impressive in their first meet of the 2009-10 season with a win over Msgr. Farrell. The meet took place at the College of Staten Island. 1st place finishes were swam by Sean Sullivan, Mike Forgione, Stephan Brandt, Jack Volpe (diving), Conor Hayes, Bryan Galan, Christian Yeager, and Kent Bischoff. |
| Lady Friars break Record at States |
| Congratulations Marielle Pavek, Colleen Manning, Shannon Lulley, and Chandler Lulley set a new Friar Team Record in the 200 Free Relay with a 1:41.77 Brianna Riley makes it back to finals and swims a 100.67 in the 100 fly. |
| FRIARS finish 2nd at Champs! |
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New Records! Team records were set in the 200 Medley Relay by Chandler Lulley, Amanda Barry, Brianna Riley, and Shannon Lulley with a 1:52.50 and in the 200 Free Relay by Shannon Lulley, Chandler Lulley, Colleen Manning, and Marielle Pavek with a 1:42.18 |
| Amanda Barry Wins the 100 breast with a 1:09.79 |
| The following
will be representing the Friars at STATES in Webster, NY Brianna Riley - Sr Danielle Arens - Sr Colleen Manning - Jr Shannon Lulley - So Chandler Lulley - So Marielle Pavek - Fr Amanda Barry - Fr
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Champs Review 2009 To fully understand the monumental finish… we must start at the beginning. And I mean the very beginning. I began this Friar journey of mine in 1989. And I owe it all to the very dear to my heart, Golden Family. It was Christine Golden who first approached me and asked me if I’d be interested in coaching her high school team at St. Anthony’s. Although I was excited at the time, I had no idea what a dream enterprise I’d be stepping into. On that team, 20 years ago, was a talented young lady with as much spirit and desire as I’d ever seen. My instant fascination with the Friars was due to the passion they had for the sport of swimming, led by Christine “Goldie” Golden (now Christine Williams), Friar great, Amy DeMarle, and the swimmer I’m talking about, Liz Darcy (Coach Liz Welling). Liz had that “Nothing less then 100%” attitude that still exists on this team 20 years later. Christine Golden had a younger sister with as much fight in her as any competitor. A talented distance swimmer who suffered from serious “activity induced” asthma. She was always stealing the attention, as everyone listened to her gasp for air as she swam, even if you were on the other side of the pool. We all referred to it as “the squeak”. As we listened, we all felt her pain, but the squeak only made Annie Golden (now Coach Annie Snyder) stronger. Our Coach, Mike Meyer, put it best. “His mellow exterior never matched his inner intensity”. And this was as obvious to me when I met Scott Chiovaro (that’s right… Coach Scott) at 8 years old as it is today. Coach Scott and I have a long history and friendship spanning over 28 years. To him, swimming is a state of mind. An extreme state of mind, to say the least. Being a Friar swimmer gets you the rare privilege of experiencing that height of intensity. All you have to do is talk to him. Friar Captain Billy Krause simply put it as “words of wisdom for everybody”. I actually get a kick out of how that same intensity he had as an awesome swimmer shines in his coaching. What’s the point of all this? Who would have guessed 20 years ago that it would be these three special people that would be the backbone of what I’m calling… “Our most improved team, ever!” After graduating 16 talented seniors last year, I was very intrigued to see what this “rebuilding” year was going to be like. Can you believe it? That’s right… I initially called this a rebuilding year. OK, so one foolish statement in 20 years… give me a break. As always, this season started with 37 very out of shape girls. But… there was a certain spark about this team that Coaches Scott, Annie, Liz, and I saw immediately. We had the perfect blend of upper-class leaders, and young, feisty, never say die talent. It was right at the conclusion of the 1st meet where we were WAY off cut times that Coach Scott and I talked about how “this team really listens”. At the very next practice, I stepped into Coach Annie and Coach Liz talking about how “coach able” these girls are. And they were correct. The girls were improving at an alarming rate. The excitement quickly became contagious. Through the 1st half of the season they remained focusing on “how” they were swimming and not “how fast” they were swimming. As a result, the times were dropping. We were ready for our 1st test of the season going against The Mary Louis Academy; a young and upcoming team in the league who’s been getting stronger every year. They are a team with a reputation of swimming hard from the first event to the last. And we were to face them without our strong duo, The Lulley’s. With the 20 point win, we were ready to begin really focusing on Champs and going “full strength” against the always deep Kellenberg. It was after that meet that we all knew that we’d be ready for Champs. Last year we faced Sacred Heart in our dual meet, and to say the least, it wasn’t pretty. With the top swimmers in the league still remaining on SHA, I wasn’t expecting anything from the Friars but our best performance. Well the Lady Friars went way beyond expectation! In fact… when we were half way into the meet and only 7 points down, we were actually giving them a meet! I just watched and admired how my team proudly walked off the pool deck at Chaminade. Not only were they ready… but they now believed in themselves. Day 1. Champs. Remember the “young” team I was bragging about? Can we also now add in NERVOUS? Would you believe… when we were 15 minutes into the warm-up at prelims my Gold and Black “Friar” watch stopped. No joke. I should have seen it as a sign. Well, the nerves took over right from the moment we hit the water. We had everything from missed walls, flat starts, swimmers getting sick, and sloppy finishes. We were heading into the 400 Free Relay, the Granddaddy of all relays. We were putting in our top four swimmers and I really wanted us to leave that day on a high note. Confident that they would make a State cut, I had the team prepared to scream and cheer our way into Sunday. Then… lightning struck. We are notoriously a slow team off the block, especially in relays. I taught them to be aggressive; as aggressive as possible. OK, maybe a little too aggressive. Our young nervous team jumped, and all went quiet. Not just the Friars… but the whole entire pool area. I must admit, I too was in a bit of a state of shock and not ashamed to say… I didn’t have a plan “B”. Now what. If I felt empty, so did my team. Time really did stand still. So I went to bed, and stared at the ceiling. Day 2. Finals. Trials were over. It was a new day. (And the girls even wanted a new seat… moving themselves to the starting end of the pool! Coach Liz loved that move!) We needed to look ahead. So we walked off the deck, sat as a team, and faced the blank wall. We were to leave the nervousness behind, and when we turned to face the pool, we were to attack it as only the Friars know how! And attack it we did! At Trials, I didn’t “declare” a single swimmer. (Lock into two relays). So, Coaches Scott, Liz and I decided we just needed to kick the Friars into gear and keep that energy going all day. So Chandler Lulley, Amanda Barry, Brianna Riley, and Shannon Lulley stepped up on the blocks to win the 200 Medley Relay and set a new Friar team record with an amazing 152.50! Team energy exploded… and we WERE BACK! The 200 free kicked off with Danielle Arens dropping 3 seconds for her personal best 209.19. Kaitlin FitzGerald destroyed her heat with a 205.90. Colleen Manning added to her great season dropping to a 202.59 personal best. Chandler Lulley was our top 200 freestyler with her personal best 200.24. The 200 IM event would yield our teams 2nd highest points of the meet. 80 points were scored by Callie Vacchiano, dropping 3 seconds to 223.37, Christine Swartwout, dropping 2 seconds to her best 218.85, Amanda Barry dropping 2 seconds to her best 218.53, and after qualifying for States on Saturday, Shannon Lulley dropped another second to finish 2nd with a 214.12! Ladies and Gentlemen, the Friars were on a roll! The Timed Final 50 freestyle was packed with Black and Gold. With 4 in the top heat, Senior Kirsten Smith, Collette Carman, Alison Sinicropi, and Taylor Russo gave us a 1,2,3,7 Finish! In Finals, all 4 of our sprinters were flawless. Gennie Cohen dropped to a 27.34, Morgan Krause down to a 26.90, Brianna Riley sprinted her personal best 26.23, and freshman Marielle Pavek swam her best flat start with a 25.63. Following the 50 free is our meet “break”. So go ahead… get yourself a snack. Grab a soda. Take a good 5 minute stretch. We have a lot to go! Our Timed Final 50 Fly again had all four of our Friars in the final heat. A 2,5,7,8 finish was turned in by Christine Della Ratta, Chloe Hyland, Olivia Jannuzzi, and Erica Ryan. The 100 fly was full of surprises for us. For starters… our teams little spark plug, Jackie Zoine not only beat her personal best with a 1:09 on Saturday, but swam even faster in Finals with a 108.18! And she’s far from finished… stay tuned! Gennie Cohen dropped a second to a 107.53, and Danielle Arens swam her 106.57. One of our big surprises was the late run by Brianna Riley. When she did a 1:02 100 fly, I was thrilled. When she did a 1:01 against Sacred Heart, I was ecstatic. Brianna swimming a 1:01.34 and qualifying for states… what an effort! The elation of the fly event continued to lift our team spirit. It was obvious continuing into the 100 free. The Timed Final event turned in great times by Marisa Brandt, 108.48, Meghan “coolest name on the team” Harley, 102.09, Danika Sess (recovering from the flu) 102.00, and winning the event was one of our hardest workers, Alison Sinicropi with a 59.61! Go Friars!! Our Finalists absolutely attacked the pool. First, Colleen Manning with her awesome 56.79, followed up by Marielle Pavek giving us her best swim to win the heat with a 56.64. I normally try not to swim “sisters” against each other… let alone “twins”. Funny, over the past few years, I don’t remember a time I didn’t have twins on the team. (The Hemendinger’s, the Vacchiano’s, and the Lulley’s). But as it turns out, this season I needed to. Shannon and Chandler not only embrace the challenge of competing against each other, they are also each others biggest supporters. Scoring 43 points between them in the 100 free alone, Chandler swam a 55.05, and Shannon a 55.45. Both being State qualifiers! The 500 free is one event were we really improved since last year. The improvements of Jenna Vacchiano, Jackie Zoine, and Christine Swartwout, along with adding freshman, Kaitlin FitzGerald, gave us a well rounded 500 event finishing 8,9,10, 11, and totaling 67 points! Jenna Vacchiano gained much distance experience this season and finished with her best, 601.37. Jackie Zoine had the season of her lifetime! She has been a joy to watch and cheer for as she put in 110% all season long. To me, it looked like she won an Olympic gold medal with her elated celebration after breaking the 6 minute mark in Trials. The entire team felt her joy when she went even faster in Finals with her best time of 556.74! (Merry Christmas Jackie! Personal joke). Kaitlin FitzGerald absolutely crushed her heat with a 542.66 which was by far her best 500 of the season! In writing our Champs lineup, Christine Swartwout was one of the swimmers who was juggled around in multiple events. Well, the founder of the Waves of Hope Swim for JDRF had the swim of her career so far with a personal best 530.21 in the final heat! The 200 Free Relay consisted of two of our State Qualifiers, Colleen Manning and Marielle Pavek, along with “Fitz” (Kaitlin FitzGerald) and Gennie Cohen. With this being our last relay that can score points for us and doing our best to hold off Kellenberg and Mary Louis, all eyes (mostly the officials) were on the Friars. They handled the added pressure like champions! With 4 of their best 50 splits, they touched out Kellenberg and swam a 145.47! Olivia Jannuzzi tied for 5th place in the Timed Final 50 back, with Beth Hughes taking 4th, Erica Ryan in 3rd, and Meaghan Harley put the Friars on top of another event winning the 50 back with a time of 32.91! In the 100 back, Jenna Vacciano exploded right from the start and smoked her heat with a 3 second drop and a best time of 107.96. Morgan Krause touched out 2 SHA swimmers with her 107.23. Sammy Norman never disappoints at Champs. Always stepping it up when the pressures on, gave her best swim of the season with a 106.16! One of our swims that just brought tears of joy was freshman Breann Lydon’s 100 back. Qualifying for finals, but in an outside lane, moved up to an incredible 3rd place finish with an amazing time of 102.95! (Honestly, I think Breann was more shocked then her teammates and coaches. What a joy to see!) For me, the 50 breast Timed Final was just an awesome senior sendoff. We were represented by four of our most dedicated seniors. Finishing out their high school careers in 1st class style, were Chloe Hyland, Callie Caputo, Nicole Russo, and Victoria Melone. We were heading into the final event for the Friars. Without a 400 Free Relay, the 100 breaststroke would give the Friars their last chance at scoring points at Champs. Well, our 4 breaststrokers gave us our highest scoring event at Champs with 84 points and making it impossible for any teams to pass us in points in the final relay. Gabi Cannon actually helped us big time being one of our better swims on Saturday when she dropped 3 seconds off her best time, only to then go even half a second faster with a 119.13. We then had 3 of our remaining Friars in the final heat. Kim Corso, who put off her shoulder surgery so she can swim at Champs, went an incredible 113.33 and a 7th place finish. I believe Callie Vacchiano really had a breakthrough season. She has now begun to start “competing” and not just “swimming” in her events. Her 112.49 swim yielded her a 4th place overall finish. As if those swims weren’t amazing enough… it was Amanda Barry who brought the house down. Amanda <33 is proof that hard work really does pay off. She worked with every and any coach who was available to work through some of the early struggles she had. Never letting frustration get the better of her, and learning from every swim she was disappointed with, gave her the Friars only individual trial/final win of Champs. Amanda’s strong 1st place finish was a State Qualifying 109.79! The breaststrokers gave us the finish we were looking for! The finale that really impressed me, was watching the entire team stand at attention and cheer during the 400 Free Relay. The Lady Friars not only swim fast… they’re 1st class! For 20 years I’ve stood on the pool deck coaching the Friars. Twenty teams… each of them different and each of them memorable. Starting this year, I thought it was going to be special for personal reasons. A milestone of sorts. But it’s not the number of years that made it so special. It was the makeup of swimmers and coaches. It was the “Team” and the tremendous success we had. Special thanks to Coaches Scott, Annie and Liz. Your incredible coaching talents shined all season long, especially at Champs. And to all our Friar Parents who continue to support this team! Most of all… thank you to each and every swimmer on this year’s team. It is a privilege and honor to be called your “Coach”. Go Friars!! |
| "We gave 'em a meet!" |
| Brianna Riley leads Friar charge and qualifies for States in the 100 Fly |
| Chandler Lulley, Amanda Barry, Brianna Riley, and Shannon Lulley qualify St. Anthony's for States in the 200 Medley Relay |
| I can't tell you how many emails I
received from parents commenting on how well the Lady Friars swam in
our meet vs Sacred Heart. I think that is an incredible
testament to the monumental effort the Friars gave in their only
loss of the season. We went after SHA with everything we had.
The result: 37 girls walked off the Chaminade pool deck with
their heads held up high saying... Bring on Champs!
Lady Friars finish our dual meet season at 8 - 1 |
| I would like to Thank my coaching staff: Coach Annie, Coach Liz and Coach Scott. You are simply the best. Watching our team swim the other night was a direct result of your hard work and dedication. Coach Annie looked at me after the meet and said "They really swam their best tonight". Coach Scott said "This is the most improved team we've ever had." I agree with both of them! |
| Pure energy gives Friars 8th Win |
| Congratulations
to Chandler Lulley who qualified for States in the 50 Free
Marielle Pavek, Colleen Manning, Shannon Lulley and Chandler Lulley qualify the 200 Free Relay for St. Anthony's Team Spirit hit a season high with cheers that started even before we hit the water. Callie Vacchiano's breaststroke was at it's best. Our Butterflyers, Gabi Cannon, Erica Ryan, and Brianna Riley all swam season bests. Jackie Zoine continues to take off time in her 500 (8 more seconds, as she announced to everyone!). Nicole Russo and Beth Hughes swam their personal bests in the 50 free. And... Danielle Arens got the team to the meet on time! (inside joke) |
| Friars extend to 7-0 with win over Holy Trinity |
| Many Lady Friars stepped it
up and swam with extra intensity. Danielle Arens showed what a great
leader she is. Sammy Norman sprinted to victory as the strong
anchor on the Med. Relay. Beth Hughes, Chloe Hyland, and
Caroline Lydon swam multiple events to fill our 1st half of the
meet. Nicole Russo and Marielle Pavek just couldn't lose!
Our Juniors did a great job with a tribute to our Seniors final home
meet. And to give flowers to Sister Lucide... 1st Class! The Friars celebrated their 7th Win of the season! |
| Shannon Lulley qualifies for States and leads the Friar charge over Kellenberg |
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Congratulations Shannon Swimming is said to be an "individual" sport... Not with the Friars, and certainly not if you saw the meet vs Kellenberg. This TEAM swims with PASSION! Why did we win? The Friars had 100% attendance and EVERY swimmer on the team swam in this meet and made a difference. We don't just look to the middle; our outside lanes came through in every event. The Friars are definitely looking more prepared for Champs at every meet! The Friars celebrated their 6th Win of the season! |
| Friars Celebrate another Win defeating TMLA |
| Now THAT'S a
TEAM effort! This is one tough team. With Colleen Manning swimming 4 times in under an hour. And Christine Swartwout swimming sick and refusing to come out of the meet. Gennie Cohen, Erica Ryan, Breann Lydon and many others, winning some of our best "touchouts" of the season. It was our true team effort that pushed the Lady Friars to victory. The Friars celebrated their 5th Win of the season! |
| Chandler Lulley leads Friars in win over St. John's |
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Congratulations Chandler On becoming the Friars first State Qualifier of the season with a time of 55.24 in the 100 Free |
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Relay Carnival |
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Lady Friars open the season with an
impressive performance at the Relay Carnival
I was very happy with our technique and
attitudes at the Relay Carnival. We've come a long way in
just 3 short weeks. Every swimmer has so far shown
improvement in both our strokes and our approach on how to
swim their events. This definitely looks like a tough young
team ready to embrace the challenge of improving every time
we hit the water.
Next meet:
Sat. Oct. 3rd at Half Hollow
Hills. 6:30 warm-up
Let's Go FRIARS!
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2009
Boy's States Eisenhower Park
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Slide Shows are posted on the NYCHSAA website's "News" page. |
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Just another reason why being a Friar is so special.
Below is a letter I received from a former Captain. |
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I would like to
congratulate the team on the 2nd Place finish this year. I'm
happy to see the team is doing so well. Congratulations to
Michael [Forgione] for breaking my 100 and 200 Freestyle
Records. That [the 200] was one of the best races of my life at
Champs in '99, along with our 400 freestyle relay that beat
Molloy. Congratulations to all the other guys who took down our
relay and all the other records. I hope to see you all at the
Alumni Meet this year.
Congrats again,
Bryan
Evangelista '99
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"A" Champs
Fordham Prep. nips St. Anthonys by 17 points to win the NYCHSAA Championship. Congratulations to Coach Dom Galimi & the Fordham Prep. team on a great effort.
Coach Dan McBride was named "Coach of the Year" by the NYCHSAA!
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| Congratulations |
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USA Swimming
has selected
Christian
Yeager to attend the 2009 Eastern Zone Select Camp, to be held at the University of Buffalo in May. |
| Dear Friars |
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Alana will be contacting the girls to make posters to advertise this event after school one day soon. If anyone would like to help Saturday 3/7, please let me know.
cell 631.355.1027 home 631.544.5190 |
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Best times at "B" Champs |
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The Friars kicked off the
Championship season with 100% best times at "B" Champs.
Seniors Mike Tibbetts and Brian Neary, along with freshmen Nick Johns and AJ Phelan, ALL swam their personal best times in each of their individual events.With only 4 swimmers... the Friars still managed to score 70 points with Nick Johns being our top medalist, placing 4th in the 200 IM. Congratulations to each of you as you made all your coaches proud.
All NYCHSAA Swimming & Diving results are available on the NYCHSAA website. |
| A Championship Season! |
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Friar swimmers & divers defeat Iona Prep ... remain
undefeated.
Friars finish as undefeated Co-Champions of New
York Catholic High School Athletics Association Swimming &
Diving.
Seniors McCarthy, McNally, O'Connell, Krause,
Strobl, Martin, Neary, Ramirez, and Siebert led the Friars in
another convincing win.
This gives the Friars their best dual meet season in history! Team spirit and camaraderie are at an all time high leading into Champs!
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| Announcing the arrival of a new Baby Friar. |
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Congratulations
to Coach Liz,
her husband Matt & their sons, Joey and Max,
who welcomed their new
baby boy on Friday, Jan 23rd to our Friar Family.
Mark Patrick Welling
7lbs.
14oz.
21
1/2 inches
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Friars top
Molloy...
and continue unbeaten streak. |
 Corey Martin |
| Friars fell Farrell |
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Joe Guistino
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| Friar Men & Women race past
Virginia in a combined
meet.
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| Eric Ramirez |
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Friars' College Commitments |
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| Billy Krause | Bucknell University check this out |
| Keira Yeager | Babson College check this out |
| Alana Biagioli | Fordham University |
| Samantha Schlich | Providence College |
| Emily DiDonato | Lehigh University |
| Friars
remain unbeaten after tying with Fordham Prep. for a share of 1st place in the NYCHSAA.
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Still undefeated!
The mighty Friars met the challenge of swimming the current two time Champions, Fordham Prep. I wish for just once, someone could stand in my shoes and see what it feels like to have your team of swimmers and divers rise to such a feat as convincingly defeating an incredible team like Chaminade where they swam their absolute best, then ask them to give you more. To go up against the best. To dig even deeper, and perform better then even they think they can… and they surpass your every expectation. It’s a feeling that’s unexplainable in words. The two teams that met up at Fordham University were well prepared. If you look at the meet results, and really put those times into perspective, you will not believe that this was a dual meet. Not Champs. Not States. Just a Tuesday night. But not a Tuesday night like any other this season.
We started the night with Krause, Bernil, Galan and Yeager (a freshman with an amazing comeback swim) qualifying St. Anthony’s Medley Relay to States. A 1:40.97 at a dual meet… are you kidding!? Already a State Qualifier, Mike Forgione went a 1:46.69 200 free backed up by Bischoff and Pisano both going a 1:50. Our 200 IM trio of Krause 1:56.85 SQT, Yeager 1:59.80 SQT and Jiran 2:03.85, also swam their best. Next up were our sprinting gunslingers, Galan 23.00, Bernil 23.03, and “shot out of a” Cannon 24.35 outscored Fordham 11-5. Since bringing Coach Beth on the Friars staff, she has already brought her Friar Divers up to being the 2nd best team in the entire league. Second only to the amazing Fordham Divers. Embracing the challenge, our Friar divers didn’t disappoint with their best performances of the season were Gannon, O’Connell and McNally. That was huge at this point in the meet. Best times continued in the 100 fly with Krause 53.47 SQT, and amazing swims from freshman Cannon 56.24, and Hayes 56.25. Are you REALLY LOOKING at these times?
Our 500 free was lead by another freshman sensation, Bischoff 4:59.52 with our veterans Pisano 5:00.86 and Jiran 5:09.49 also swimming personal best times. Looking beyond the incredible 1:32.18 swam by Bernil, Yeager, Pisano and Forgione in the 200 free… was our 3rd place relay of Cannon, Ruhnau, Brandt and Hayes that kept us in the meet. Bryan Galan’s amazing 54.97 SQT 100 back 1st place finish, along with team leader McCarthy and freshman Parisi, both going 1:00… kept us tie with the Champs! One of our strongest events this year is the 100 breast. Adding to our top Friar breaststroker Bernil 1:02.24, are another freshman duo Yeager 1:01.36 (SQT and new team record) and the most improved swim of the meet McShane 1:03.48. The awesome 2,3,4 finish by our breaststrokers put us up by the 2 points we would need to pull of what the rest of the league would have considered impossible. McShane was the first swimmer I came across on the deck and grabbed in a hug because I knew… the Friars will NOT LOSE tonight! We know what we have in our top relay. Our best… against their best. Our 3:22.39 by Forgione, Bischoff, Galan and Krause pushed the incredible Fordham relay to a 3:21.94. Two of the most respectable 400 free relays I’ve seen in a dual meet. But again, our fate was in our B relay. Showing off the depth of the Friars team, Jiran, Mitchell, Pisano and Hayes took down Fordham’s B relay. The Friars were NOT DEFEATED! After 12 long events… swimming and diving their absolute best. Back and forth with the reigning Champs: Bernil was the first to yell out “we haven’t lost”! The Friars stand strong and proud to say “we tied”. 93-93. The team got together and realized, we have yet another goal… Champs. After getting past Fordham without a loss, the possibility of an undefeated season has become a reality. We will now put the pedal to the metal… (although these days it’s put the pedal to the (TCS) sensor that sends a voltage signal to the PCM {powertrain control module} which sends a signal along a two-wire network to the throttle control motor that tells it to open full {WOT}, but I’m more old school) and finish as strong as possible to prepare us for where we always swim our best: Champs!
Freshman Christian Yeager set a Friars team breaststroke record with a 1:01.36. |
| Still unbeaten, Friars shock Chaminade | |||||||||||
| ... from Coach Dan | |||||||||||
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To begin with a recent history of the St. Anthony’s Swimming/Diving team: Over the past eight years or so, we have basically been competing for 3rd place in our league (League I of the Brooklyn/Queens CHSAA League). Over those years, we have battled with some great teams like Molloy, Msgr. Farrell, and even recently with St. John’s. When it came to Champs, we always accomplished our team goal to win our battle over those teams as Chaminade and Fordham were untouchable. But over the past 3-4 years, the Friars have been breaking away from the “best of the rest” and becoming more competitive with the top two. Last year, we finally made our impact and gave Fordham and Chaminade competitive dual meets. Still, proudly finishing 3rd… but commandingly.
Since the completion of last years Champs, this current team became focused on a goal. The possibility of beating Chaminade in a dual meet was in reach. And they wanted it! From day one in the water this year it was talked about. Every swim of every practice was focused. Our captains, Billy Krause and Danny McCarthy, (who had been emailing and texting me for a year about this meet) were vocal and determined to make sure their teammates were mentally prepared for the upcoming challenge. Our first 5 meets of the season were all planned out to get our swimmers and divers prepared to swim their best, and score their highest points as early in the season as Dec. 23rd. We began the season at 5-0, and when the team left practice on Sat, Dec. 20th at 7:35… I knew they were ready!
We had our layout, and yet Coach Scott, Coach John and I fine-tuned this lineup for an extra half hour. We wanted to make our statement early, and this was our result:
We knew we had a great “A” Medley Relay, and should take 1st with Krause, Bernil, Galan, and Yeager. But our 1st surprise was when our “B” relay, Parisi, McShane, Hayes, and Cannon, took 3rd by over 2 seconds. Just like that, we had our early lead.
The first surprise for us was the 200 free. To me, this became the meet. We set up this event with the hopes of breaking even, keeping our relay lead, and really making a statement of what should be our best event, the 200 IM. Well, placing better then even expected, Forgione, Bischoff and Pisano went 1,3,4 to outscore Chaminade 11-5 with Forgione being our 1st of 8 State Qualifying times of the night swimming a 1:46.88.
We followed that up with what we knew would be one of our best events the 200 IM. Krause, Yeager, and Jiran didn’t disappoint with their 1,2,4 finish that gave the Friars our highest scoring event of the meet. Both Krause (1:58.15) and Yeager (1:59.99) qualified for States, and showing the depth of the Friars was Jiran’s 2:05.10.
Chaminade displayed their first spark at the start of the 50 free. Although they exploded off the blocks quickly, Bernil and Galan performed the two best turns of the night and came back with 25’s to remember. Both of them out-touching the Chaminade sprinters for a dramatic 1,2 finish with freshman Chris Cannon getting his hand on the wall 5th to also score Friar points.
As Coach Beth always does… she had our divers ready and psyched for their event. As the scores went back and forth, and DD being multiplied; it became clear that we were again about to our-score the mighty Flyers. Gannon, McNally, and O’Connell finished an incredible 1,2,5. And we are about to follow that up with putting Billy Krause back on the block. Krause dominated the 100 Fly and qualified for States for his 2nd time in the meet (53.20) with Hayes finishing 3rd and Cannon again finishing 5th to score for the Friars.
Going up against Chaminade’s three 51 second 100 freestylers, Forgione, Brandt and McShane took on the task with Forgione winning the event and qualifying for States for his 2nd time (49.23).
Our distance freestylers finished 1,3,4 with Freshman Kent Bischoff winning the event at a 4:57.52, followed by Pisano’s personal best 5:00.50 and Jiran’s 2nd amazing swim of the night at a 5:10.22.
In an event where Chaminade has dominated with it’s sprinters, Yeager, Bernil, Cannon and Pisano finished with another Friar 1st in the 200 freestyle relay. Galan, McCarthy and Parisi won the 100 backstroke with Galan putting the icing on the cake and qualifying for States with an incredible 55.44.
The 100 breaststroke didn’t just finish with a 1-2 finish… It finished with a 1-2 State Qualifying finish by Freshman Christian Yeager (102.37) and Sophomore Bernil Carmichael-Lopes (102.91) giving us a total of 8 State Qualifying times!
The 400 freestyle relay stepped on the blocks with a chance to make it a clean sweep of finishing 1st in every event of the meet. Forgione, Galan, Bischoff, and Krause didn’t only make sure that happened, they finished first by 11 seconds!
The celebration was tremendous. Even the stands stood up in a sea of Black and Gold… cheering on an event that even many alumni and their families came to witness. Simply the best dual meet performance the St. Anthony’s Friars Swimming/Diving Team has put on to date. For this, I’d like to thank my coaching staff, captains, supporting parents, and of course the incredible swimmers and divers of this year’s team.
OUR SEASON IS JUST GETTING STARTED!
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| Friars
flatten St. Francis
The following made "A" Champs vs. St. Francis Prep:
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| Friars
top Trinity
for 4th consecutive victory.
McCarthy, McShane, Bernil, Cannon and
Mitchell lead Friars over Holy Trinity.
Diving veterans McNally and O'Connell have
their best performances of the season, while Volpe and
Farren are quickly improving. Strobl gets her personal high
score.
Ruhnau, Drago, and Afonso all qualify for A
Champs in the 100 Breaststroke.
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Divers go 1-2-3
It's a team effort that puts the Friars at
3-0.
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Friars
remain unbeaten
with a dominating win over St. John the Baptist!
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1st place finishes by:
Billy Krause
Aidan McShane
Bryan Galan
Chris Cannon
Mike Forgione
Bernil Carmichael-Lopes
Christian Yeager
Kent Bishoff
Danny McCarthy
Pete Lanwes
Joey Parisi
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Friars open
the 2008-9 season with back-to-back wins.
Friars Freshmen make a great first impression. Check the schedule page for information about upcoming meets. |
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| Senior Captain, Billy Krause, signed the National Letter of Intent and will be attending Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. |
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Friars Finish Second at CHSAA's I just drove home in silence. Every swim I witnessed over the past weekend played over in my head in total amazement. Did they really swim that incredible? Coach Scott rang my phone. “I can’t believe they just swam like that!” were the first words he said. The Friars just scored 769 points. I thought about some Friar teams of the past. When we would score over 600 points to win a Championship. In the mid 90’s when we became a powerhouse scoring over 650. When we had 2 nationally ranked All-American’s with an All-American relay finishing 2nd in the State, and we scored over 700 points to dominate a Championship meet. Now we just scored an amazing 769. If someone would have told me on Friday of last week, my team would score 769 points and need 16 more to win… I would have referred them to see Dr. Ray Yeager (who did an absolutely amazing job at announcing the Championships!). We may not have walked out of Eisenhower with a plaque, but I for one will call my girls…. CHAMPIONS! From day one in September, we began to work for Championship weekend. This year’s team was more focused and determined than ever. Their goal was to swim their absolute best at Champs. Over the last two days, the Lady Friars did just that. I have to start off with thanking my dear friends and colleagues, Coach Scott, Coach Annie, and of course Coach Liz, who’s currently in Switzerland with her America’s Cup Champion husband and family. (Coach Liz emails me daily to see how the girls are doing). Coaches Scott and Annie were vital in getting the swimmers prepared, and properly focused. They were also keeping me focused! I don’t know how any of the girls actually swam that well. I myself was mentally and physically exhausted after two days of split timing decisions to keep as many swimmers rested and not overused as possible. This kept us performing at our very best. (And special thanks to Sam Schlich and Celine Rivera, who every 15 minutes reminded me to breathe!) Right off the bat, the meet started with a split second decision. As the meet was seeded just before the start of the meet… due to circle seeding, Taddeo had to swim back to back. Because the Friars had already qualified the 200 Med Relay at the SHA dual meet, we were able to have Jenna and Callie Vacchiano, Erin Kosubinsky and Alison Sinicropi take over. Take over they did… they qualified us 4th for Finals! This set us up for our 1st State qualifying relay. Marisa Taddeo, Emily DiDonato, Lindsey Parmiter, and Brianna Riley broke the St. Anthony’s team record with an incredible 153.12! This was followed by the first of our Friar dominated Finals. We had 4 (that’s right… ALL FOUR) of our qualifiers in the Final heat! Alana Biagioli gave us our fastest 200 free since 2005, with a blazing 155.57! (the look on Lanzy’s face was priceless!) Taddeo was right behind her with her lifetime best 157.17! (Coach Scott, Coach Annie and I all knew as soon as we saw Tads on Sat, that she was going to have an awesome weekend… she was in a ZONE!!). Colleen Manning had already done her best by dropping a second on Sat., but of course that’s not enough for Colleen… she iced the cake and dropped two more to go a 205.09 on Sun! Then, freshman Shannon Lulley (Holy Cow are you going to hear about her) began her awesome story by swimming a 205.32. The Lady Friars just kept rolling in the 200 IM. Taylor Cannon swam her best of the season dropping another 1.5 seconds to a 225.15. Keira Yeager now decides to go completely crazy and drop 7 seconds overnight moving up 8 spots to win her heat in Finals with a 221.90. (show off!) Still new to the IM this season, the new and improved Christine Swartwout qualified in the Final heat to swim her Friar best at a 224.50. Following a week of having the flu, carefully rested Emily DiDonato had a comeback to remember overtaking Sacred Heart’s Emily Tan in the breaststroke/freestyle and ripped up the pool with a Friar 1st at 213.14! To start off the 50 free on Sat, Gabi Cannon, Kirsten Smith, Callie Vacchiano, and Colette Carmen all lined up in the final heat and ALL in the middle. Total Friar domination!! (man… I love it when that happens!). Both Meredith Vanderveldt and Brianna Riley dropped time in finals to feed the Friars more points. MaryKate Morcerf dropped her 50 free time twice at Champs to finish with a 26.49! Sam Schlich tried to swim completely THROUGH the bulkhead… dislocating her shoulder. She figured the best place to rest up for finals would be in the hospital, so her mom took her straight there. It worked. As determined as Sam always is, she found a way to swim better in finals with a fourth place 26.12! *OK… there’s usually a break here in the meet for a 10 minute warm-up. So, go ahead and take a reading break… maybe get a soda or something. There’s still quite a bit to go here! One thing the Friars have had over the past few years are 50 fly specialists. This was shown again with the “four in finals” Christine DellaRatta, Mary Kruse, Jackie Zoine, and Erin Kosubinsky. We continued to drop time in the 100 Fly. Meredith Vanderveldt finished her senior year with a personal best 107.28. Taking on the fly event late in the season, Brianna Riley sprinted her best 106.63. One of our awesome surprises this season was Danielle Arens. She was a coaching staff eye opener on the 1st day. It was a pleasure to watch her drop to a 106.33! In finals was our Friar “spark plug”… Lindsey Parmiter. After a monumental top seed swim on Sat. (100.13) Lindsey broke a minute in the 100 fly with a 59.80! (whooo wheee!) Guess what the Friars had on Sat. in the 100 free? C’mon… one guess. You got it! Four in the top heat… all four in the middle! Oh man, you HAVE to love that. Olivia Jannuzzi, Jenna Vacchiano, Alison Sinicropi, and Morgan Krause treated Eisnhower to another “That’s right… we’re the Friars” show! In Finals on Sun, we had three HUGE swims. Shannon Lulley, first swam a 57.1 (keep waiting, it’ll get better) and blew that away with her best flat start 56.83! Brianne Dwyer, another one of our tough competitors who’s a pleasure to watch, swam her best 56.07! Still smiling from ear to ear after her 200… the always focused Alana Biagioli swam another consistent 54.07! (have a meet Alana!) To my young 500 freestylers… you made your coaches very proud. On Sat, we got three (Christine Swartwout, Chandler Lulley, and Gennie Cohen) to seed at the top of Consols and Colleen Manning made Finals! This became a tall order on Sun, as at a minimum, we must keep our spots. This was the most focused I’ve ever seen these 4. They embraced the challenge, and became competitors. Not just swimmers. Staying at the top of their heats, G-Coh swam a 555.88, C-Lulley dropped to a 547.23, and Swartwout dominated the heat with a 542.82! Colleen Manning stepped into the Final heat with one of the best high school swimmers in the country. Not only did she do her best time (546.90), but she moved up a spot to 7th overall! The 200 freestyle relay was psyched. Leading off with one of my all time best sprinters, Alana Biagiloi, she jumped us out to an early lead. Emily DiDonato was blazing, sprinting her best to keep us in front. I was so proud to see MaryKate get on that relay and do as well as she did. Perseverance pays off! The relay was anchored with none other than Lindsey Parmiter, (who can swim as fast as she can talk!) who’s finish gave the Friars another team record of 142.72! This put our second relay into States. On our Friar team, we are again loaded with 50 yard backstrokers. Putting in our fastest four again had our group of Friars in the final heat. With their much improved starts and turns, great performances were turned in by Alison Sinicropi, Erica Ryan, Morgan Krause, and Jenna Vacchiano! Oh… the 100 back! The first of the next two events where the Friars would score over 90 points in each! Celine Rivera’s incredible four year career came down to her final 100 back. Of course her heat had to swim faster on Sun, but not to be outdone, Celine dropped another 2 seconds for her all-time personal best 106.15! Now to Finals, Sammy Norman who has really been fine tuning her backstroke late in the season, swam her best in over a year at 105.69. Placing second in the backstroke Finals is Taylor Cannon. WHAT! Second in Finals… Taylor Cannon! Crying tears of joy, Taylor swam a 104.80 only to finish behind none other than our very own Taddeo! Tads was just in a zone. Using her asset, one of the best streamline positions you’ll ever see, Taddeo (that’s right, she does have a first name… Marisa) just blew the heat away and broke her own team record with a 100.30! Do I even have to tell you where the 4 Friar 50 Breaststrokers were, or are you catching on by now? Of course in the final heat! Chloe Hyland, Joanna Vetere, Callie Vacchiano, and Kim Corso displayed their awesome breaststroke technique and showed just how deep the Friars are! Next, we have our top scoring event of the day for the Friars. Four swimmers ALL in Finals combined to score 97 points. I was thrilled on Sat. when Keira Yeager qualified for Finals. Then she moves up to 6th with a 113.00. Leave it to Keira to go out in style! Brianne Dwyer also ripped up the pool. The potential for a 110 swim was there when she went out like a rocket in Prelims. Did she go 110? Of course she did! Brianne turned in her best time (not surprised, are you!) with 110.87 that placed her 4th. Lindsey Parmiter looked like she was shot out of a cannon. I was actually impressed and bragged about her Prelim swim at a 108.30. Tough as nails, Lindsey swam an amazing 107.70. That turns out to be the 2nd fastest breaststroke swim by a Lady Friar EVER. The fastest was right next to her! (Go Friars… Go Friars…). Finishing up her amazing weekend, Emily DiDonato, pulling a “Babe Ruth” and calling her record. (I hope that isn’t an insult… Emily is 10 times the athlete “the Babe” ever was!) Not only did she finish 1st, but she broke her own team record as well as the NSCHSGAA 100 breaststroke league record with a 107.05! Are… you… kidding! Heading into the final event of Champs, Coach Scott and I were already talking about how every swimmer swam their best. EVERY swimmer! We already had two relays in states. Never before have we sent three. Can we make this another Friar first? You know it! Right from the start… Lanzy took off. Attacking every wall as she did consistently all championship weekend, giving the Friars another early lead. Brianne Dwyer continued to stretch the lead out as she looked stronger then ever. Now for our freshman story. Shannon Lulley had sprinted a remarkable 57.1 on Sat. In order for our best shot at Champs, we strategically used one of our best assets… our depth. We are definitely strength in numbers. The faster the Friars kept swimming, the more we were able to use them. Shannon’s prelim swim gave her a birth on our 400 Freestyle Relay. Although she looked scared to death as I spoke to her, I knew she was up for the challenge. Swimming with our “big” girls, Shannon split a 55.6! Holy Cow everyone went crazy! A split that kept her on the relay for Finals and set up our anchor, Marisa Taddeo. Tads did what she always does… give 110% in the water. Her 54 second split gave the Friars their 3rd State qualifying relay! Taddeo’s final touch on the wall also gave the Friars their monumental 769 Team Points at Champs. I know you’re all asking yourselves, “what did we score last year”? If you must know: 727.5 points. This year we did better. We were faster. We broke team records. We broke league records. We’re sending 9 swimmers to represent us at States in Buffalo in 8 individual events and 3 relays. We scored more points then ever in our history. We may not have a plaque on the wall, but I guarantee you, I know 45 young Friar athletes who will NEVER forget it! I congratulate every one of you. From the girls who took off the blocks, to the girls who stood right by my side with our stomachs churning and cheering as hard as we could. Everyone gave all they could give. I believe that’s why when the final scores were read, our girls proudly stood up and in first class fashion, applauded the new Champions across the pool. There was a peace among our swimmers. They knew the effort they gave. Not just for two days, but for two months. Their goal was to perform their best. I say they did even better. I preach to my team to “always conduct yourself like a Champion, on and off the pool deck”. You don’t need a plaque to walk off the deck at Eisenhower and hold your head up like a Champion. During my silent ride home, I felt nothing but pride. Pride in my swimmers. Pride in my coaches. I thank each and every one of you, parents, swimmers and coaches, for making this season such a success. So what’s next for the Friars? Nine swimmers will represent us in two weeks in Buffalo. And then everyone else will suit up on Jan. 10th to defend our win over Paul VI from last year. Please stay tuned to the web site and your email as we are never “out of season”!
- Proud to be called your coach, Coach Dan |
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Head Coach Dan McBride
is named CHSAA's
Coach of the Year. |