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Bulletin Board Please visit our previous Seasons in Review by clicking on the "Archives" link on the menu bar to the left. |
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| Captains (Girls) |
Briana Gellineau |
Lily Lancellotti |
Gracie Edmonds |
| Captains (Boys) | Sean Kotch | Chris Stange | Billy Swartwout |
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GIRLS SWIMMING Fall Tryout dates
and info are coming.... STAY TUNED!!! |
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St. Anthony's Swimming All-Americans |
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ABSOLUTELY
INCREDIBLE!!!!! Congratulations
to ALL our FRIARS!!! Freshman Mary
McKenna 500 Free
4:51.33 Senior Briana
Gellineau 200 Free
1:50.18
200 Free
1:38.93 100 Back
:50.27 ** NYS Champion 200 Free Relay
1:24.33 ** NYS
Champions Chris Stange, Mark
Owens, Matt McManus, Billy Swartwout 400 Free Relay
3:05.88 ** NYS
Champions Chris Stange, Mark
Owens, Matt McManus, Billy Swartwout |
| Three-Peat |
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St. Anthony's swimmers & divers win 3rd consecutive New York State Federation title.
Our 200 Medley Relay
of Caleb Neugebauer, Tim Rupnarian, Owen Glaser, and Matt McManus along
with the support and preparation of Trevor Griffin and our distance
swimmer Richie Chiarella who were both alternate members of all three
relays... the medley relay did their best dropping time on both swims
and placing 23rd in the State with a 1:39.34. Owen Glaser's
1:56.47 200 IM that placed him 14th in NY State! I'm not kidding,
he dropped time and improved every single time he hit the water. I
can't wait to see this Friars' future! Mark Owens is one of
the toughest 50 freestylers the Friars have ever had.... finishing his
career with a best 21.02 and 4th in the State! He also gave his
team a huge point boost when we needed it in the fly moving up from 10th
to 7th with a 50.98! Chris Stange was
also in the 50 free heat that is so fast you heart pumps even when your
just a spectator - and finished 6th with a best 21.23. Chris then
made more Friar history breaking the 100 fly record (yes, held by his
brother Andrew) swimming under the 50 second mark with an All American
Consideration 49.93! That beaming smile of accomplishment will be
memorable! Billy Swartwout is
as tough as they come. Hard work, proper preparation, focus, and
love for his team and teammates is his recipe for success. His 200
freestyle was incredible going out in a 47.9 and finishing 2nd in NY
State with an All American Consideration 1:38.93! Reflecting on last
year... The Friars won both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays -
identical to what we have this year. Leading us off,
Chris Stange swam a 21.27, Mark Owens extended the lead with a 20.94,
HUGE swim for us by freshman Matt McManus with a 21.68, and finally the
anchor swim of Billy Swartwout going a 20.44 gave the Friars the back to
back victory with an All American Automatic, new school record 1:24.33!!
Holy Fast! After all the
previous success of the Friars, we all could taste the possibility of a
victory, so Billy was pumped more than ever for his 100 back.
Seeded 3rd, he was out in a 24.6 and in third by about .5 - with one of
the greatest 2nd half swims Billy broke the school record and WON the
event with a blistering All American Consideration 50.27! The
celebration was incredible as we all immediately turned to Coach John
and his famous point calculations. Heading into the
Granddaddy of all relays, we were down 3 points to the mighty Fordham
Prep. Our top seeded relay knew the stakes. Win the relay -
take home the Championship. Pressure was immense. Matt
McManus' nerves had him shaking as his teammates were pumping him up.
Chris Stange having the meet of his life with a flat start lead off swim
of 46.64. The sea of alum behind me are already screaming.
Mark Owens kept us within the half a second hanging with Pittford with a
46.66 of his own! Who flies off the block and starts closing the
gap.... ? you got it - Matt McManus with a personal best by far,
47.71. Off the block the anchor swimmers of Pittford and Chaminade
are even with Billy. But no one is beating Billy.... not today
baby! With the fastest time of 44.87 Billy's final touch of the
pad gave the Friars the 3 Peat State Championship! ** I told
those guys that 4 Friars need to swim as one. One team in perfect
sync. They certainly did that with a new school record, 2nd
fastest relay in state history and All American Automatic 3:05.88!! How incredible is
that! The deck surrounding
me exploded into pure jubilation! Never count out the
Friars.... we come back stronger every time! Of all our
championships, there is something about how hard the climb was that
makes it most special. CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL! I am one proud coach
right now. I could not me more grateful for the help of Coach
John, Coach Ashley, Coach Garret, and Coach Kyle. You are all the
BEST! To all the parents
cheering in the stands and praying for the team at home.... Thank you! More to follow...
stay tuned! GO FRIARS!!! We are ONE Team... We are ONE Family... We are the FRIARS!! |
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Lady Friars Champs Review: 2019
IT’S CHAMPS
WEEKEND BABY!! The weekend’s partly cloudy skies in no way put a
damper on my mood for Championship weekend.
This team had so much to be proud of, and I felt as though we
were already successful. The
amount of personal goals achieved and this year’s team camaraderie
couldn’t have been better.
We [coaches] enjoyed every second spent with this team.
From the beautiful morning skies at Hidden Pond Park, to this
final weekend at Eisenhower Park.
All the smiles, laughter, and cheers have been memorable! A tough loss to Sacred Heart and a close victory
over The Mary Louis Academy had us well prepared for what we would see
at Champs. We are battle tested
and ready go! It was great to see
other teams besides the top 4 also have swimmers who will fill the final
heats. Competition will
yield some incredible races this year. We swam exceptional at Trials and these Lady Friars
had a new goal. It required
a second day filled with personal best times again.
I’m always amazed at what the
Friars can do. They will out
perform other teams – period. I was able to print out my heat sheets at home and
circle all our names ahead of time.
I felt as prepared as my team of Friars…. and yeah,
I’m pretty psyched!
Luke Combs came out with his new album on Friday, so I still had
it cranked on repeat in my truck.
(truth – I sang along the entire drive)
Ok - Give me my stopwatch and let’s do this! I usually go with some type of speech to get my
team’s adrenaline going before a big meet.
This year was an easy one.
Typically, what’s said in a team huddle stays in a team huddle,
but this year the message was simple.
I had to remind this team of how proud we [the coaches] are of
this team of ladies and how they came together in times of both victory
and defeat. Hey, that’s ok.
That’s how life goes.
You don’t go through life undefeated… but facing challenges and coming
together as a team and a family, that’s
always a victory! Here I am… my 31st time of having the
privilege to be front row and center in a sea of black and gold to cheer
on the Lady Friars at Champs weekend.
With all the cell phones put away, the spirit and focus on the
meet couldn’t have sprouted more energy.
Right at the start of the 200 Medley Relay, you can feel it… the
clapping, the teammates of Lily, Bakke, Izzy and Erin tapping them on
the shoulder to let ‘em know they are with them as they approach the
bulkhead. We’re getting
ready to go here! (my adrenaline starts pumping like I’m swimming….
geez, I can’t help it). Announcer:
and in Lane 4… St. Anthony’s **
cheering all around me ** Lily – feet first - jumps into the water. We have an awesome relay.
Not just talented, but Coach Liz, Coach Kylie and I discussed how
technically sound these 4 girls are.
Relay starts were worked on to where my confidence level was at
its peak. Tri-captain Lily
Lancellotti nails two perfect kick-outs and swims an outstanding 30.69
split. Bernadette Bakke, who
is one tough competitor, splits a 33.1 breaststroke!
One of our most improved sprinters Izzy Marone goes a personal
best 27.22! After a 3 ½ week
absence due to injury, Erin Johannsen made it back to us in time to
anchor with a 25.10! A
season best time for our relay with a 1:57.06! One of the reasons this year was so special was due
to the amount of girls who had to step out of their comfort zone and
swim events they aren’t used to.
But we are a team… we
are a family… and Friars do whatever needs to be done to help their
team. There are so many
examples in this 200 freestyle event.
Frankie Pellegrino spent her first three years as a top sprinter
for us. Now, in her senior
year, with other sprinters available, she swam an incredible 2:09.60 and
finished 13th overall!
Our second success story… Sofia Marinucci.
Holy cow did this girl step up or what??
She can actually swim multiple events for us, but the 200 was
new. Well, that tremendous
smile on her face said it all after her 2:09.48 12th place
finish! One Friar who can
definitely handle pressure is Cat Iorio.
Her outstanding 2:06 in trials had her as the top seed in
consols. She kept her Black
& Gold Friar cap out there in front the whole race and took that heat
with an even faster 2:06.04!
Those three Friars were awesome.
Two of the top swimmers in NY State are right here
on the Friars. (oh yeah!)
Briana Gellineau and Mary
McKenna. We were fortunate
to spread their talent out across 4 events and they had no problem with
the events they needed to swim.
The respect these swimmers have for each other is amazing.
I love it!
Its how is should always be! How about you have to break 2 minutes just to make
it into finals… I mean C’mon, that’s fast!
So once again we have Briana going against the best our league
has to offer. She’s used to
that. She’s been doing it
for the past 4 years for the Friars!
Briana swam a blistering 1:53.18 and finished in
third place! Hallelujah
that’s amazing! States edit: Think that’s fast?!?!?
How about Briana swimming a
1:50.18 All American
Consideration time and a 3rd place finish in NY State!!
Yowza, that’s fast! Man, I love watching her swim. Our 200 freestyle turned out to be a great scoring
event for us. Congrats to all! The 200 IM was one of our youngest events of the
weekend. Freshman, Freshman,
Freshman, Sophomore. Cool,
right? And, we placed awesome too.
Freshman Teagan Scanlon, always so tough on herself but did her
best to swim through the nerves and placed 11th with a
2:25.09. Tough as nails
Olivia Glaser made it to finals and placed 8th with a
2:20.05. (good things come
is small packages… great swim Olivia!).
Elena Cunneen was right with Olivia placing 7th with
an outstanding 2:19.84. Finally at the top:
Ok listen: this is Champs finals… where the best in
the league compete. Winning
this event isn’t easy, but… can
you say Blow Out?!?!?!
I’m not kidding; Mary didn’t swim one of her best events, the 200 free,
and still completely blew away the competition in the IM with a
blistering 2:05.68 setting a New
School Record! Side note on that record:
Mary broke a record held for 15 years by the Friars
most decorated swimmer, Caitlin Napoli.
Caitlin went on to swim for Fordham University where in her
senior year as captain of the team, along with Friar freshman at the
time, Alana Biagioli, won the Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship…
the first EVER female team Championship of ANY SPORT in Fordham
University history!
Caitlin Napoli (now married, Caitlin Dam) is being inducted into the St.
Anthony’s Hall of Fame in June. Congratulations to Caitlin… and Congratulations to
freshman Mary McKenna on the milestone swim! That blowout swim (actually it was at Saturday
trials) sparked the chant “It’s Mary Time!” began by [I’m pretty sure,
because they are loud
J
] teammates Kyleigh McNulty and
Cailinn Kiley…, joined in by Hope “best cackle laugh ever” Sandoval,
Caitlyn McCourt (you may think she’s quiet….. wrong, not at a swim meet!
Haha). The “Its Mary Time” was carried up to Ithaca by
Erin Johannsen… who didn’t miss a single time to yell that out every
time her teammate was behind the block.
I loved it! Mary went on to place 10th overall in NY
State! Outstanding! The 50 free turned out to be a spectacular event
for us with so many best times.
It was started off with 4 outstanding swims by Anna Descovich,
Hope Sandoval, Abby Federlein, and freshman Bridget Darcy.
These hard working teammates brought on so many cheers from their
teammates. I turned to Sofia
Legarreta and Michele Wolf cheering next to me and yelled,
“is this fun or what?”!
Sofia gave me a huge smile with a big nod… and of course Michelle
Wolf (the cheerleader specialist) screamed “Oh My God, yes!” The seed times for our trial/finals entries were so
incredibly close. I’m not
kidding… with the exception of Erin who was under 27, we had a ton of
Ladies who were 10th’s of a second apart.
With the event packed with talent across the league, we needed
some serious swims here… and we got ‘em!
Senior Lily Lancellotti (she’s adored by all her teammates!)
whose freestyle really came alive this season, placed 15th
with a 27.01. Frankie
Pellegrino and Arianna Alladio-Zacpal even battled each other in both
trials and finals for two incredible best time swims!
Frankie, who has stepped up for this team, year after year,
especially in Champs was all smiles after her swim and was greeted by a
HUGE group hug upon returning to her teammates after her 11th
place 26.96 swim. Seriously,
that was awesome. Arianna
worked her butt off this season.
We [Arianna and I] had a serious talk in the beginning of the
season. After the success of
her freshman year, she was disappointed in her sophomore season.
Hey… but we are Friars, we embrace challenges and we learn from
them. Arianna had some big
goals this year; and she worked for them.
That hard work paid off with her spectacular 10th
place finish and 26.79 swim!
Good for you! I was excited with the added talent of Erin
Johannsen this year. Just as
she was getting up to speed, she suffered a softball injury [yes,
another talent hog who’s great in multiple sports… we have a lot of
those!
J].
Erin returned to the water with two weeks to get ready for
Champs. She certainly didn’t
disappoint swimming among the best sprinters out there and finishing 5th
with a 26.01! The competition pool opens for a 20 minute break
here… so if you need to stretch, now’s the time to do it! We have so much fly talent…
in the freakin 50!
Ladies, you better be ready for that 100 next year!
Haha Freshman Kyleigh McNulty, who we kept away from the
dangerous lifeguard chairs this weekend
J developed an
outstanding fly this season.
I was SO happy. She placed
10th in her 1st ever champs event.
Multi-talented Johanna Governali (I say that because she has swum
every stroke for us this year) placed 7th dropping 2 seconds!
Finally, domination at the top of the event with two outstanding
sophomore Friars, Emma Grefski (2nd) with a blistering 31.12,
and winning the event was Keira Mutarelli!
Keira tore up the pool with a 30.26 and can’t wait to train for
the 100 next year!
J Listen; to have a successful year, we need girls to
step up when needed, and of course to make sacrifices when needed.
One HUGE swim this year was when Michaela Rutigliano made the
state cut in the 100 free at the Sacred Heart dual meet.
This allowed us to move her to the 100 fly for Champs and
strengthen the depth of the two events.
Without hesitation or a single negative thought, she embraced the
idea and verbally said “I want to kill it no matter what event I’m in.”
Yes, Kayla is that
matter of fact! Kill it she
did moving up a spot and finished 3rd dropping .68 with a
1:01.00. Kayla had great
support behind her with three more awesome swims to give us the well
rounded event we were looking for.
In consol’s we had two ladies who step up and swim tough every
time they hit the water. She
may be tough on herself, but Bernadette Bakke is a gamer!
She gets nervous [less this year than last] but it’s what fuels
her. She dropped two seconds
and placed 10th with a 1:04.92!
Bakke and teammate Olivia Glaser were both out in front and blew
away their heat. Winning the
heat was Olivia with her 1:04.82!
Man, that girl is incredible in every event she swims. Spirits were still running high.
We had a 39 point deficit to make up in this meet.
In the past at Champs I’ve seen teams to 20+… and it’s tough, but
39? That’s a huge mountain
when we’re talking 1-2 points at a time.
At this point, half that deficit is already gone, and Coach Dan
is enjoying watching the nerves building on the benches across the pool.
I’m screaming out every point we earn and our team bench is
getting more intense by the heat.
I give two huge high fives to Sarah Skala and Emily Ferraris
because they are in reach… I might have hit a little heavy due to
excitement; but they take it like tough Friars and give me huge smiles!
The Friars are on a roll and it’s getting intense How about – 8
fantastic 100 freestyle swims! Senior Katie Scanlon and St. Anthony’s Scholar
Athlete award recipient is probably one of the most loved teammates
ever. I mention her name and
the entire team gives that high pitched “wooo” of approval.
This enthusiastic Friar is all about team first.
She is also one tremendously improved swimmer who finished her
career with a 1:04.89 100 free swim. Our
other three in the event were all like 1:05-06 seed times.
They all dropped massive time and finished 4-5-6!
Bella Filagrossi was 4th (1:03.29), Arielle Ristau was
5th (1:03.30), and Caitlyn McCourt was 6th
(1:03.71)! Three 1:03’s….
how awesome is THAT?!? Moving Frankie to the 200 opened up opportunities
to girls in the 100. One of
them was Arianna Alladio Zapal with the call to the trial/final event.
Still excited about her 50, Arianna gave the Friars a huge boost
with a 13th place finish swimming a 1:01.22.
This year you had to be incredibly fast to get into the final
heat. How ‘bout the Friars
with 3! The first is Erin
Johannsen. Never feeling
shorted by the limited time in the water, she demanded the best of
herself. Erin placed 7th
with an awesome 57.30. Next
is one swimmer who I am such a fan of.
(my kids love her wrestling videos, so they are fans too)
Last year I threw Arabella into some huge pressure swims that
were hard on any freshman as we were bidding for a championship that we
wouldn’t have gotten without her.
As big a compliment as I can give her; following in the footsteps
of Briana Gellineau, this year that hard outer shell cracked and she’s
already emerging as a great leader.
I am so proud of Arabella’s blistering 54.41 5th place
finish! I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve reflected
on how I’ve seen female athletes improve since beginning this coaching
thing in 1986. It amazes me.
Just watching them swim and then you look at the board and say
holy crap… that’s freakin fast!
That has happened for me the past 4 years every time I’ve watched
Briana Gellineau swim. Here
she is again, taking on the best without flinching.
She feeds on this.
[and I LOVE IT]. Briana finished 3rd with a 52.36!
On the outside… my hands are extended over my head and I’m
screaming along with Coach Liz.
On the inside, my head is shaking in amazement at what my eyes
see on that board and I’m saying, holy crap… that’s freaking fast! States edit: I wish you could feel it.
The excitement level goes off the charts as the finalists of the
100 free walk out of the ready room in Ithaca.
Me, I’m snapping pictures on my phone like a child that mommy and
daddy got a front row tickets for to Wrestlemania as Briana walks out.
It’s intense as the look on Briana’s face.
I love it. Listen, if
you put in the work as hard as Briana has…. You have the ability to walk
up to the block with that kind of confidence.
It’s not magic. It’s
called preparation. Briana
is prepared for this. Erin
is right with me again and we scream the whole time!
(“the whole time”, like it’s long.
The whole darn race is over in 51 freakin seconds!
Haha). Briana races
to perfection and closes at the end like no other Friar in history and
touches the wall in 51.07 seconds setting a New St. Anthony’s record!
Yep… hands are in the air… eyes
on the board… “man, that’s so fast!” The 500 free… Who’s counting?
Make sure that counter is in the water early…
let ‘em see it! ** got a feeling for the event?
Read on! Katherine Grefski and Sofia Marinucci.
I’m calling them 500 free rookies.
They both can swim it, that’s why they are in the event, but they
haven’t swum them on this stage yet.
After a few stressful days of mental preparation, they are ready.
Katherine was a season long project.
We [the coaches] saw it early and knew she had the consistency to
swim the 5. Only problem
was, she didn’t see it. Now,
her team needs her. That
flips the switch to the positive side every time!
Katherine finished 12th with a personal best 5:55.10!
The other 500 rookie was junior Sofia Marinucci.
Because she can swim just about every event there is, she is
thrown into a big swim where she is needed.
We sat and talked about it.
No secret there. But
seeing the change of heart, the negative thoughts of fear of the
grueling event changing to positive thoughts of confidence was so
rewarding. Then finally; the
payoff. The joy in Sofia’s
face coming out of the water back to her teammates…
Mrs. Skala snapping her photo.
How is that not worth it?
Oh yeah, to boot – Sofia finished 11th with a 5:51.91. Cat Iorio is a bit different… she has a ton of
experience in the 500. She
has also seen MANY MANY pressure swims in the event.
I believe that is what prepared her to handle her heat like a
well seasoned veteran and just stayed on pace and built her lead
throughout the long 20 lap race.
By the time she put her hand on the touchpad, 5 minutes, 35.41
seconds later… Cat built up an 8 second lead to win her heat!
** C’mon… shout it out…. Let me hear ya….! IT’S MARY
TIME!!! Oh man… how intense does Mary look behind that
block? I get chills… so
cool! I’m so excited… I’m
pacing. I seem to pace
behind the crowd of Friars until the moment they are stepping on the
block. Then I’m all ready!
(Hey, the crazy rituals matter).
I mean, 5 of the 8 girls in finals here are already in States.
This 500 is no joke.
Mary already went a 55 in trials, so she’s psyched to go here!
Mary’s splits are INCREDIBLE!
I’m not kidding… Coach Liz, Coach Kylie and I were going crazy
when Mary did 4 (yes, four) 50 splits in a row to the exact 100th
of a second. Are you kidding
me? Mary took second with an
outstanding 4:54.42!
WHATTT? ** by
the way, do you know who his ALWAYS there 1st to congratulate
Mary? Mary’s team captain
and former 500 free record holder, Briana Gellineau.
Briana counted for her and embraced her in congratulations when
Mary first broke her record.
THAT is a class act.
THAT is a FRIAR. State edit:
OK, ok, I know how you all feel… freaking out about
that 4:54. But it didn’t last
long. Two weekends later
Mary swam a 6th place
in NY State, ALL AMERICAN AUTOMATIC 4:51.33!
Holy fast! ** our 200 free relay was preparing to swim, so I
watched that swim with Erin and we were just freaking out.
It was so much fun. This years 200 free relay of ours was SO exciting.
I have a video of it… I’ll get it to you.
You HAVE to see them in action!
For starters, I must give a HUGE shout our to our
relay qualifiers to seed our team 3rd.
We [coaches] hand pick them to give us the best qualifying spot
while resting our finals swimmers to give the team the most possible
amount of points. Deep teams
matter, so you have to use all your horses.
Outstanding relay by Arianna Alladio-Zacpal, Frankie Pellegrino,
Izzy Marone, and tri-captain Gracie Edmonds.
Thank you for dealing with my coaching insanity when I shout… You
do NOT false start and DQ this relay; do you understand… did you hear
that? I get the blank
serious faces as they all nod and make me feel good.
J Man was it loud in that Aquatic Center or WHAT?
These relays are crazy.
The pressure I put on Arabella to lead this relay was no joke.
I leaned on her hard. I also know that she can take it.
These girls behind her needed to see the big lead off swim and
she was going to give it to them.
Arabella led off with an incredible 25.0 and we were on our way!
Freshman Mary McKenna swam second and you would have never
thought she just swam a 500 yard race.
Our back half of the relay is just nasty!
Kayla Rutigliano and of course Briana Gellineau are as good as it
gets! Sure, we took second
to a SHA relay… (that went on to break the NY state record), so we
should be freakin proud of our 1:38.79! You will hear more about these
girls when I get to the 400 free relay! States Edit: These girls will go on to a monumental win in an
exciting consolation heat in Ithaca that you have to see to appreciate.
They are 11th in NY State and finished with a 1:38.37.
Yep, I pretty much blew out a vocal cord cheering for that one.
(right, ErinJ ) OK, yes, Tess Howley’s backstroke was insane…
as a swimming fan, I’m in awe of the 54 backstroke.
Seriously… sick! Of
course we won’t forget it.
It was part of our weekend.
But that won’t overshadow how proud I am of the Friar backstrokers! How about this… In the 50 backstroke:
Sarah Skala (31.35), Cailinn “Cuz” Kiley (32.33), Sarah Jean
Farrell (32.59), and Skye Bates (33.04) went…
ready for this??? 1-2-3-4 respectively!!!
How about that for a Lady Friar performance!?!?!
Yeah baby! Our 100 back scored well with freshman Katherine
Grefski, still on cloud 9 from her incredible 500, placed 13th
with a personal best 1:09.26.
Swimming with Katherine in her heat was team tri-captain, Lily
Lancellotti whose leadership was outstanding this season.
Lily capped off her Friar career
placing 11th with a 1:06.57.
Great job Lily! We had two fighters in Finals!
(well… one fighter, one wrestler.
Right Arabella?)
Kayla who simply hates to lose… behind the block, stretching, trying to
shake the intensity out cause all eyes are on this heat!
Arabella, a little more stoic…
the pressure on this swim is huge as she still hasn’t made that
state cut she’s been looking for since last season.
(disappointment – it either makes you crumble… or like Arabella
and the Friars, you rise up!)
All backstrokers enter the water.
Oh how I love the look of the Friar caps on swimmers ready to
give it their all. (well,
Kayla stole her cap from her brother Connor, so yeah, the racing stripe
is cool too
J ) The top
4 broke away from the field early… then Tess of course was gone.
Kayla and Arabella went stroke for stroke.
Arabella with the fast out, and Kayla with that incredible 2nd
half of hers… Look at
those Friars go! They
touch the wall in 3rd and 4th…
7/100’s apart! Kayla
with a 1:00.07 State cut… and the much awaited state time for Arabella
Pompay with a 1:00.00!
Arabella’s tears of joy and the embrace of the two teammate’s and the
cheers when they return to the team sums up what this family is all
about. One of my favorite
moments of the season for sure!
State Edit: One thing to remember about Girls States; its one
of the most physically difficult meets there is.
We don’t have our huge deep talented team there.
These girls get on the blocks again and again.
Both Kayla and Arabella had to swim the 200 free relay in
prelims… no break, and 4 minutes later get in the water to qualify for
the backstroke. Although
they both hit their times, it just wasn’t enough to qualify back.
Swimming to exhaustion… (I put Erin Johannsen in the water who
did a full warm-up for every relay just like she’s supposed to do and
was ready to go). Two events
later, they both got on the block and with their relay teammates for the
400 free relay… You’ll love
what happens! Oh, read on my
Friar fans… read on! One of the first questions we had this season by
coaches and swimmers alike:
“who’s going to swim breaststroke this year?”
We’ve had league record holder Danielle Pikulik and Amanda Heinz
going 1-2 for years… so of
course new opportunities would come about.
We began with a successful 50 breast.
Maria Hernandez (and thank you for your talented team videos
J) capped
off her Friar career with an awesome best time of 38.63.
Finally, in the top heat going 2-3-4 in the event was 4th,
Yesenia McKee (37.15), 3rd, Jenn Nagle (36.87), and in 2nd
with the greatest swim of her career was Michelle Wolf (36.79).
Outstanding swims by all! We saw in our dual meets this year that SHA and
TMLA had strong breaststrokers.
We tried every option.
Olivia looked good, Arabella can swim it. We needed both in other
events. Are we going to be
thin in the event? NOPE!
How about 3 in finals and 1 in consol’s baby!
Simone Sanchez late in the season was showing a phenomenal 1st
50. We needed her to step up
that 2nd half and give a good 100.
Well… she sure did!
She finished 12th with a 1:15.15.
Now, the Friars are stepping up 3 in the final heat.
Elena Cunneen had the perfect time for her best swim of the
season finishing 7th with a 1:13.84.
I really leaned on Bernadette Bakke this season; mostly because
she is a fighter and always comes through for her team.
Bakke finished 5th with a 1:13.34.
Our top breaststroker in the event this year may be extremely
tough on herself, but freshman Teagan Scanlon sure came up big with a 4th
place finish swimming a 1:13.06.
Did you notice all those times…?
So, do you think that was a great race?
All three Friars went 1:13! Ahh…. Yes.
The granddaddy of all relays, the 400 free!
The intensity of event after event for two straight days comes
down to the final race.
Cheers become the loudest behind me on the Friar bench.
Parents directly in my view proudly dressed in black and gold to
match their daughters begin to clap and cheer on not only these four
ladies… but what they represent; this teams long season of bonding
through the tough defeats and the glorious victories.
They have seen it all and this relay in going to cap it all off
with one final swim. Of course a huge shout-out goes to our Saturday
trials swimmers, junior Cat Iorio, sophomore Yesenia McKee, freshman
Olivia Glaser, and sophomore Arielle Ristau.
These 4 ladies qualified our relay 3rd and gave us a
great seed/lane for finals.
Outstanding job ladies! ** Re-write: Ok, I’m doing a re-write here combining the Champs
and Ithaca States performances of these same 4 ladies. Bear with me
here: It’s the final race of a long weekend.
We are all, swimmers and teammates alike, running on adrenaline.
My hearts pumping and my hand is shaking with my finger on the
stopwatch. Just watching
these girls prepare (stretch, shake their arms and legs, get those caps
and goggles perfect while chirping words of encouragement to each other
behind the block), is fascinating to watch.
At Champs, I was pacing… at States I was frozen in my sneakers, I
don’t even think I blinked. The
reaction light turns red for Arabella to step up on the block.
I hold my breath. The last person I spoke to before the relay walked
to the block was Pompay. As
I did every time she led off… I reminded her that as good as her split
will be, that’s how good the relay will be.
Is it a lot of pressure?
Oh yes. Ask
Kayla. She’s been there.
Ask Briana. She’s
been there. This is Pompay’s
spotlight swim. With an
outstanding start and out in a 26.2… she’s fighting right in the middle
of the pack of 10 teams.
Resisting the pain in her body from the weekend, she’s finishes with the
best split of her life, a 54.78!
I finally move… I jump in the air to see the split and I feel
like I pirouette in flight to see Mary McKenna fly off the block!
Her BEST relay start ever!
(great job on all the extra work Mary
J)
“It’s Mary time!”
Erin and I are nudging each other like giddy little kids as we watch
Mary GO! Her 50 split… a
26.18. That’s an awesome out
because this sprinting game is actually still new for her.
She’s at her best the longer the race goes.
Like… miles. And
miles. And miles.
Well, at this point, Mary’s arm turnover is better than ever
because she knows this relay is something special and is just tearing it
up. Mary finishes with her
personal best 53.94 (whattt?).
Again, everyone around me must deal with my “arms in the air”
celebration. And now… for our filthy second half:
Kayla’s start is lighting.
Her kick-out is as strong as ever with a breakout that is
unmatched. Now, I’m vocal.
I mean loud!
Screaming like a lunatic as I watch Kayla hit her split at a 24.70.
Are you kidding me?
(for reference, that split would have placed 2nd in the 50
free at Champs). My eyes
widen as I see the split and acknowledge they have a legit shot at the
record with Kayla’s 53.08 split!
Finally, off the block with incredible leg power is none other
then our team MVP, Briana Gellineau.
My celebration of Kayla’s swim just got extended into cheering
for Briana. I don’t stop.
I watch her go blistering through her first turn…
My elbow hits Erin – Oh
my
God…. I’m shouting
out loud. My finger took the
split, but I never looked at it.
Didn’t have to. I can
tell you in one word.
FAST. Tearing through the
water with a wake like she’s wearing an Evinrude 300 she splits at the
wall in a 24.14. Just for
reference, that would have been the school record in the 50 free up till
2015. With unstoppable closing power, Briana gets to that
final touch pad and my eyes are first on her time.
Lit up bright on the score board… a
50.83!
That is NOT a typo… yes, a FIFTY.83!
OMG. And
finally, in 6th place in NY State, and
a NEW school record 3:32.63!
What a swim! The 5
State swimmers embrace in a team hug celebrating a Friars 8th
place finish in the State. I
do not have watery eyes. The
chlorine at Ithaca was really strong that day.
Our relay at Champs was incredible.
It truly was. The
Lady Friars came roaring back from a 39 point deficit to fall 6 points
short of passing TMLA for a 3rd place finish.
The fight of the comeback was thrilling.
So much so, we hear the cheers of the Friar parents across the
pool area of the Aquatic Center.
After a nine year run… we are no longer holding a championship
plaque over our heads, but I couldn’t be more proud of a team.
31 years in, and these Lady Friars still have me jumping out of
bed at 5am to get to work and see all their hard work pay off.
Thank you for keeping me enthusiastic about the team I love. There is
nothing like Champs weekend. Special thanks to Coach Liz and Coach Kylie.
These girls were so blessed for all the knowledge and enthusiasm
you bring to this Friar Family.
I am so grateful to be coaching with you! To the Friar faithful parents, thank you for all
your continued support.
Seriously, this program doesn’t exist without you. And of course to my incredible team:
you inspire me every day we spend on the pool deck together.
I thank you for all the dedication, hard work, and love you have
for this team. I am the most
blessed coach to ever walk a pool deck. Thankful to be your coach, Coach Dan |
2019 Girls Paper Airplane Champion
Frannie Pederson (TMLA)
|
Freshman Mary McKenna breaks two records at Champs |
|
Mary McKenna breaks
a 14 year old St. Anthony's record in the 200 IM with a 2:05.68.
That record was set by Friar Caitlin Napoli. At that time, it was
a league record and All American swim. Caitlin Napoli is being
inducted into the St. Anthony's Hall of Fame in June 2020. Mary's
swim is also a new CHSAA League & State record! Mary also set a new
St. Anthony's record in the 500 free with a 4:54.42! Who was
counting for Mary and cheering her on the entire way...? Mary's
teammate and former record holder Briana Gellineau. True Friar
moment! 2019 Lady
Friars State Team Briana Gellineau,
Sr. 200 Free, 100 Free Mary McKenna,
Fr. 200 IM, 500 Free Kayla Rutigliano,
Jr. 100 Free, 100 Back Arabella Pompay,
So. 100 Back 200 Free Relay Arabella Pompay Mary McKenna Kayla Rutigliano Briana Gellineau alt - Erin Johannsen 400 Free Relay Arabella Pompay Mary McKenna Kayla Rutigliano Briana Gellineau Erin Johannsen |
|
|
|
This was a huge and extremely
talented group trying out for the Boys Varsity Swimming/Diving Team.
Everyone did an amazing job!
I congratulate all of you on your hard work and tremendous
effort! The following have
made the team for the 2019-20 season.
Please come to practice Tuesday, Oct. 31st
* ALL DIVERS REPORT TO PRACTICE Sunday, Nov 3rd.
Freshmen: Brian Anzalone Aydan Arbeeny Connor Brown Sofia
Carrieri Ernest Kopec Matthew McManus Max Welling Nick Carrieri Maverick Dettling Owen Glaser Will Snyder Dylan Soto JoJo Tonna
Ryan Arbeeny Christopher Carneval Dylan Cellamare Richard Chiarella Ryan Gaffney Jack Iorio Caleb Neugebauer Aiden O’Toole Thomas Rosselli James Simon Sean Sullivan Tyler
Zarzycki
Seniors: Trevor Griffin Sean Kotch Joseph McLaughlin Cole McNulty Connor McVea Mark Owens Sebastian Quiceno Timothy Rupnarain Chris Stange William Swartwout Joe Welling Jonathan Wu Jason Yu Danny Zahn Jameson Zhu
* Diver |
|
St. Anthony’s Women’s Swim Team 2019
We always have a talented group trying out for the Girls Varsity Swim
Team. This year was simply
outstanding talent! Everyone did an amazing job!
I congratulate all of you on your hard work and tremendous
effort. The following have
made the team for the 2019 season.
Please keep checking your email for info, and come to
practice on Thursday, Sept. 5th. |
|
Freshmen
Rose Christie
Bridget Darcy
Julia Freedman
Olivia Glaser
Katherine Grefski
Cailinn Kiley
Sofia Legarreta
Mary McKenna
Kyleigh McNulty
Teagan Scanlon Sophomores
Bernadette Bakke
Elena Conneen
Johanna Governali
Emma Grefski
Erin Johannsen
Caitlyn McCourt
Yesenia McKee
Keira Mutarelli
Arabella Pompay
Arielle Ristau
Simone Sanchez
Hope Sandoval
Adrianna Santopatre Juniors
Arianna Alladio Zacpal
Anna Descovich
Sarah Farrell
Bella Filagrossi
Catherine Iorio
Sofia Marinucci
Isabelle Marone
Michaela Rutigliano
Sarah Skala Seniors
Skye Bates
Gracie Edmonds
Abigail Federlein
Emily Ferraris
Briana Gellineau
Maria Hernandez
Lily Lancellotti
Jenn Nagle
Frankie Pellegrino
Kathleen Scanlon
Michelle Wolf |
|
IMPORTANT |
|
** Due to the
construction improvements being done to the Hills West Natatorium, The
Lady Friars will be swimming at Hidden Pond
Park (the Rinx) for the month of
September. Our beginning of the season schedule and times remain
the same, only the pool location has changed! Tuesday, August
27th: Tryouts for the
Current (last years) Varsity Team! 6-7 am Thursday, August
29th: Practice for current
Varsity Team Tuesday,
September 3rd: Tryouts for
all NEW Friars! ** Practice for
current Varsity Team - 6-7 am Thursday,
September 5th: Practice
for the Entire Team! ** Final day
for Uniform orders! |
| 2019 Girls Tryouts |
| Click here |
| Friar All-Americans |
|
The All
American lists are in.... and the
Friars had another monumental year! The following Friars are ALL-AMERICANS: Briana Gellineau
200 Freestyle -
1:49.46 - 79th!
200 Freestyle -
1:39.21 - 85th!
100 Freestyle - 45.40
- 97th!
200 Freestyle Relay
- 1:24.37 - 40th! Mark Owens Chris Stange Billy Swartwout Justin Meyn
400 Freestyle Relay
- 3:06.49 - 72nd! Justin Meyn Chris Stange Dylan Champagne Billy Swartwout Just AMAZIN'!
CONGRATULATIONS to ALL our Friar All
Americans! |
|
Back on Top!
How about THAT performance???!!!
That’s right Friar
Fans… We are CHAMPIONS once
again!
Coach
Scott and I took the drive together to the
It’s been
three years since the Friars have won the CHSAA Championship, and once
again, we are finally upon Champs
Weekend. This team has
taken each challenge one at a time, one workout at a time, one dual meet
at a time, but an underlying theme in the back of all our minds was to
once again take the League Championship.
“TIB” –
Take it Back!
This team
is battle tested. We need to
be because we will swim against the best.
We compete in the top league in all of NY State, and you can’t
win unless you are prepared to give your absolute best.
Since 2016, this teams seniors and leaders have seen it all;
close meets, Championship celebrations, and some tough losses to
incredibly talented teams.
It’s a story; their story.
Now they are embarking on the conclusion to that story with the best
team in Friar history to back them.
We [the
coaches] discussed how excited we were after finishing the Champs
lineup. And I’ll be honest,
there was input from not only the coaches, but the swimmers themselves.
Complete Team Effort!
We all know it doesn’t just take your top swimmers to win the
Championship; it takes an entire deep team.
After seeing it on paper, this IS a deep team.
The excitement level is off the charts and everyone is on board.
42 Friars competing as One.
Day 113
into the season… AND THIS
TEAM IS READY! Funny story:
So I gather the Friars on deck for my traditional “pep talk”…
I get on my roll…
louder as I go of course, till Captain Justin Meyn politely interrupts
me, “uhh… excuse me coach, but the meet is starting…”
and he’s not kidding.
The swimmers are on the block for heat one, the entire room is quiet,
except for one maniac coach trying to pump up his team.
** Awkward silence…
“Take you mark..” and
Coach Dan finally recovers: Friars on three…
1 -
2 - 3…
GO FRIARS!!!! Champs Begins: Our Medley Relay
took on a few changes as the season progressed.
Every change created a new challenge for the Friars and they
stepped up every time. The
one thing that stayed consistent through it all was our leader Ian
Fitzpatrick. He “leads off”
EVERYTHING. First to
practice. First in the
water… (except the one time Jack Iorio fell in the water before him)
J
and first to lead off our Medley Relay with the backstroke leg.
Our relay is as tough as Ian is.
They are ready to see him GO!
(as we all are!) Take your mark…
Ian explodes off the
wall and CHAMPS IS ON!
The Friars behind me are all standing.
They know, as I do, that this is the start of something
monumental. The cheers
continue as Ian flies through the water and touches the wall with a
24.91 split as Tim Rupnarain flies overhead.
I’m proud of Tim. He
has stepped up to replace Michael Chang (on the DL due to illness) and
handled the pressure. In
addition, Michael spent time talking to Tim and helping with as many
pointers as he can. That
really boosted Tim’s confidence and it was clear in his facial
expressions how much it helped.
MC, as always, you are a “Class Act” Friar teammate! Tim gave his
personal best with his 27.06 split and off the block is Senior Josh
Giardinelli. I’m still
smiling. What a great spot
for Josh to have. He’s
earned it. He busts his butt
every single day for this team; working as hard as any Friar who hits
the water. I’m thrilled to
see him “flying” down the pool (C’mon, that’s a good pun!).
Josh splits a 23.61 and we are already looking at our best Medley
Relay swim of the season as Mark Owens begins the freestyle anchor leg
of the relay. That’s right…
Friars fill in where necessary and Mark moved from the fly leg to
freestyle. He anchors the
relay brilliantly with a blazing 21.36 split and the Friars have their
best time of the season with a 3rd place
1:36.94! States
edit:
This same relay went on to finish 6th overall in NY
State with an even Faster
1:36.67! And how about
Mark Owens with a 20.98 on the anchor!
Holy Fast! The 200 freestyle
event this year is loaded with talent.
Our league is loaded; even the state is loaded.
But… So Are The Friars!
After seeing Joe
Welling break the 2 minute mark at Fordham, I really wanted to see him
swim it at Champs. I was
impressed with how well Joe embraced the challenge.
He was psyched to swim it!
It showed with his 53 split at the 100… as Joe went on to Smash
his personal best with a 1:56.16.
(How about this: he would have placed 18th!) This was
the break out swim I was waiting to see from Joe.
The best part was the huge smile on his face as he returned back
to his cheering team. Richie
Chiarella also had a huge smile on his face.
Why? Because he
freakin swam a 1:51.83! Are
you kidding me? That would
have placed him 14th overall in this talented field.
I don’t know what
the league record is for most points ever scored by a single team in any
one event… but how about
THIS Friar Fans: We now we have 4 in
Finals, our prelim swims were incredible.
Now check out these finishes and times: Finishing in 5th
place overall – Chris Stange with a
1:44.55.
In 4th place – Josh Giardinelli with a
1:44.36.
In 3rd place – Dylan Champagne with a
1:43.07.
And finally, WINNING the 200 free with an insane second half,
freshman (that’s right… freshman!) Joe Tonna with a
1:42.03!
What??? The Friars are going
crazy! I can hear the
stomping of their feet on the small bleacher this huge team is squeezed
into. I can even hear the
Friar Fans directly above my head…
all cheering about witnessing the 4 scoring Friars in the top 5
spots. Yes, a 1-3-4-5 finish
in the 200 free! Look at
those times. Are you kidding
me? States
edit: If you look at the
overall times across the State in the 200 free this year… it’s one of
the deepest events of the meet.
We had 3 Friars scoring for us!
Dylan Champagne finished 17th in NYS with a 1:44.21.
Joe Tonna, one of our many guys coming off the flu fought to
finish 12th in NYS with a 1:43.21.
And battling for the top spot for all 200 yards of his race,
Billy Swartwout finished 2nd overall in NYS with an
All-American Consideration
1:39.21! Yes, you read
that correctly… a sub 1:40 time baby!
Our 200 IM was one
of the events that we needed guys to come out of their comfort zone and
score points for this team.
Obviously without Michael Chang, these guys had to step up!
Our 1 true IM’er in the event was Ian Fitzpatrick… but we needed
to bring in the talent of 200 freestylers Billy Swartwout and Matt
Chang. We also called on the
multitalented Ryan Arbeeny.
Ryan is important to any lineup as he can swim just about any event.
We needed him to score, and he sure did with his
2:05.07 finishing 16th overall.
Freshman Matt Chang also had an incredible swim only .13 off the
state cut time with a personal best
2:00.76 and finishing 11th!
Watching the top 4
guys’ race in the final heat, man, that was awesome for any swimming fan
to watch. We were all
standing, watching, yelling; as we watch Billy and Ian swim each of the
4 strokes. Billy dropped
another 2 seconds and finished with a
1:54.92 in 4th
place! Ian was simply in a
zone, and having the meet of his life as he swims a
1:54.31 and finishing 2nd
overall! States
edit: A lesson for anyone
looking to strive to succeed at any challenge you face; look no further
than using Friar Ian Fitzpatrick as your example.
Hard work pays off….
Period. Ian has been
consistently attending every practice, giving 100% effort through every
workout and one of the most coachable swimmers we’ve ever had.
As a result, Ian improved his times every time he hit the water
at every Championship meet.
Including, his unforgettable 5th place overall finish in NY
State swimming a personal best
1:54.56! We had a TON of
Friars competing in the 50 free.
The best part… just about every single one of them swam personal
best times! Four years ago, one
of my childhood teammate’s sons was coming to A HUGE highlight for
ALL the Friars was when 6’4” diver Tyler Zarzycki shot off the blocks
and Smashed his heat as he tore up the pool swimming a 25.99!
WOOO!
The Friars behind me were simply going crazy.
I loved it. Get
ready for more relay swims next year pal
J A wonderful surprise
this year was international student Jason Yu coming to This Friar Family is
not just about swimming and best times.
Much of it is about life lessons and experiences.
Right at the beginning of the season, Joe McLaughlin came to me
like a man, looked me in the eye and stated “I will not disappoint you
this year, coach. You can
count on me”. He shook my
hand that day and worked his butt off coming to every practice
thereafter. I must have told
him 10 times this season how proud I am of him.
I’m also proud of his 23.57 swim!
Last year I heard
all about this swimmer that came to It was a great
season to watch Caleb Neugebauer maturing.
Sure, he’s maturing as a young man… all our Friars do over their
four years; but he’s maturing as a competitor.
He paid closer attention on learning how to train and how to
compete. And, I’m not taking
any credit for that at all.
That credit goes to all our leaders.
They are a perfect example of success and Caleb wants that same
success. He pays close
attention to them. His
22.76 12th place
finish was huge for us! Another Friar who
enjoyed success was Trevor Griffin.
He wanted to have a great meet so bad that his focus was off the
charts. With a great start, he
scored huge points for us with his 10th place
22.64!
So, do you remember
last years 50 freestyle Finals?
I do! Do Justin Meyn and
Mark Owens officially qualify as a dynamic duo finishing first and
second for the second year in a row???
Yes! How cool is
that? Mark Owens, with an
incredible turn I might add…, swam a 21.15 and placed 2nd
once again only to his teammate Justin Meyn!
The entire room was already on its feet before the 20 second race
began. The cheers were so
loud, until the swimmers stepped on the block.
It became so quiet so quickly it made my own heart race.
Those two Friar caps looked so cool out in front and everyone was
in awe as we watched them fly across the water and watch Justin hit that
pad as the 50 freestyle Champion at a
20.90!
Holy fast… I was screaming! States
edit: Before I even go
further, how about this: You
need to swim a 21.72 just to even SCORE at States!
Whew…. Mark Owens went on
to kill his consolation heat and placed
11th overall in
NYS swimming a 21.15!
Justin Meyn, focused as always,
placed 3rd overall
with an
All-American Consideration
20.87!
** With these two
huge point scoring swims, the Friars moved into 3rd place,
but were closing in on the leaders. Diving is such a
challenging sport. I always
feel it doesn’t get enough credit.
Sometimes it takes an entire season for a diver to even learn
enough dives just to compete.
It’s so tough that many drop out of the sport because they just
can’t handle the mental and physical challenges it takes to “become” a
diver, let alone a diver for the Friars!
This year we had two divers with the guts to stick it out and
face all the challenges they encountered.
Regan Bruno and Fantastic job Coach
Kyle! **
The story of Regan Bruno: I haven’t spoken too
much of this because I didn’t want to draw attention away from Regan’s
leadership on the girls swimming team.
Just bear with me:
After years of legal debate, the ruling from the state came down
that girls are not permitted to swim for the girls’ season AND dive for
the boys’ season. They must
CHOOSE one or the other. I
spoke to Regan over the summer and after a wonderful conversation, she
decided to surrender her girls’ team status and dive for the boys.
This wasn’t mentioned at all, because although Regan wasn’t on
the roster to compete… she still wanted to participate and not miss her
senior year on the girls’ team.
So, no one knew and her leadership role remained in tact!
Guess who had the best attendance on the girls team?
That’s correct – Regan!
She gives her heart and soul to both of these teams and it was a
proud day for both Coach Kyle and me when Regan Bruno was named captain
of the diving team. Awards were given…
and the final 15 minute “break” for the competition pool to be open was
over. The Friars were
gathering back to the bleacher and Coach Ashley was filing them in.
(team organization baby!) The event has begun.
Jason Yu, after a great freestyle swim, also dropped 2 seconds in
his 100 fly, 1:02.77.
Exhausted, he did get out the words, “I’m tired” but he sure had a huge
smile while he said it.
Dylan Cellamare had a great season.
He’s going to be a tremendous help next year as he keeps
improving. He swam a great
1:00.04 in his fly. Danny
Zahn also improved through the season, especially his sprinting and many
relay swims. His sub minute
59.80 fly was great to see. Coach John, with his
points sheet in hand… gave a close “look over” and let everyone know we
were ok but needed some good scoring over the next three events.
We are going to be real strong here so we have to make it count.
Of course I passed along the info to all the Friars which was
followed up by a huge cheer as
our finalists walk out onto the bulkhead.
Tyler Simpson, as
confident as I’ve seen him coming off a great 50 free was ready to go.
Being the gentleman he is, I was impressed to see him first shake
the hands of all his competitors surrounding him on the bulkhead as a
true Friar does… then he got into his zone ready to kick some major
butt. Coach Scott let out a
huge shout of approval as he swam his
53.51, moving up two spots
and qualifying for States!
That got us ALL motivated and the cheers continued.
The music begins,
and out walks the final heat.
We have 3! Michael Stoski has
been waiting a full year to get back to this moment as he swam with the
flu last year. There were
chants from behind me… “Stoski…
Stoski…” He’s seeded
8th from trials, but his
53.35 moves him up two spots
and he’s also qualified for
states! We are on a
roll… Josh Giardinelli
works out as tough as anyone you will find.
He never shy’s away from any set.
His fly kick over the past 4 years has just become explosive, and
so has his butterfly. We
needed it! He was seeded 6th
after prelims, but moved up to THIRD with his
State Qualifying 51.85, one
of our biggest gains of the meet!
When does Mark Owens
step up? Champs! When it’s a
pressure spot, Mark GOES!
He is one tough competitor who loves to race.
His strength carried him to an
overall 2nd place finish with a
State Qualifying 51.61!
Our 4 Friars just scored huge points and our lead is finally
stretching. States
edit:
Our Fly event was just as exciting at States.
For starters, Tyler Simpson swam a 52.75 best time of the year
and finished 30th in NY State!
His smile was endless and he was so happy to “be back”!
Josh Giardinelli finished up his AMAZIN’ Friar career placing 17th
overall in NY State and scoring for us with his
52.23! Mark Owens came
up huge again for us moving up 4 spots and finished 12th
overall with a 51.46!
These three guys scoring finally put the Friars on top of the State leader board and stay
tuned… because we will never look back! Wow…
this might be the half way point, so maybe an intermission?
Take a bathroom break?
Maybe get yourself a snack and some water to hydrate?
You still have quite a bit of reading to do! We had a ton of
Friars qualify the 100 free.
It seemed like so many guys were missing from the bleacher, but it
didn’t diminish the volume of the cheers.
James Simon, Chris Carneval, Sean Kotch, and Jameson Zhu, our
awesome relay from B Champs, were all next to me cheering their
teammates on! Ryan Gaffney learned
a ton last year after his success at B Champs.
He carried that right into this season and made A Champs in both
his events. He swam a great
personal best 1:00.51.
Freshman Maverick Dettling has a ton of untapped potential.
He’s learning a lot from his team leaders and will improve as his
confidence and consistency improves.
He turned in a great 1:00.24.
Another Friar who really improved throughout his sophomore year
is Aiden O’Toole; much more mature and disciplined in his races.
His hard work with Konal Keane and “the guys” paid off with his
awesome 57.72! Senior Connor
Sullivan has finally had a healthy varsity season.
It was great to have him in the water all the time and his
leadership and spirit is so necessary on a team of this size.
This was his best by far. He capped off his career with an
awesome 55.48 100 free. There were some
morning practices where getting into the water goes too slow.
You need a leader to set an example to “get the guys going”.
Well, on the far side of the pool, on many occasions it was Cole
McNulty. I was so impressed
and thrilled just as much as he was with his personal best 55.10.
Ok, I know I may be
on repeat… but I can’t stress enough how important leadership is.
There are guys who just come on the team and bleed Black and
Gold. Konall Keane is one of
those guys. He loves his
school. He loves his team
(all of them… he plays 3 Varsity sports), and he loves his teammates.
He gives it his all 100% of the time.
What a memorable moment his 53.32 swim was, and the Friars were
screaming through all 53 seconds of it!
Sebastian Quiceno also put together a great season starting with
his workout habits. As that
improved, so did Sebastian’s swimming.
He capped off his season success with a 53.04.
Joe McLaughlin was
excited for his 100 free.
Yes, he wanted to swim for his team, but he also wanted to see how fast
he can really go. Time to
put his hard work to the test, and he got positive results and I threw
my arms in the air to celebrate his 52.76 personal best swim.
(awesome to see you smiling like that Joe!) Throughout all our
lineup changes, from the Chaminade meet, to Fordham, and now Champs, we
got a tremendous boost from Tim Rupnarain.
He really stepped up.
I was chirping in his ear every moment I had a chance to.
He kept nodding his head in
approval and listened to it all. He did an awesome job finishing 16th
and swimming a 49.88.
Our final three
Friars were all in Finals! I could see the
intensity on Trevor Griffin’s face.
He was all business.
Focusing only on his lane in front of him, just as he should, Trevor
sprinted to his first ever individual
State Qualifying time of 48.69
and placing 8th for the Friars!
Out in front of the
final heat of the 100 free was not one… but TWO black and gold Friar
caps! They stood out because
NO ONE was catching them.
Chris Stange’s second half was
just incredible with a fantastic final turn at the 75.
Those clean breakouts locked him in for his 2nd place
finish and a State Qualifying 47.11!
I do have to admit,
it wasn’t just the Friars who were jittery with anticipation.
Everyone in the entire Right from the
start, he was a rocket… not losing any speed on his breakout.
I’m already screaming, possibly blowing out a vocal cord in the
process. I see the 21.69
split flash up on the board…
WOAH…. my arms in the air,
ignoring the splits on my stopwatch and just enjoying seeing Justin tear
up the Nassau Aquatic Center pool, with Stange and Griffin in there with
him. Points… Points…
Points… look at
those Friars GOOO! Holy Fast…
Justin cranks out a jaw dropping
45.89 and winning his second
individual event of the meet!
100 Freestyle Champion! ** After last year’s
(2018) three way tie for the MVP of the meet, the league voted on going
with “power points” to try to have 1 winner and break all possible ties.
After all points were totaled, Justin Meyn became this years
CHSAA League MVP!
Congratulations Justin, so well deserved! States
edit: Our Friar freestyle
sprinters furthered our point total.
Chris Stange gave us an additional thrilling performance with
another incredible second half of his 100 free.
Chris finished 13th overall in NY State with a
47.70, but he’s just getting
warmed up. He has TWO
incredible relay swims coming up.
Justin Meyn took his Championship experience with him to States.
Coach John gave him his “pep talk”, and Justin gave him his
simple “head nod” that he does, and you know he’s ready.
Stepping up on that block in the middle of the pool… he even
looked like a champion. He
was out so freakin fast (21.34) it almost didn’t look fair. The race was
close, the race was awesome, but the race was also all Justin and he hit
that pad, looked at that score board and rightfully threw his arm in the
air! A 45.40!!
Are you kidding me???
Justin Meyn is the NY State Federation
100 freestyle Champion! * Chris and Justin
combined furthered our point total and it’s thrilling to look on Meet
Mobile and see St. Anthony’s on top.
YEAH BABY! Whew… adrenaline.
I have to regain my composure…
Just reliving that is exciting every time! ** Note:
Justin Meyn was just named All Long Island by Newsday! Before I go further
into our 500 free review, I have to give a huge shout out to freshman
Nick Carrieri. So many
swimmers shoot for the 50 free, 100 free, they all look to sprint.
Not Nick! He manned
up and qualified for the 500.
Nick dropped like another 23 seconds for his personal best
5:54.89. Show ‘em how to do
it Nick! We also had
sophomore Sean Sullivan in the 500.
Sean’s one of those guys like Sean Kotch who just doesn’t stop
swimming. They refuse to sit
out. And their teammates
know it. Sean + Sean… (cool,
I like that) will often get cheers from their teammates when a tough set
is ending and the see they don’t wuss out and skip yards.
Sean Sullivan’s persistence earned him an entry into the 500 and
he swam a killer personal best 5:42.86! Our team 500 free
entry took on some changes as we approached Champs.
Kudos to our swimmers too…
they had a lot of input on it. - Josh Giardinelli
had been swimming it for us in the past, but he’s in the 100 fly this
year. - We needed more
backstrokers, and Billy Swartwout is available to swim that.
Also, owning up to
it as I must, JoJo Tonna didn’t qualify for the 5 during the season (my
bad) and we need his points in the event at States.
There was MUCH discussion on it.
I spoke to Billy Swartwout about it, because the move will be
tougher on him, but the payoff for the team would be great.
Billy of course was 110% on board with whatever is best for the
team to win both, Champs and States.
Finalizing these moves was also made on the confidence that we
[the coaches] had on the young but ready to handle the pressure…
sophomore Richie Chiarella and freshman Owen Glaser.
These guys did NOT disappoint!
I received the phone
call from Mrs. Glaser the night before trials.
As I say all the time, its like the stars have to align to win
any championship meet.
Nothing can EVER be taken for granted… and I receive the news that Owen
has symptoms of the flu.
UGH. (as per championship
rules, there are no substitutions for designated scorers in individual
events). The morning of
trials, Owens fever broke and he wants to swim for his team.
WOO! With limited
warm-up to save energy and I have him quarantined in his own personal
chair away from the team…
Owen guts out a 5:01.84 and finishes… ready for this… 11th!
Sick and all! That was awesome.
– Warm down Owen and rest… Richie Chiarella
elevated his swimming to a whole new level.
That guy is tough as nails!
He’s definitely on his way to a State cut next year as his
teammates cheered him on watching him win the consolation heat and
taking 9th overall
with a 4:57.71! One of the most
impressive swims I’ve seen was Dylan Champagne’s trials swim.
I feel it’s so hard to swim against a clock due to circle
seeding. Yet, Dylan somehow
swam his way to a blistering 4:36.86!
That was crazy and I loved every bit of it!
Our top two distance
swimming Friars was both Dylan Champagne and the 200 freestyle Champion
JoJo Tonna. These guys gave
their team a 2-3 finish overall with JoJo with the second place finish
swimming a State Qualifying 4:38.88 and Dylan 3rd who already
qualified for States and swam a
4:41.02. We settle down for
more awards. I proudly watch
all our winners with their Friar Team shirts on come back with so many
medals. But this weekend is
long. This weekend is
exhausting. We need to
finish as strong as we started.
I notice our bleachers going a little flat.
We’ve been cheering and screaming our heads off for two days…
(three including diving) but we want to walk out of this place as
Champions. So, it’s
time for another team “talk”.
I’ll be totally honest, I LOVE talking in the team huddle.
It’s my favorite part of coaching.
What’s said in our team huddle - stays
in our team huddle. Unless… Coach Dan is known
to possibly get a little crazy from time to time.
Slightly carried away??
Maybe. So apparently
my face is red, veins popping out of my neck and forehead…
and I want nothing more than my team to keep performing at the
level they have since the diving event began last Friday night.
My “speech” is done.
Blood pressure higher than the freakin high dive platform of the Ok, you don’t have
to really get up. Just
continue reading. I can’t wait to see
this relay go. This is the 200 free
relay. Every team has
marvelous sprinters. They
all can GO. Chaminade and
Fordham Prep have some of the top sprinters in the league.
Even Xavier’s relays are awesome this year.
St. Francis Prep and To the 7 other
relays in this final heat:
THE FRIARS ALSO HAVE
4 SPRINTERS! Yes we do! I’m jumping up and
down. My adrenaline is
pumping. Psst… Coach Dan… You’re not swimming…
chew your Pepto tablets and calm down. Mark Owens steps on
the block. These are the
swims Mark lives for. He’s
never looked more ready. He
has a monster turn and puts up the best lead off split ahead of Xavier.
21.27! That gets his
relay psyched! Chris Stange
has a beautiful start, one he’s really worked on… and puts up a 21.89 of
his own. Talking to Coach
John about our order, I told him I want a “filthy” second half.
He reassured me…
we’ve got one! Haha
Heck yeah we do! Our third swimmer is
Billy Swartwout with a nasty relay start that some of the officials
haven’t even seen yet… swims a 21.14 and we are way out there!
Closers.
Anchors. Finishers.
Whatever you want to call them, we’ve had some of the best of
them in NY State. Throwing
names at you… Sean Cannon,
Mike Forgione, Bernil Carmichael-Lopes, Billy Krause, Nick Bedward,
Christian Yeager… and YES,
Justin Meyn. Some of the
best relay anchor swims over the past 4 years have come from Justin
Meyn. ** He anchored the
fastest Medley Relay in NY State history.
It still stands to this date. Justin shoots over
Billy… it doesn’t even look
fair. Seven incredible
relays who be dominate in any other league are being left in the dust.
Justin tears up the pool with a 20.91 and wins the 200 free relay
with an
All-American Consideration
time of 1:25.21, the fastest
time in the State so far this year!
Well, it wasn’t my speech that woke up the Friars… it was this
RELAY!!! States
edit: This same relay
never lost! They went on to
be the NUMBER ONE RELAY IN NY
STATE! That’s right
Friar Fans, on the top of the podium stood Mark Owens (in his work
boots, 21.10) Chris Stange (21.89), Billy Swartwout (ready for this…?
20.87), and our anchor Justin Meyn (20.51), all combined for a
now
All-American AUTOMATIC
NY State Federation Champion time of 1:24.37!
ARE
YOU KIDDING ME??? ** Note:
This relay was just named All Long Island by Newsday!
We began our 100
back with a ton of young Friars.
I see a lot of potential for Freshman Maverick Dettling in the
backstroke. It’s only his
first pressure meet as he qualified for A champs his freshman year, so
nerves can happen. Maverick
did however swim a beautiful 1:07 during the season!
After swimming that killer 500… Nick Carrieri swam a personal
best 1:11.11. Outstanding
swims for Nick. Mr. “put me in
anything, coach” Sean Sullivan also rocked a best time with his 1:09.04.
In just one year, Tommy Rosselli is probably one of our most
improved Friars. When he
enters the water, that 24/7 big smile disappears, and he swam a
beautiful 1:04.26. Ok Friar Fans, how
about this swim: Champs is just a
magical meet. Guys get in
that water and “make it happen”.
Coming off his incredible 200, Joe Welling, just hovering under a
minute all season, gets in the water and swims a sick 57.39!
What’s amazing about that swim is he would have placed 13th
overall if he was an eligible scorer!
I’m not sure who was smiling wider, me or Joe.
Our first two
scoring backstrokers is another freshman/sophomore pair.
Owen Glaser had such an important swim as we basically woke his
sick butt up so he can swim and he actually made it into the consolation
heat. Owen moved up another
spot and finished 15th with a
58.34.
The flu can’t hold back Owen!
Caleb Neugebauer is another Friar who doesn’t care what he swims
as long as he’s racing somebody.
“Caleb, what’s your
200 free time?” -
put me in it coach… “Caleb, what’s your
fly time?” - put me in it coach “Caleb, what’s your
backstroke time?” - put me in it
coach… Well, we did.
We put Caleb in the 100 back and he came up huge for his team
finishing 13th with a
57.43. The Finals of the
backstroke was a huge heat for us.
You can’t give up any points to teams like Fordham and Chaminade.
We didn’t use Billy in the 500… but guess what; we have him now
along with Ian Fitzpatrick!
Two of the best in the league baby!
Ian has just been
hitting best times all weekend long.
His 200 IM, his Medley relay swim; all his best.
I’m not surprised by any of it.
For the past 4 years I’ve been watching Ian and cheering for him
as a fan because I see the effort he puts into perfecting his swimming.
Any swimmer can learn a lot from Ian.
Heck, I’ve learned a lot from
Ian. He’s in this heat
because he’s earned it. He’s
worked for it. I couldn’t
have been more proud to see him swim to a 4th place finish
with a State Qualifying 53.09!
Billy Swartwout has
been dying to swim the 100 back.
I too have been dying to see him do it!
Bringing the entire place to its feet as he pressured Fordham
Prep’s Nick Torres all the way to the touch pad finishing 2nd
with an awesome State Qualifying
51.24! What a race! States
edit: Swimming in the
final heat of our championship is a huge accomplishment.
But… how about swimming in the final heat at States?
That’s right… Ian Fitzpatrick continued his personal best
swimming 4 weeks later finishing
8th place overall in NY State with a 53.53!
Woo… I was fist
pumping like DJ Pauly D!
(Is that still a thing?
Haha) You know who got the
Friars cheering to start off the 100 breast?
Senior Tavish McNulty.
Sure, a first year senior… but he is a teammate favorite and they
stand and cheer him on to his personal best 1:20.89!
Well deserved team cheers Tavish! Another incredible
swim was Ryan Gaffney’s 1:15.97.
I’d be smiling like Ryan if I dropped 5 seconds in one shot!
One swim that I
truly missed seeing was Jack Iorio’s 100 breast.
Seeing someone really enjoy swimming an event is such a good
feeling. Unfortunately Jack
had the flu so bad he couldn’t compete.
We missed you Jack! In order to be a top
team you need to be a deep team and you need swimmers like Ryan Arbeeny.
Throughout this year Ryan swam the 200 free, 200 IM, 500 free,
100 fly, 100 back, and here in Champs, he’s swimming the 100 breast.
He gave his team a beautiful performance moving up and winning
his heat to finish 17th with a
1:04.95! The reining To get the best out
or your team, many guys need to make sacrifices.
Matt Chang is one of those guys.
Sacrificing his best events to score for his team in the 100
breast, he placed 15th with a
1:03.63. Late in the season…
in fact right before Champs, we noticed how good Michael Stoski’s
breaststroke looked. I
talked with Stoski; he informed me that he had been working on it more,
and I have to say… it was showing.
Thank God, we needed him!
He was thrilled to have the opportunity and to be quite honest,
we needed the points. With
the 4 incredible years he’s given to his team, and certainly a favorite
of his teammates, Stoski brought he teammates to their feet as they
jumped up and down on the bleachers (looking like they were stressing
those benches beyond their weight capacity!) the cheering on his
1:03.38 14th place finish! This team isn’t just
always about the swimming.
It’s about the opportunities and challenges that are faced along the
way. One such Friar is Tim
Rupnarain. He’s now our top
breaststroker and pressure mounts when so much is expected of you.
Tim welcomed every challenge and rose to the occasion.
I was so proud of his 8th place finish in finals and
his State Qualifying 59.93!
** Special Note:
With Tim’s state
qualifying 100 breaststroke, he has become the Friars
THIRTEENTH individual state
qualifier! We’ve had as
much as 12 in the past, but that included guys who were entered in
relays only. 13
individual event qualifiers!
At this time of the
meet, we have the following going to STATES: Justin Meyn Ian Fitzpatrick Michael Chang Mark Owens Chris Stange Billy Swartwout Josh Giardinelli JoJo Tonna Dylan Champagne Trevor Griffin Tyler Simpson Michael Stoski And Tim Rupnarain
- That is just Amazin’! The Friars are still
on their feet. There are
Friar Parents over head… yes, I hear them, because we are ALL booming
with anticipation of the Granddaddy of all relays…
the 400 free relay!
Being in the points
lead heading into the final event is a great feeling.
Sending your top 4 guys and best relay we’ve got into the final
event… well that’s just GLORIOUS!
I can’t even control
myself. My pacing in front
of the “white plastic chain” has my heart rate sky rocketing.
This is most confident I’ve ever been in our final relay, because
I can see the confidence in their faces; starting with their leader,
Justin Meyn. - shaking his head up and down for all his teammates to
see. “We’ve got this” going
through his head and being passed along to all of us…
These guys are READY! Coach John said it:
Let’s run with Justin up in front and have clean water throughout
the relay. Me… I can’t wait
to see it! Justin steps on the
block. Coach Scott hits me
in the arm – “This is going to be SICK!” he says. It only took 21.9
seconds to see Coach John was right… look who was out in front: Justin
Meyn, already almost a full second lead.
I’m already jumping
up and down and there’s 350 yards to go!
GO JUSTIN! He touches the wall
at 45.85 and now almost 2 seconds in front…
and Chris Stange flies over him.
Chris is tearing up the pool and the best part is that no one is
catching him! The lead is
now a full two seconds for Dylan Champagne as Chris swims a blistering
47.74! Showing one of his
best starts, Dylan is pulling further away from the field.
Dylan is flying and his 47.54 split is over 2 seconds faster than
only other teams third leg.
Our lead is now 2.6 seconds…
I drop down my folder… I
drop down my stopwatch… I just throw up my
arms in the air in celebration.
Why? Because Billy
Swartwout’s long body is being launched over the wedge of the block and
he is… Gone! My own arms are
pumping as much as Billy’s.
My out of shape heart rate might also be matching his and I’m not even
swimming! I jumped up and
down for the entire 46.28 seconds…
I enjoyed watching Billy extend their lead.
I enjoyed glancing at the joy on the guys faces surrounding me as
they knew what was happening; Billy (46.28!) was making it official as
his hand touched that lane 5 touchpad at 3 minutes, 7.41 seconds…
After 3 days of
competition, the Friars are once again:
CHAMPIONS! The very first week
of the season, we sat in the bleachers and talked about this very
moment. This team is
talented enough to be champions; we have to stay focused on this goal
every single day. “TIB – take it
back!”
113 days later…
Move those lane lines…
the Friars are going to celebrate!
Team shirts are
being shed and thrown aside…
some of the “big guys” are literally swinging Michael Stoski like they
are going to fling him all the way to the far side of the pool…
easy guys… we don’t want anyone hurt!
Geez… The cheers are
deafening… The parents
overhead are on their feet… applauding and celebrating… All this because
these Friars have scored an incredible 803 Championship points to become
the 2019 CHSAA Champions! Captains Regan,
Justin, Ian, and Konall hoist the CHSAA Championship Plaque over their
heads and carry it back to their team!
SPLASH
DOWN!!! States
edit: Our same 400
freestyle relay found themselves in the same position at States.
The Friars are in first place in team points going into the final
relay… all we have to do is not DQ.
“Safe starts” is the call.
Make sure you are legal, and then tear up that pool!
These guys have already gone 3:07, the top time in NY State all
year. Can they possibly go
any faster, especially when we are looking to be State Champs and have
to have safe starts? Justin Meyn’ split
is a 21.68… Holy cow I’m
shaking Coach John! Garden
City’s Jake Newmark is hanging with him, but Justin still turns out the
best lead off split of 45.60… What??? Chris Stange (47.94)
and Dylan Champagne (47.61) both keep the Friars out in front, and they
were flying! Our lead once again
is almost 2 seconds and Billy Swartwout (45.34!) is in command of the
race. Are you ready for
this…?? The Friars finish
with an
All-American Consideration, new St. Anthony’s school record,
NY State Federation Champion time
of 3:06.49! Holy Fast! **
Note: They finish two
and a half seconds ahead of the next fastest school, and this is the 2nd
fastest time in NY State history behind the Fordham Prep relay of 2014. **
This relay was just named All Long Island by Newsday! **
Justin Meyn was named team MVP **
Dylan Champagne was named team Scholar Athlete with a GPA of 102! BACK TO BACK NY
STATE CHAMPIONS!!! 3 NY State
Championships in the past 4 years!
Here is the run: 2015 – 2nd 2016 – 1st 2017 – 2nd 2018 – 1st 2019 – 1st **
There is only 1 school in NY State history with a better 5 year
record. That’s how
incredible this amazing run is!
The stat that is
announced at Champs: “There are over
20,000 students that participate in swimming each year.” Yes… but only 42 of
them can call themselves… NY
STATE CHAMPIONS! Special Thanks to the entire Coaching Staff, Coach
Scott, Coach John, Coach Kyle and Coach Ashley.
You are all AMAZING! Special Thanks to ALL the incredible Friar Parents!
You are part of this team too.
It doesn’t “GO” without you! And of course…
Special Thanks to
this entire team for making this season so incredibly enjoyable and
memorable. You deserve every
bit of praise! God Bless the entire
Friar Family! So proud and blessed
to be called your coach, -Coach Dan |
| The
2018-19 Friars
repeat as State Champions. The Friar men repeated as NYS Swimming & Diving Champions. Justin Meyn became the 3rd swimmer in Friars history to win an individual State Crown! The Friars also took home Gold Medals in both the 200 & 400 Freestyle Relays. Stay tuned for more. |
|
LIVE Results (Finals) Prelims: Results Psych Sheets Time Line |
| Please Pray |
|
It is with such a
saddened heart to deliver the tragic news of the passing of Friar
Diver, Maddie Ruocco ('15) Maddie was loved by
ALL her teammates. Her bright smile lit up the world. Her
heart was ten times as big as she was. She was a true Friar, who
loved each and every one of her teammates, and on so many occasions
expressed her love for her team. Her relationship with our then
diving coach, Coach Beth Bolger, was as tight as any coach/athlete
relationship you would ever see. Maddie thrived under
Coach Beth, while looking up to and always encouraging her teammates,
Jack Volpe, LeeAnn Santore, Noel Theroux, Lauren Coco, Alex Schnabel,
Kim Duong, Maria Basir, & Gabby Robles. Maddie scored huge
for her team in her sophomore, junior, and senior years. When she
wasn't diving, she was on the sideline cheering and routing on the Friar
swimmers.... Always. She went on to be a
Math major at Villanova University. There she continued to do so
much charity work that it would be too much to list. Through my tears, I
have to tell you that heaven gained one bright angel. Here are her funeral
arrangements: WAKE Please say a special
prayer for Maddie and the entire Ruocco family. Thank you, Coach Dan |
|
Friars are Champs! The Defending NYS Champion Friars are the 2019 NYCHSAA Champs. Results
Friars State Championship Qualifiers:
LET'S DEFEND
OUR TITLE!!!! |
| Check out the Friar Men's Team in Newsday Click here |
| Friars: Men's Swimming & Diving Results (2018-19) | ||
|
The Friars have
done it AGAIN...!!! Yesterday's meet was a
perfect example. I don't disclose what happens in our team huddle
because that's between me and you [our Friars], but our first huddle was
rising up to face challenges head on. And Fordham Prep was
certainly a challenge! You didn't shy away, in fact, I'm most
proud that you didn't even look scared. You just stepped on the
block with a job to do and you GOT IT DONE! Event after event you performed brilliantly! Our changed Medley needed a 2-3... done! Billy Swartwout's awesome "touch out" in the 2
free... sick! followed by Dylan's 1:45.10 and Stange's 1:46.07.
Are you kidding me? How can any team compete with that? All
3 are state cuts! HUGE shout out to Justin Meyn (the cheers you
got from your teammates was SO well DESERVED!) **Without even
flinching... Justin swam our 200 IM and 100 Breast** dominating
the 200 IM with a 1:55.41 followed by Ian with an INCREDIBLE 1:56.49...
Matt Chang with a 2:02.59. No joke, 3 3 events in and we were
setting the tone. The Friars are without a doubt... the
TOUGHEST team to swim in a dual meet! And... how about Owen
Glaser swimming a 2:05.36 in the IM, and even jumping forward to a 57.91
in the backstroke... the kid is what... 95 pounds soak and wet... (well, he is in a pool, so I guess yes, he's soak
and wet...) and pulling off times like that as a freshman???
AWESOME! Josh Giardinelli has been ON FIRE for us in this
main stretch... killing it in the 100 fly with a... ready??? 51.76 in a dual meet! Followed by teammate Mark Owens also with a State
time of 52.39! Moving Justin from the 100 free... we needed guys
to step up... Chris Stange (47.77) Joe Tonna (48.70) [not gonna
lie, I love typing the name Tonna again...] and Trevor Griffin (49.93)
got the job done. ** How about Connor Sullivan ripping the pool up
for a 56.33?? No wonder he beat me across the bay last summer! (I want a re-match!) 500 free was INSANE! total nail biter!
(thanks a lot Billy and Dylan) These guys battled... (and so did
Richie Chiarella) Me to the team on the side of the pool: "GET
RICHIE MOVING....!!!" Billy Swartwout (4:41.41) Dylan Champagne (4:46.55)
were incredible! We needed stronger freestyle relays. It was
one of the 1st coaching discussions in preparing for Fordham. Moving Justin to the 200 free relay... along to
partner with Owens, Stange, and Billy was a perfect call. That
also strengthened our much needed B relay of Caleb, Griffin, Josh, and
our huge anchor (also anchored the 400....) Dylan Champagne. Dylan
is always rock solid and you can't ask for a better guy to "get it
done". 100 Back we were "sealing the deal" with our leader
Ian Fitzpatrick showing how it's done with a 54.11, and freshman Joe Joe
Tonna right behind him with a 55.21... and Glaser's 57.9. That was HUGE. What's unknown about Justin Meyn is he's not a one
trick pony... he can swim it all! Without flinching, his team needed him in the 100
breast, and he proudly stepped on that block in his Black and Gold cap.
Justin qualified for States with his 59.42, followed by teammates Tim
Rupnarian (1:01.40) and Matt Chang (1:04.20). (** I loved the "fist bumping"... let's win
this for MC... as the guys went to the blocks ) We scratched our "A" relay vs Chaminade... (that
was our B relay that WON!) setting the stage for our 1-2 punch vs
Fordham... Killing it was Billy Swartwout, Chris Stange, Joe
Tonna, and Justin Meyn (swimming 3 of the last 4 events) and our B relay
Caleb, Ian, Josh and Champagne.... to make it official... The Friars have once again defeated the Mighty
Fordham Prep! It doesn't get any bigger.... it doesn't get
any sweeter... To the poor Friar fans who couldn't make it to
Fordham University: You missed one of the greatest performances in this
boys team history! It was accentuated with the traditional "senior
speeches" that commenced on the bus ride home. To hear these guys
(and in Regan's case, girls ;) ) pour their hearts out to their
teammates. For me, it's as special as any Friar Win!
8-8... that was the
diving event score vs Fordham! One of my favorite
things to do as a Coach is lean on kids and let them know how important
they are to the team. "Your Team needs YOU!" One of my favorite
statements! 100% of the time I
get a positive response from the Friars! Regan and Tyler were
in that situation vs Fordham. We needed the best they had to
offer. And boy, did they provide that to their team! Our
TWO Friars scored the same amount of points as Fordham's 3 divers!
At that point of the meet we were up by 2, and Regan and Tyler kept that
lead for us! HUGE!! I loved seeing the
smiles, the elation, and celebration with their coach! Great job
Coach Kyle and your divers! That brought on our
2nd team meeting - feeding off the enthusiasm that our divers provided,
the Friars never looked back from there!
Reality is... We have faced every challenge head on - one at a
time. So now, it's time to
move past our glorious win and focus on our next challenge. WE WANT CHAMPS!!!! I want to see our Seniors hoist that plaque over
their heads! Let's earn it gentlemen! Back to work
tomorrow morning!!! LET'S TO THIS!!!! We are NOT finished yet!!! T-I-B.... Take It Back!!!! GO FRIARS!!!! |
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Dylan Champagne
leads the Friars in win over St. Francis Prep Senior Dylan
Champagne turned in a phenomenal state qualifying 400m freestyle with a
4:10.25 (500: 4:45.03) to lead the Friars in their 4th win of the
season. Ian Fitzpatrick swam a commanding 1st place 200 IM.
Danny Zahn took 1st place in the 100m fly with a 1:06.58. Ryan
Arbeeny swam an impressive 400m free with a 4:29.62 as well as picking
up the win in the 100 breast. Tommy Rosselli won the 100
backstroke with a 110.93. |
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Friars look
impressive with 7 individual State cuts vs. Xaverian Swimming fast is
contagious. Joe-Joe Tonna was first to jump on the block and kill
it in the 200 free with a state qualifying 1:58.58 (147.02).
Justin Meyn was next in the 200 IM with a state qualifying 2:11.98
(158.80). Chris Stange sprinted to a state qualifying time in the
50 free, 24.62 (22.00). Billy Swartwout was a rocket as he killed
the state cut and set a NEW school record in the 100 "meter" back with a
57.59 (51.83)! That wasn't the ONLY record to fall... Michael Chang broke
the school meter record by 2 and a half seconds with a NEW Record of
1:06.42 (59.83)! Setting up the 400 free relay and have the
Friars race each other yielded two more state qualifying times in the
100 free for Justin Meyn 53.05 (47.75) and Chris Stange 53.15 (47.84).
That's SEVEN total! Other great swims
were turned in by Cole McNulty, Sean Kotch, Jason Yu, Joe McLaughlin,
and the 200 free relay anchored by Friar Diver, Tyler Zyrzycki.
So we have these
early "non-league" meets against some small teams. So how do I
light a spark to get these Friars to GO? I challenge them. I sent out a group
message to a few of the guys saying: "why don't we just
get all three State cuts in one meet...?" Immediately the
responses start coming in... "let's do it coach", "we've got this
coach"... etc. Then the "like"
buttons were hit, the "thumbs up" came in... Ian hit the "loves
this" button... haha, don't know if it was him, but someone did!
Too funny. Point is... they
got ME psyched! Yes, we had practice
in the morning. It's not time to rest yet. Not if you want
to win a Championship, and not if your looking to beat two awesome teams
like Fordham and Chaminade. You want to beat 'em...? You
have to out work 'em first! 8:00 PM, our medley
relay (Fitzpatrick, Chang, Owens, Meyn) got our first cut! That
was followed up by our 200 free relay, (Meyn, Swartwout, Owens, Chang),
and finally our 400 free relay (Stange, Swartwout, Meyn, Chang), with a
3:14 I might add... 4 seconds under the cut, qualified ALL THREE relays
for States in ONE dual meet! After morning
practice, I looked at Coach Scott; "do you think
they're going to get em all?" I ask him. Coach Scott gives me
that small half smile of his that I know is always followed by a great
comment... "they're gonna smash
'em all..." haha I loved it! There were other
great swims throughout the night... Regan's diving,
holding it down by herself! ** shout out to
Tyler and his Grandfather: I'm happy they are both ok after being "rear
ended" heading into the parking lot of the school. Tyler was dying
to come with his teammates to the meet, but also refused to leave his
Grandfather (who by the way is super cool and definitely a Friar Fan!).
You are a good young man Tyler! Good for you for doing the right
thing. Chris Stange swam a
state cut in the 100 fly with a 53.53. Justin Meyn led off
the 200 free relay with a state cut in the 50 free with a 21.82. Dylan Champagne had
an awesome 200 free just over the State cut at 1:47. Ian Fitzpatrick was
flying in the 100 free 49.69, as well as Billy Swartwout in the 400 free
relay with a 47.8 split. Tommy Rosselli swam
an awesome 100 back, 105.24. Maverick Dettling
already got his "A" Champs cut in the 100 breast. ** shout out to
Michael Chang and Justin Meyn for killing it in all three relays. Great swims all
around by the Friars!
OK, Holy Trinity's team
has been shrinking in numbers over the past few years. Being that they
are in league 3, we haven't swam them much. This year they went
down to about 6 guys. With so few guys, more have bailed on the
team and decided not to show up. Except ONE guy! He is a senior and
will not give up on his school or his senior year. I don't look at
this from our perspective... I choose to look at it from his. He
alone will walk on to the pool deck and take on the 2018 State Champions
by himself and proudly wear his school colors. GOOD FOR HIM!
That takes a ton of courage that we can all learn from. I will be reworking
today's lineup when I get home from work. I will fill in some
empty lanes, as well as give this young man three of our swimmers for
each relay event so he can swim relays.
Follow up
email following the meet: For starters, I just
want to let you know: After your
performance last night and how you welcomed and treated Harshil from
Holy Trinity, Coach Megan McNeely
was so touched, she said she teared up and wrote a letter to the league
on how you are such a class act. Coach Megan writes: Good evening
everyone, I just want to acknowledge Dan, his coaching staff and entire
Friars Swim Team for being incredibly welcoming to myself and Holy
Trinity's only swimmer. The Friars welcomed him with open arms and
treated him as their own. This truly made my swimmers evening/meet.
Going into a swim meet all alone isn't easy and tonight my swimmer came
out with smiles and new friends! Dan-you truly have an amazing group of
young men! Great meet! Just wanted to share such a heart warming
experience That letter was also
cc'd to every single coach in the league. I know we are a swim
team, but it's times like this when I couldn't be more proud. First and foremost,
we are a team of gentlemen. We just happen to be gentlemen that absolutely
kick butt in the water!!! GO FRIARS! |
Watch the Lady Friars on Channel 12 click here
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Number NINE!! |
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How incredible was
THAT Championship meet?
Yes, it was the best meet (between three teams) in a decade… but
it was also one of the best in Friar
HIST9RY!!! Driving to the meet
with Coach Scott, we couldn’t help but reflect on how nice the day was.
We were confirming how God is such a huge Friar fan and for so
many Champs weekends He gives us some beautiful weather for the ride to The tough dual meet
loss was behind us. It was the first
time any Lady Friar has felt it in 9 years…
seeing another team celebrate a dual meet victory over the
Friars. Your heart sinks.
Your stomach even gets a little nauseous.
Many of the girls couldn’t hold back tears as Sacred Heart was
jubilant over their victory.
But, I immediately asked for the tears to stop.
Instead, I wanted them to watch the celebration and take it as a
compliment… because the Friars are that tough to beat!! Reality is, it was
only one meet and at that point of the season, this team was still
learning. We had come a long
way since the start of the season, but we weren’t ready yet.
We weren’t ready for Champs, and we certainly weren’t ready for
Sacred Heart. Not on that
night. Lucky for us, we had
another learning experience right in front of us.
The TMLA meet. This
also was a huge challenge for us and the girls knew it.
Just as we do every year, we focus on one challenge at a time.
TMLA was our current challenge.
We needed to be better.
The Thursday morning
practice before this meet was a huge turning point in the season.
How this team walked ON the pool deck at 6am, was not the same
team that walked OFF the deck.
There was a new fire, a new awakening that just made them HUNGRY
to win. There was no more
pressure; the dual meet streak was over and we were no longer the “top
team”. Sure, winning is easy
when you’re “the best”. But, winning when
you’re not the best… that’s the challenge that this team wanted.
AND THEY WANTED IT
BAD! The first test of
this newly awakened team was this TMLA meet.
Mary Louis will come at you from beginning to the end of the
meet. Just like the Friars,
they never give up. We
needed this test and we needed to face them head on.
We looked incredible
that night. Not just because
our seniors were in their cool “Gold Friar Caps”.
We looked great because some of our best swims showed up that
night. For example, all
season long, our relay starts stunk.
They really did. Our
worst year with them by far, with timing way off… even DQ’s that make
Coach Dan pretty much flip out at times.
But we were determined to eventually get them right; even staying
late after meets to get much needed work in.
They never complained.
Why? Because they
knew they needed to work to win.
So they WORKED. All that
hard work showed up in the victory of the TMLA meet, and this team was
finally ready for Champs. No championship… any
sport, any title; is ever won without great leadership.
I was asked by Newsday, “How do you keep the Championship streak
alive?” My reply: LEADERSHIP.
Period. You have to have it.
Most important, is that it needs to be passed down to the next
class who have prepared for three years for their opportunity to lead
their team. Victory isn’t
the goal. Being prepared is
the goal. If you are
prepared to do your absolute best as a unified TEAM, victory becomes a
possible result. Due to
years of great leadership, we have been blessed with many resulting
victories.
Now it’s time for this special group of
seniors to lead.
Their leadership is
what made this team ready for perform their very best.
They have learned from years past that Trials is the key day to
winning a Championship. At a
minimum, you have to put your team in a position to score points.
It’s the most difficult day.
Finals are easy, you’re in a tight heat and you are simply
Racing. And racing is what
Friars do best! Trials (circle
seeding) are against the clock.
You step up on that block, and it’s just
how bad do you want it?
**
Keep your eye on the girls in the Black and Gold caps… because
they WANT THIS ONE! Different from past
Champ reviews, here is my goal for this one.
I will do my best to walk you through what we were facing event
by event. From what I’ve
heard, there were parents judging how we were doing by analyzing how bad
Coach Dan was pacing the deck.
Apparently, my body language can tell a story from across the
pool.
Well, I’m going to give you the Story of
the Lady Friars, 2018! We swam incredible
at Trials. We needed to.
Sacred Heart has the Big Guns in the league.
Mary Louis is built more like our team, with some incredible
talent at the top, and a huge DEEP talent pool to back them up.
Both teams will be gobbling up tons of points.
Added to that, where will the teams of St. Francis, Follow the numbers
as I go. I scored Trials
after I got home. (I mean,
who the heck can sleep anyway… It’s Champs weekend!)
Here is where the meet would be if Trials was scored: STA
793
SHA 749
TMLA
743 So what does that
mean? First, 3 teams are
over 700 points. That means
points are all spread out and there will be no high 800 team (FYI, we
scored 886 only a few years ago).
And, we are working on a 44 point lead.
Close? Just DQ’ing 1
relay would be 50+ points, so yeah, it’s close.
We will be watching EVERY point.
** FYI:
Within a heat, every spot we move up (place gained after trials)
will be a point, unless it’s vs. SHA or TMLA, then it’s a 2 point
difference in the meet. Same
holds true for falling a place, down 1 or down 2.
Follow? Warm up has ended,
and the half hour ordeal of squeezing into tech suits is finally over.
The Lady Friars gather in front of me.
What do I say to inspire them? Nothing. I let them know that
they have inspired me.
From where they started on August 26th, and now ready
to swim Champs in November has been one of the most enjoyable rides I’ve
ever been on in my 30 years at To be honest, I was
close to tearing up telling them that, and I think they knew it, because
I didn’t need to say much more.
I looked at their faces staring back and me, and I could see it
in their eyes. We were all
on the same page. They were
not going to give up their Championship.
Not this weekend! Unlike past seasons,
we didn’t get a single state cut in our relays “in season”.
In fact, only Briana Gellineau qualified any state cuts.
That’s it! Only one
Friar on the bus to Normally, in Trials
we would have 4 technically sound Friars swim and qualify us for Finals.
This isn’t just to give girls more chances to swim, it’s really
using the FULL depth team to save energy and spread out how many swims
need to be performed by an athlete.
Keep the team as fresh as possible.
It also hides who will be swimming our finals relays, give us a
look at who the other teams swim, and then adjust accordingly.
(Remember the 200 medley/free switch last year?
Worked perfect, huh!
** shoulder pat, one year later. Haha) This year, a big
burden fell on some of the top swimmers.
We had to use every possible chance we had to make a state cut.
We also tipped our hand and made the call who’s swimming the
relays. The team understood
completely. Throughout the
season to this point, we didn’t have the medley relay we were hoping to
have. We had been using
Arabella in the 200 free backing up Briana.
Well… at our coaches meeting (side note:
the coaches meeting takes place at Coach Liz’s house.
It’s a full open discussion, times searching, out of the box
ideas, don’t leave till we are satisfied, meeting to finalize the Champs
lineup. It’s an amazing
night for the Friar coaching team.) we decided that
Arabella was swimming the 100 free and 100 back.
Well, you should have seen Coach Scott’s eyes widen when I said,
we have our medley relay anchor… Arabella Pompay.
It was glorious. Senior walk is over.
(I’m a huge ** Let the ‘Coach
Dan pacing’ begin… Backstrokers enter
the water. Kayla Rutiliano is
in the water and she’s looking confident as can be, so I better pull it
together quick. My pacing in
front of the bleachers ends and I squeeze up between Regan Bruno and
Coach Liz at the pool edge. “Take your mark…” And just like that,
Champs is underway!
Kayla has a great start, but it’s off the first turn it becomes clear:
The Friars are here to
RACE. Kayla is in 1st
and the Friars don’t look back.
Danielle Pilulik is in TOP form and extends to an even greater
lead! Michelle Franco, after
turning in her best season of working hard, has an awesome start and
holds on to the lead against the greatest flyers in the league.
And now, the new found anchor, Arabella Pompay! No one is
catching her… not today! The
Friars take their 1st event of the day with a State
Qualifying 1:50.08!
So what about the
numbers? Here’s what’s on my
sheet: STA
56 SHA
48 TMLA
50. But the numbers we
are watching are these: ** All
three teams are “even” STA
0 SHA
0 TMLA
0 Meaning no one moved
up or down a place and the score is as it should be according to trials.
Follow? Hope so, it’s
easy now. Stay with me… State
edit: that same Medley Relay
went on to finish 16th overall in the State! The relay was a
Friar statement, but it’s the 200 free that sets the “points” example
that the rest of the Friars will follow all – meet – long! Catherine Iorio, who
is just filled with energy, has an amazing swim and her personal best
2:07.42 moves us up spots.
I turn around to the team and start screaming “she moved up…
that’s what we need to do ALL DAY!”
I’ll take credit for my enthusiasm but the girls just went CRAZY.
The cheering and energy didn’t stop… ever. Our Finals heat
steps up, and yes, we have 3 against the top freestylers in the league.
Over my shoulder…
can you hear it????
The chanting began…
When I say Amanda… you say Nasti…
Amanda…
Nasti…
Amanda…
Nasti…
When I say Kiersten.. you say Clancy…
Kiersten..
Clancy…
Kiersten…
Clancy… The Chants went on
…. And on… and on….
All -
Weekend -
Long!!!! The race was
incredible. I was in awe.
Look how fast these girls are going! Amanda Nasti has
been a huge Champs swimmer for 4 straight years.
She’s going to kill me, but when she was a freshman, she had a
“scared” trials swim. Her
nerves got the best of her and she was off.
Didn’t place well.
Through her tears we talked about how it was ok as long as she learned
from the swim and swam with confidence.
Then it was no longer a bad swim.
That was all it took.
The next day in Finals she blew away the consolation heat and scored
huge points for her team and she’s been doing it ever since.
Anyway, this senior
year she swam a sick 2:02.01
and finished 7th! With her was
Kiersten Clancy. She’s
another one that I can just lean on.
She’s loud, and yes, she’s crazy funny… but she loves to swim for
her team. I can be as stern
as I want right in her face when we need a big swim, and she takes it to
heart and does her absolute best, like finishing 4th with a
2:01.03!
Regan Bruno is right next to me screaming her head off! Out in front: With every flip turn
that Briana Gellineau does, Coach Scott is moving closer to me… And he’s probably
sorry he did because as she commanded the race as it went on, I kept
punching his arm…
(25.27)
** punch...
“Are you seeing this?” I
would scream. Yes.
He would say. (27.28, out in a
freaking 52.5) ** punch…
“ARE YOU SEEING THIS…?”
YES. He would sternly
say… (28.44) **
punch… sorry. Oh My Gosh!!!
Back in a 56.91?
Are you kidding me?
Briana Gellineau just swam an
All-American Consideration, school
record, and ** At the time I send this,
Briana is 12th in the country on the All American list!
She went on to place 4th overall in NY State!!! I turn around and
scream: “They ALL moved UP!
They ALL moved UP!” On the second one, a
vocal cord went ‘pop’. Anna Descovich,
Gracie Edmonds, and Emma Grefski were jumping up and down so hard the
first row of the bleacher is definitely flexing beyond its weight
rating! The numbers:
STA
143 SHA
116 TMLA
137 But the numbers to
watch: STA
+7 SHA
-3 TMLA
-1 ** Our girls moving
up put us on the “plus” side of where we are “supposed” to be.
Still with me? The 200 IM will
prove to be another great event for the Ladies.
At our coaches meeting, we [the coaches] were pretty much set
from the beginning on our three entries (Heinz, Pikulik, Lancellotti)
and were in search of our 4th.
After setting up a few other events first, freshman Elena Cunneen
was available for us. She’s
extremely talented, and throughout the season, she swam best when under
pressure. Lucky for us… at
Champs she’s going to feel the pressure!
Elena had an awesome Trials swim (2:26.32) to be in the
consolation heat, but it was at Finals where she moved up TWO spots… (a
2:23.98!) BOTH were Sacred
Heart girls! Cha... ching!
(Hear the points???) Right next to Elena
was teammate, and awesome Champ swimmer, Lily Lancellotti.
I knew Lily was going to have a great weekend after a season of
being healthy and working her butt off!
Lily finished with her second personal best of the weekend, a
2:25.07.
In the final heat we had Danielle Pikulik and Amanda Heinz.
Danielle placed 8th with her all time best,
2:20.73.
How about this little fact… Danielle’s fastest 4 times ever in
the 200 IM have all been at Champs!
Woo! The talk of the
season throughout the league was the “big guns” of other teams.
Well, so far, it’s been Black and Gold winning the Medley, the
200 free and NOW… Amanda Heinz is sporting the Black and Gold out in
front of the final heat! It
was a beautiful swim and Amanda not only won… but won by 4 seconds!
Are you kidding me? A
first place, State Qualifying,
2:11.26! The numbers: You have to give
credit where credit is due, and we knew this was going to be a 3 team
race; Mary Louis also had a great 200 IM performance.
Although tighter, numbers were in our favor! STA
219 SHA
183 TMLA
211 Numbers to watch: STA
+10 SHA
-4 TMLA
+6 The 50 free brought
so much excitement for the Friars.
Now, we knew how strong the league was in the freestyle events.
We knew records were going to fall.
But, what made it so exciting was that the Lady Friars performed
WAY BETTER than we were “supposed” to do.
The Timed Final 50
was great to see because it was one of our “youngest” events with 2
freshmen and 2 sophomores.
All three, Arielle Ristau, Adrianna Santopatre, and Anna Descovich
turned in best times… but the pleasant surprise, after a season of so
much hard work, was Arianna Alladio-Zacpal taking the win with a season
best, 27.67!
(If we were allowed a 5th entry, she would have
qualified for the consolation heat) The Trial/Final 50
was going to be a huge test for us.
I mean, we did everything we could to pump these girls up.
We needed pure confidence and a ton of adrenaline to compete with
these other fast girls.
Well, we picked the best 4… because they KILLED IT!
The Franco sisters were in the consolation heat.
Michelle Franco, proving once again that great things come in
small packages, finished 13th with a
27.16.
She was huge in so
many big spots for us this season.
I move her in and out of events, in and out of different relays.
She gives it her all and is all about the team! Her sister Vanessa,
who is a HUGE St. Anthony’s track star… swimming in the outside lane was
a ROCKET and WON the consolation heat with a personal best
26.63!
WHATTTT!!! What a way to end
your Friar career; the biggest swim of her life.
She moved up so many spots, and we needed ‘em all!
Here is Michelle’s
hysterical moment… Walking back to the
team… Michelle had on a wonderful half smile, half that said she was
annoyed her big sister just beat her, but the other half showed she was
really proud of her. Then
she let the cat out of the bag… “I lent her my
[tech] suit!!” She cried! haha.
I cracked up. Franco sisters, it’s
a heat I’ll never forget! The blessing of the
50 free… we’ve got two into finals!
Looking at all our seed times, we knew our potential; we just
prayed that the execution of those swims would be on point.
Well, Frankie Pellegrino and Kristin Carter
stepped up. All our sprinters
prior to Champs were 27 low flat start swimmers, and 26 high with relay
starts (flying starts). We
[coaches] new how tough the event was going to be but we also had faith
in the Friar Magic that
happens at Champs. Frankie
and Kristin BOTH made Finals and finished 7th and 8th
with a 26.49 and
26.52 respectively! We
didn’t score the most points, but most important is that our swimmers
did better than expected… check the numbers! STA
288 SHA
269 TMLA
288 (Yes, we are TIE
with Mary Louis, but hang on… it’s going to get more intense from here!)
Yes, the rumors of me chewing Pepto tables to settle my
stomach are true… Numbers to watch: STA
+13 SHA
-6 TMLA
+7 One of our BEST
events through the years has been the 50 fly.
Hanna Skrodanes has won the event in the past, but in her senior
year, this year, she was going to be our 4th 100 fly entry
until she got a concussion playing soccer and couldn’t compete.
We missed you Hanna! So the 50 fly was in
the hands of Sophomore Sofia Marinucci and 3 new freshies!
The Friar Freshmen finished: Kiera Mutarelli 5th, Emma
Grefski 4th, and Simone Sanchez 3rd, with The 100 fly event
came together as a miracle throughout the season for us.
After graduating Emily Bardak and Gabby Mattutat, we had one
butterflyer locked in; Michelle Franco.
Who will be the next three swimming with her?
That question was discussed after every dual meet.
As the season progressed, Kiersten Clancy showed more and more
potential. With Arabella
Pompay joining Kayla Rutigliano in the 100 free, we jumped at the
decision to have Kiersten join Michelle.
The next one was easy… every single workout, right under my nose
in lane 6, was Izzy Marone working her butt off every lap of every
workout.
Hard work ALWAYS pays off. Izzy’s fly just got
better and better every time she swam it.
As many times as we [the coaches] talked to her about it, as well
as me constantly having her swim the event, she NEVER shied away at the
opportunity to swim and improve.
The end result: a 7th
place finish in Finals with a personal best
1:03.90!
One of my most exciting “pick-ups” this season is freshman
Bernadette Bakke. During her
“tryout swim”, I immediately turned to Coach Liz and said, “damn, this
girl can swim… she’ll be scoring for us”.
(yeah, I was right). Bakke has SO MUCH
talent, and just needed the season to get up to Championship speed.
But she worked for it!
That poor girl was SO nervous (I loved it! haha) and her
teammates were talking to her and calming her down.
But you know what “nerves” do in swimming?
They keep you thinking, and mental preparation is huge.
She absolutely killed it with a 10th place personal
best 1:05.57! Woo! OK, where was I…?
Oh yes, back to the Final heat! Hey, this stuff just
shoots out of my head so bear with me… Back to where I
started… Michelle Franco,
our butterfly specialist with an incredible start, swam to a 5th
place overall 1:04.20!
And, with the swim of her life and taking 3rd place
overall with a time of 1:01.13
(Clancy swam a 1:01!) was Kiersten Clancy! When I say Michelle…
you say Franco
Michelle…
Franco…
Michelle
Franco… When I say Kiersten…
you say Clancy
Kiersten…
Clancy
Kiersten..
Clancy… Yes, the chants were
never ending! The energy
never stopped. Sometimes you
get to the middle of the meet and there is a “lull”.
Not this year. The
stands behind me were rocking.
I was working the ‘numbers’ sheet with Coach Gennie and we were
literally screaming at each
other to hear what we were saying.
We wanted to be accurate because over the next three freestyle
events Sacred Heart is going to come back with a vengeance, and we MUST hold our places. The timed final 100
free sparked the enthusiasm of the Friars.
It would have been a perfect mix of lower/upper classmen, but
unfortunately Yesenia McKee got sick and couldn’t compete.
Under championship rules, there are no alternates, so we lose the
one swimmer and compete with three.
Well, our three handled the event just fine!
Freshman Hope Sandoval improved all season long and it showed
with her 9th place finish in her 1st Friar
Championship meet. I was so
proud of junior Gracie Edmonds’ swim that I turned to give Coach Liz a
high five after Gracie’s 5th place finish.
This season she not only handled much more pressure but swam many
different events throughout the dual meet season.
She worked so hard, but I am most proud of her blossoming
leadership. Great job
Gracie! No doubt I will miss
the wickedly funny personality of Sarah Schatz.
That girl can crack me up at 6am, and she certainly can relieve a
lot of building stress at a close championship with her humor.
To top it all off, she had a fantastic 100 free swim and finished
third overall! Our trial/final 100
free was a huge success story.
Hey, Sacred Heart and Mary Louis may have awesome sprinters… but
let’s not count out these Friars!
Kristin Carter was huge for us in the 50, and gave us a fantastic
100 free to add on to her success.
She swam a best time twice and finished 13th overall
in an event packed with talent.
What a senior year for Kristin!
You know what I love
about my Friar teams? They
are fighters. They never
quit. Like Frankie
Pellegrino. Her incredible
success doesn’t come easy to her.
She has to work her butt off and earn every bit of it.
I’m sure she’d be the first to admit that her season is full of
“ups and downs”, but she accepts the “downs” and learns from them.
The result: winning
the consolation heat with a season best
58.17!
Her smile said it all.
J Our 100 free lineup
got a whole new look to it when we penciled in the name Arabella Pompay.
She was the perfect compliment to Friar Fighter Kayla Rutigliano.
Kayla swims with such confidence and
hates to lose.
Arabella is currently just beginning to tap her potential.
On the outside, you couldn’t see her nerves.
She was ready to go!
Watching those two walk out onto the bulkhead got me pumped.
(Yep, Coach Dan is pacing… don’t blink on this one, your going to
miss it!) I turn to see Emma
Grefsky, Johanna Governali, and Caitlin McCourt all standing at
attention on the bleacher. I
was happy to see they were as excited as I was.
We all were screaming “Go Friars” together! The heat is packed
with talent. I think my
heart is racing more than Kayla’s!
That girl is ready! The race was crazy
fast. The best part about
it…? BOTH Kayla and Arabella
moved up places. Arabella
swam a 54.87… WHAT????
(That’s a 54.87) and Kayla swam a State Qualifying
54.12!
54’s make Coach Dan jump up and down like a nut.
They finished 3rd and 4th only to Joanie
Cash and Maggie Donlevy… two of the best in NYS.
That was huge! OK, so the score gap
is closing: STA
447 SHA
437 TMLA
430 But the important
numbers are: STA
+17 SHA
-9 TMLA
+5 To explain, we
basically gained three more points over where we are “supposed” to be
and I begin frantically tapping on my yellow score sheet and screaming
at anyone in earshot who can stand being around me at this point…
“We are a plus 17...!
We are a plus 17… !”
Clancy, Alannah and
Regan have no idea what I’m talking about but they join in my
celebration just because they know it’s something good. ** Trying to catch
my breath. I high fives to
Bella Filagrossi and Emily Ferraris as I run up and down the front of
our bleachers… I wish our 500
freestylers good luck. Cat Iorio can pound
out a 500 with the best of them; an energy level that doesn’t quit.
Friars like her are so valuable because she never shies away from
an event. With a great
second half of her 500, Cat finished in 12th place with a
5:41.53.
Right next to Cat was her teammate Sarah Farrell.
Sarah was as psyched
to swim as I’ve ever seen her.
She was in a great heat and she
loves the pressure. The
further she got into the 20 lap race, the better her splits were and
Sarah began pulling away. By
the 300 we had a clear Friar cap out in front and no one was catching
Sarah. She won the heat with
a 6 second lead finishing 9th with a personal best
5:34.14!
When I say Sarah…
You say Farrell…
Sarah…
Farrell…
Sarah…
Farrell… We are MORE than
ready to watch this final heat, and they walk onto the bulkhead… There were a couple
of times throughout the season in dual meets when we [the coaches] said
Amanda Nasti had an MVP type of performance.
Well, it’s Champs, and Amanda is doing what she does best… give
it her all! I was impressed
with her swim at Trials when she got into finals.
Now a day later she comes back and drops another 4 seconds!
Are you kidding me?
What a monumental champ’s career for Nasti! Before this heat, I
was unusually quiet. My
brain was racing more than my mouth.
Briana Gellineau is about to swim and my adrenaline is pumping.
I’m such a huge fan and love to watch her compete.
What makes her swims so special is she has to always take on the
best of what the other teams have to offer.
Dual meet lineups, I match her with their best.
Relay anchor swims; she is taking on their best.
What makes it so thrilling to watch?
She embraces the challenges.
So, in anticipation, I pace and I try to control my breathing.
Her races make me do both… I’m either holding my breath, or
hyperventilating. No in
between! I crouch down and
glare across the field of swimmers… So in a heat of the
elite, as early as the 200, three swimmers emerge from the pack:
Orla Egan, Lauryn Johnson, and Briana!
Briana is getting into her turns as best I’ve seen… and her
splits, Holy Cow! How are
these girls keeping up this pace?
This first 4 minutes has felt like a day as I hold my breath into
every 50 split, and then throw my hands up as I see it. Briana finishes
second place with a: Ready for this…? A State Qualifying,
All-American Consideration,
new school record,
4:56.98!
Holy Fast! (Yep, I
blew out another vocal cord and I’m almost as “horse” as Alannah Chernik
who lost her voice before this meet even started!
Haha) OK, the stress of
the numbers: STA
522 SHA
521 TMLA
507 That’s right, it’s
now just a 1 point lead and only 15 over Mary Louis. ** I told you this
was going to be a close stressful meet! Relax, take a break
and get a snack… here are
the numbers to watch: STA
+17 SHA
-11 TMLA
+6 State edit:
Briana went on to finish 15th overall in NY State!
(I’m not going to mention her sprained ankle because she never
uses an excuse… so I’m not). Now, I’m not going
to sugar coat it. This 200
free relay is going to be sick.
Look at the swimmers these other teams are putting up there: SHA: Johnson, Cash,
Walsh and Harkins. State
champions. TMLA: two Donlevy’s,
one a State champ, Caminiti and Orla Egan. Remember why I love
this team? Because these
girls step up to challenges!
On paper [from trials] we are penciled in to take 3rd.
Very respectable in this field of talent.
But this is Champs baby, the Friars don’t settle!
The swimmers Amanda
Heinz (flat start 25.66) Kiersten Clancy (25.66), Danielle Pikulik
(24.88) and on the anchor, Briana Gellineau (23.09, the fastest split of
ANY swimmer in the event by .6) swim another huge upset beating TMLA to
move up to 2nd place in the event! (1:39.33)
WOOOO!!! State
Edit: This same relay went
on to be the 25th fastest relay in NY State! The score of the
meet: STA
572 SHA
577 TMLA
555 Yes, you read that
correctly, we are down for the first time in the meet.
The scores are announced over the loud speaker.
Although there are cheers coming across from the other side of
the pool, I’m thrilled that my team is still up and cheering coming off
our awesome relay swim.
We’re down, but we’re not out!
Michelle Skala, (Sarah’s mom) is doing me a huge favor and taking
pictures of the team for our award dinner slideshow.
She walks over, face a little flush and says “how do you take
this pressure? I’m dying
here!” Well, I looked
across the pool at Grandma Nora knitting up in the stands.
I told Mrs. Skala “if Grandma Nora could teach me to crochet
right now, every girl on this team would leave with a sweater!” **
chew pepto… chew pepto… What our relay
accomplished; the numbers to watch: STA
+19 SHA
-11 TMLA
+6 You can tell a lot
about how deep a team is when you look at the talent in the Timed Final
events. Most of them could
compete in the Trial/Final event, but you can only swim the top 4.
How about we were also missing Sarah Skala, who was side lined
with a shoulder injury the first two weeks of the season.
(She’s making a comeback!)
Our 50yd backstrokers were so dominate, we almost swept the whole
event! Check out these
finishes and how close the times were: 5th:
Katie Scanlon 35.36,
3rd: Abby
Federlein, 34.65,
2nd: Skye
Bates, and
winning the event in 1st place:
Alannah Chernik with a 33.11!
The Friars go 5-3-2-1!
What domination! How about this:
I was researching back in my results to see when the last time
the Friars lost in the 100 back event.
Going in reverse, past champions have included Beth Caruana,
Kylie Danin, Melissa Bischoff, Marissa Taddeo… I’m all the way back to
2007 and we still haven’t lost. (I’m out of time for searching).
What do you think we have in this years’ Final?
You guessed it! ALL
FOUR FRIARS IN FINALS! Yes,
our individual swims were so impressive with Lily Lancellotti in 8th
(1:05.32) ** you have to swim
a 105 just to make finals… geez, how fast are these girls getting?
And now shoot up to 4th place where Sarah Jean Farrell
swam an incredible 1:03.36! Right at the top is
the same dynamic duo from the 100 free… Arabella Pompay [freshman!] in 2nd
with a 1:00.45 and with her 2nd
straight event Championship [freshman and sophomore years] Kayla
Rutigliano with a State Qualifying
59.16!
Here is what you have to
read… Those 4 Friars,
Kayla, Arabella, Sarah, and Lily COMBINED, scored a collective 95 points
in ONE event! The most
amount of points scored by any ONE team in a single event.
Now THAT’S Friar Domination! The scores: STA
667 SHA
639 TMLA
618 That’s right, look
who’s back on top And the magic
numbers: STA
+19 SHA
-13 TMLA
618 +3 That 19 is giving us
a lock on the Championship… we just can’t have a catastrophic error! ** if you’re keeping
a close eye on all three teams and remember the scores we started with,
Mary Louis with a +3 and Scared Heart with a -13, they are on the plus
side of the 6 points they needed.
Stay Tuned! (stay tuned?
Is Coach Dan kidding? … you’ve made it this far and been reading
for an hour, where the heck will you be going now?) With just about a
close repeat of the backstroke events, we head into the breaststroke.
Check this out: The 50 breast
continued the Friar success streak.
Maria Hernandez gained a ton of experience in the breaststroke
this season and finished 7th with a 38.64.
Using her long legs and huge kick, Michelle Wolf finished 5th
with a 37.51. Right in front
of her teammate was Jenn Nagle with 4th place 37.36.
And at the top, showing the strength of the Friars was the hard
working Gracie Edmonds winning the event with a 36.51! All weekend long, I
had to preach to this team (preach?
I had to scream my head off it was so loud) to be patient, we
will be strong in the end.
We just couldn’t fall too far behind.
On the numbers sheet, at one point we were to be 35 points down
and make our dramatic comeback.
This team is so fired up that the
only deficit was the 5 points.
And we are certainly on the predicted comeback! Poor Kiera Mutarelli
came up to me with a sad face on saying her Dad just got called into
work and she had to go. NOW?
I said. Mr. Mutarelli
works for the SCPD and duty called (Thank you for your service, Sir.)
I felt so bad for her. Moments later, she
came running back to her team “I can stay!”
I was thrilled for her!
(just don’t run on a slippery pool deck… you crazy?) Bernadette Bakke was
so huge for this team.
Unlike prior to the fly when Bakke said she was so nervous she could
throw up… (haha!
I love that) this event was a little different.
She was nervous, yes, but the excitement to swim completely
outweighed the nerves.
Freshman Bakke finished 10th with an outstanding
1:14.88.
That girl can compete.
Our next freshman, Elena Cunneen had the swim meet of her life.
Elena’s fun and goofy personality was completely disguised.
Her team needed her, and she was ready to swim for her team.
Elena swam a personal best
1:13.72 and finished 7th overall!
Way out in the front
of the heat was an incredible breaststroke battle.
What was good about it?
The battle was between two Friars!
Seniors Amanda Heinz and Danielle Pikulik; and just as they have
done every year prior, they are
MOVING! Amanda Heinz
finished 2nd with a State Qualifying
1:07.17 (state cut is a
1:08.6, and I believe it’s the toughest cut) and right next to her with
a State Qualifying, and NEW
Catholic High School State Record was Danielle Pikulik with a
1:06.20! Holy Fast… what
a swim! State Edit:
Danielle Pikulik finished 20th overall at States, and
Amanda Heinz finished 45th! Let’s put those
swims together as a team:
Danielle, Amanda, Elena, and Bernadette combined for
89 total team points.
** The second highest total of any one team in an event only to
our backstrokers. (Sacred
Heart and Mary Louis had both scored 88 at one point just to give you a
reference on the next two highest). Let’s total it up: STA
756 SHA
686 TMLA
679 And with one event
left, here are the important numbers STA
+19 SHA
-13 TMLA
-16 (Do you see it?
If you’ve been following the numbers closely, Mary Louis dropped
to a -16. Disaster
struck for the mighty Hilltoppers.
They had a DQ on a flutter kick.
Just like that a Championship can change.
You see, I’m not that crazy when I preach no mistakes!) The Friars have an
incredible 400 free relay.
These girls are more than ready and certainly fired up to go, but
just like the boys at States in 2016 and 2018, the call here is safe
starts. You watch your
teammate touch that wall and you’ll be hoisting a plaque over your head! The four we have are
simply amazing athletes. I
can’t wait to watch them… but even more excited than I am are the 38
ladies surrounding me cheering for their teammates.
They want to extend history, and more than any of their previous
years… they want THIS ONE. As they are walking
to the bulkhead, I’m really chirping in Kayla’s ear.
If she posts an incredible time on that board, her teammates will
follow. It’s the job of the
leadoff swimmer and she’s more than qualified.
Kayla doesn’t say anything.
She has an intense look in her eye and just gives me a “nod”.
That’s all I needed.
She’s going to tear this pool up! Kayla touches that
wall and a 54.47 flat start
swim goes up on the board.
My arms fly into the air and we still have three swimmers to go!
Arabella Pompay was intense all weekend long, and she was
exceptionally strong in the relays.
She follows Kayla with a
54.66 of her own! “a 54….
a 54….” Yeah, I’m
basically screaming at whoever is around me….
Amanda Heinz going
back to back events for us (really three out of the last 4 events; do
you have any idea what caliber of athlete you need to be to do that?)
and follows Arabella with a great
55.81! The 2017 State
Champions (Sacred Hearts exact same relay) is out in front of us, but
not by much. We have a
commanding lead over TMLA, and all we need is a legal start out of
Briana Gellineau. Her start
is perfect as always and definitely “safe”, and here she comes!
Briana is closing the gap!
The championship isn’t enough, she wants the win.
OK, she might have run out of pool so the Friars take second, but
she actually split the Fastest split of any swimmer in the entire meet by two seconds with
a 50.93!
Look at that number…
50.93. I held my phone up
with the split on it for all the Friars to read because it looks
unbelievable in print.
Briana’s hand on that touch pad made it official… THE LADY FRIARS HAVE
ONCE AGAIN MADE LEAGUE HISTORY WINNING THEIR NINTH STRAIGHT
CHAMPIONSHIP! Our relay swam their
fastest time of the season with a State Qualifying
3:35.87! State
edit: This same relay went
on to be the 9th fastest relay in NY State! The final team
scores were announced: TMLA
727 SHA
742 and
St. Anthony’s: 806! I hug my coaches (my
dearest friends) because I truly appreciate everything they have done
for these girls. They made
this team SO much better this year.
From where we started, to
THAT performance… truly a monumental accomplishment for these 43
girls. I pulled my team
together to give them a final Congratulations!
Everyone felt the tingling in their bodies as they pass the
plaque from swimmer to swimmer and took a proud photo.
I did let them know that this one of the most enjoyable seasons
I’ve ever had. To each and
every one of you… I can’t
thank you enough for that! **
Friars, remember this feeling forever, because sometimes in life
you do lose, but you always come back stronger and accomplish your goals
because YOU ARE A FRIAR!
This Championship is certainly one to remember! So proud to be
called your Coach, Coach Dan McBride
HIST9RY!!!
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We're not finished yet! |
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Please note the
schedule at the end...
Let me start with this: Unless you actually
get to a meet like this, it's simply amazing to see how far women's
swimming has come. Just when you think they can't possibly get any
faster, every year they do. I have such respect for ALL the
talented girls that swim in that state meet. ** Our Medley
Relay (Rutigliano, Pikulik, Franco, Pompay) finished 16th in NYS!
Briana Gellineau was awesome again, finishing 17th in the 500... but was
a highlight being 4th in the State in the 200 free!
** Briana finished the season with All-American
Consideration times in BOTH events!! Danielle Pikulik
swam a 1:07 in the 100 breast twice to place 20th in NYS! Our 200
Free Relay (Heinz, Clancy, Pikulik, Gellineau) came back to score
finishing in 25th in a great heat. And the meet was capped off as
the Friars 400 free relay (10th in Prelims) swam to a 9th place overall
in NYS in a heat that brought the house down. Check out these
splits: Kayla Rutigliano
(53.94) ** yes, that's a 53.9... and she swam that exact time
twice! Arabella Pompay 54.76 ** just a freshman! Amanda Heinz
55.29 ** best swim of the weekend! and Briana Gellineau, runnin'
'em down as she does best with a 51.76 split! (and racing for 1700
yards in two days) I'm not kidding... they gave it all they had!
HERE IS WHAT'S
UPCOMING FOR THE LADY FRIARS!
Please keep all
dates open!
Tuesday,
December 4th:
MANDATORY MASS for
Both, our Girls and Boys Swimming-Diving Teams. The Mass begins at
2:40 immediately after school. School Uniforms (not swimming
uniforms) are required. ALL are welcome! ** It's
amazing to see ALL our Friars together at Mass. We are so
Blessed and we have so much to be Thankful for during this blessed
time of year.
Wednesday,
December 12th:
Fall Athletic
Awards Night!
We had great representation last year
when Mr. Minucci brought this Friar tradition back. Let's try to
fill ALL the Friar seats this year. You DESERVE to get the
recognition your school is providing for you. Saturday, January 5th, 2019.
HUGE meet with
PAUL VI from Fairfax, VA!
I'll be sending more info as we get
closer... so Stay Tuned to your Friar Emails!!! We are ONE Team. We are ONE Family.
We are THE FRIARS!!!! |
| 2018 New
York State Paper Airplane Flying Champion Kelly Donlevy (TMLA) |
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Nine Straight CHAMPIONSHIPS |
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The Lady Friars
come back to win Champs with a monumental performance! After suffering
their first dual meet loss in over 8 seasons... the Friars were
driven to prove they are still the team to beat. For two straight
days, they out swam their opponents to score 806 Team Points! Heading into the
weekend, the Friars didn't have a single relay qualified for States.
In fact, the only swimmer who qualified "in Season", was junior Briana
Gellineau. After two days, the Friars have qualified all three
relays, and Amanda Heinz, Danielle Pikulik, and Kayla Rutigliano joined
Briana in individual events. Here is our State
Team: 200 Medley Relay:
Michaela Rutigliano
Danielle Pikulik
Michelle Franco
Arabella Pompay 200 and 500 free: Briana Gellineau 200 IM and 100
Breast Amanda Heinz 100 free and 100
back Michaela Rutigliano 100 breast Danielle Pikulik 200 free relay Amanda Heinz Danielle Pikulik Kiersten Clancy Briana Gellineau 400 free relay Michaela Rutigliano Amanda Heinz Arabella Pompay Briana Gellineau
A full season review is coming... so stay
tuned!
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Senior Night The Friars defeat
The Mary Louis Academy to a packed house that had the Natatorium of Half
Hollow Hills rockin'! Man... was it
LOUD! (credit to both
teams!) Congratulations on a
great finish of an awesome 8-1 dual meet season! Most important
is... after 7 preparation meets and two meets (one a loss... one a win)
that have battle tested this team, we now know what effort its going to
take to win a Championship. WE WILL BE READY! After losing for the
first time in eight years against Sacred Heart Tuesday, everyone
was pumped for the upcoming meet against The Mary Louis Academy. Race
after race everyone's adrenaline was pumping while the parents on the
sidelines were cheering excitedly. With the score really close it was up
to the 400 free relay to give us a boost and give us the extra points
needed. During the last lap, we were neck in neck with the other team
until Briana Gellineau tapped out the lane next to her. We then beat the
other team by 14 points because of our fast relay groups. Since it was
Senior Night the juniors made speeches about their senior and gave them
gifts. Their emotional speeches left the seniors and the parents in
tears ending the night on a good note getting us ready to win
championships |
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Briana Gellineau
leads the Friars, but The Lady Friars suffer their first loss in 9
years. The incredible team
of Sacred Heart proved to be too strong for the Friars. The Lady
Friars gave everything they had, but fell just 8 points short. This season is
NOT over!
9 years ago the Lady Friars watched Sacred Heart hoist that beautiful
Championship plaque over their heads. We had come so close... but
we lost to a better team.
You know what that did?
It lit a spark in the Friars that was passed down year after year to an
eight year undefeated run.
Tonight we felt a loss. But it's only a waste if we don't learn
from it.
What did I learn?
I witnessed a Friar team perform even
better than I thought they could. Kayla Rutigliano was throwing up
between races... and was in Championship form. Danielle Pikulik
swam injured and never thought twice about quitting on her team.
Nasti was a superstar giving it all she had. Briana Gellineau
qualified for TWO... yes two State
Qualifying times (200 and 500). Lily Lancellotti out swam her
"opponent" twice. Amanda Heinz had her best meet of the season by
far! We had freshmen in HUGE pressure spots they haven't swam in
before and nailed it. Clancy was swimming to exhaustion...
being pulled out of the pool.
Where is the negative in this night? Except for the
score... I don't see it. All I see is a NEW SPARK. We have a
NEW GOAL.
We will prepare for our meet vs TMLA on
Saturday and celebrate the careers of our awesome seniors who (as
witnessed by tonight's performance) have done an amazing job leading
their team.
Then... we will walk onto the pool deck of Eisenhower and show everyone
what it takes to be a Friar.
For years we have won having the best team.
That's easy.
** How about winning when your not the favorite? Now that...
THAT'S a challenge! THAT'S our goal!
From the ingenious Coach Liz... GIVE EVERYTHING... EXCEPT UP!
She's 100% correct. We are the Friars..... we never give
up!
This season is NOT over!!!
LET'S DO THIS FRIARS!!!
- one proud Coach.
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Friars move to 7-0 with incredible
swims at the Breast Cancer Meet! Every year for over the past 11 years,
St.Anthony’s, St.Dominic’s, and St.Mary’s team up to hold a charity
event to support breast cancer. All the proceeds raised during the meet
goes to support a local family. They split the swimmers up into two
teams, white and pink, and compete against each other for charity. The
white team has only won once over the past 10 years, but this year they
dominated over the pink team and won 123.5 to 110.5.
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Friars may have been slow getting to
the meet, but they were fast in the water. The Lady Friars move to
4-0 with win over St. John the Baptist Ok, no result page... just shooting this from
the top of my head: There were a ton of standout improvements
tonight. I'll start with the much improved "wall work". Our
breakouts were not only clean... they were fast. That's exactly
what we're looking for. I know we had one relay
false start DQ (which makes Coach Dan absolutely crazy!) but Cat Iorio
had the best relay start of the meet. Briana Gellineau was .01 off the State cut in
the 200 free! We're getting there Friar Fans! Amanda Heinz was very impressive in the 200 IM.
Great swim. Sarah Farrell and Cat Iorio pushed each other in the
500 free. That's what great teammates do! Sarah Farrell's
pull pattern was just how she practiced it... and it looked awesome as
it carried her to victory. Kayla Rutigliano and Arabella Pompay (1st and
2nd) were just off a State cut in the 100 back. Sweet! Hanna Skrodanes had one of the best dual meets
of her Friar career, with an improved 100 fly, and an incredible anchor
leg of the 200 free relay! (Yeah, I saw that big smile Hanna) Katie Scanlon and Kiera Mutarelli both had
great anchor swims in the 400 free relay as they battled to the finish
like Friars always do. ** And, a great shout-out to the Parents who
made it to the meet to cheer on this hard working team. The cheers
were followed up with huge greetings and hugs of congratulations as the
team flooded the lobby following the meet. You too put a smile on
my face. We are one TEAM. We are one FAMILY.
We are the FRIARS! Come cheer on the Friars this Sunday at 11:00
am for the annual Breast Cancer Awareness
Meet! |
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Friars go to 3-0! - Bella Filagrossi Come cheer on the
Friars: Tuesday, Oct. 9th at 5pm at St. Joseph's College, Patchogue.
Go Friars! |
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Lady Friars celebrate home opener win! Freshman Arabella
Pompay scores her first double event win in her Friar career! She
won the 200 free and 100 back! Great job Arabella! The 200 IM was won
by Kayla Rutigliano. The 50 freestyles: Syke Bates and
Vanessa Franco. The 50 fly by freshman Simone Sanchez. 100 fly by
captain Kiersten Clancy. The 100 freestyles by Kristin Carter and
Amanda Heinz. Only .6 off the State cut in the 400 free was Briana
Gellineau. The 50 breast by Maria Hernandez! And finally,
the 100 breast by veteran Danielle Pikulik. We [the coaches] are
extremely proud of the sportsmanship and camaraderie being displayed by
this team. Nothing makes be happier! GO FRIARS! |
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Lady Friars
look strong in their season opener! Great job ladies! |
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Friars kick off
season - What a Relay Carnival! Some incredible
swims were already being shown early in the season. Kristin Carter
with a 26.6 flying start 50, Wow! Lily Lancellotti came into the
season in shape and it's shows. Michelle Franco and Danielle
Pikulik are already tearing up the pool. Amanda Nasti, and Frankie
Pellegrino are already much improved. Briana Gellineau made a 53.5
100 free look easy! 53.. WHAT?!?! And... all our
Friar freshies are adding depth to this team. Good job! It's no secret that
I worry about big teams. I don't want anyone ever "lost in the
shuffle". I took some time at the end of the meet to compliment
all our Seniors and Captains on their leadership. There is a spark
that has already ignited within this team. That credit goes to
leadership. A team will never accomplish anything without quality
leadership. Kudos to you all. Gracie Edmonds spoke
to me after the meet. She had on a huge smile and and expressed
how much she loves her team. After we spoke a bit, she assured me
not to worry about team participation. "This team is going to make
it work... I promise. I love all these girls". It's not just the
coach who installs confidence into the athletes. Sometimes the
athletes teach and install confidence in the coaches. That's how
the Friar family works. We work together... We are one team, We
are one family... we are the Friars! If our season
continues with this team supporting each other and still having this
much fun... we are already winners! First dual
meet: 9/27 vs
St. Francis Prep at Queens College -
5 PM warmup |
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This was an
extremely talented group
trying out for the Boys Varsity Swimming/Diving Team.
Everyone did an amazing job!
I congratulate all of you on your hard work and tremendous
effort! The following have
made the team for the 2018-19 season.
Please come to practice Tuesday, Oct. 30th. Alok Agrawal Matthew Chang Owen Glaser Dylan Soto Joe Tonna
Abby Antonellis Ryan Arbeeny Christopher Carneval Dylan Cellamare Richard Chiarella Emma David Ryan Gaffney Ali Gordon Jack Iorio Caleb Neugebauer Aiden O’Toole Thomas Rosselli Sean Sullivan
Tyler Zarzycki
Trevor Griffin Sean Kotch Joseph McLaughlin Cole McNulty Connor McVea Mark Owens Sebastian Quiceno Timothy Rupnarain Tyler Simpson Chris Stange William Swartwout Joe Welling Jonathan Wu Danny Zahn Regan Bruno Dylan Champagne Michael Chang Ian Fitzpatrick Joshua Giardinelli Konall Keane Tavish McNulty Justin Meyn Michael Stoski Connor Sullivan
* Diver |
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A few important things 11/3 - Championship
Trials 11/4 - Championship
Finals 11/15-17
States at Ithaca College GO FRIARS!!! |
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Friars' All-Americans '17 - '18 100
Breaststroke
200 Medley
Relay: Ian Fitzpatrick -
back Michael Chang -
breast Mark Owens - fly Justin Meyn - free |
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Maggie Fischer: Great South Bay Swim I hope everyone is
enjoying their summer so far! I know I'm always
asking you for a lot... but this Friday I will be attempting my 11th
swim across the Great South Bay honoring former Friar swimmer Maggie
Fischer. Please don't break the bank on this one... I would just
like to reach my goal of $500. So a bunch of small donations help
greatly! (or... if your
business needs to donate a lot, that's great too! haha) Donations go to
Hospice and those people are incredible! I'm thrilled to help them
every year.
https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/dan-mcbride-1/maggiefischermemorial
TRACK ALL THE
FRIARS!! If you download the
App, RaceJoy... you can look for the Maggie Fischer Memorial Cross Bay
Swim and track all the Friars as they cross the bay! Here are the Friar
bib numbers: CJ Arena - 4
(2 time Champ!) Alannah Chernik - 14 ** Coach Liz's
Family: Andrew Darcy - 23 Catherine Darcy - 24 Matthew Darcy - 25 Garret Golden - 42
(my training partner and 2nd on the all-time crossing list) Rob McNulty - 80
(Yes, Cole's dad who Kills It every year! and my teammate when we
were kids) Justin Meyn - 82
(2nd last year, and 3rd the year before!) Connor Sullivan -
110 ** Rich Wilde
- 125 (OK, he's not a Friar, but a teammate of Rob and I who has already
swam around Manhattan and crossed the English Chanel. Def a guy
you want to cheer for or if you are there, talk to him and hear some
stories) THEN, you can pull up a
nice lounge chair and wait for Coach Dan # 76 to finally get across ** If you are
doing NOTHING Friday morning, take a ride into Gilbert Park at the very
end of Concourse East off MTK Hwy Friday morning. The swim is
really some event to watch! GO FRIARS!!! |
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2018 Boys State Swimming
Chamipions
Results Friars win State Championship!
The St.
Anthony's Friars Boys Swimming and Diving Team are the 2018 New York
State Federation CHAMPIONS!!! It was a
performance like no other. You had to be
there to appreciate what this TEAM was able to accomplish. We
were not the favorites, not by a long shot. All the talk was
if Fordham Prep can defeat the talent of Ward Melville. Some
thought Chaminade had it in the bag and were surprised by the talk
of Fordham and Ward Melville giving them a run. But this group
of underdogs... long forgotten for their 3 straight undefeated dual
meet seasons due to a respectable 3rd place finish to two of the
strongest/largest teams in the State, came to the Nassau Aquatic
Center for one purpose: To WIN. Everyone stepped
up. They had to. For not one of them won a single
event... nor did we win a single relay. BUT... they DID
score points! Event after event, we kept scoring.
Meet Mobile (when working) started showing St. Anthony's on top. Suddenly the
chatter changed. **
"can you hold them off?" (how about...
can they hold us off ???) The Friars were
on a mission! We were the one team with ALL THREE RELAYS in
Finals! That's points Friar Fans! We had swimmers
in every event but one... That's points Friar Fans! Even Newsday has
missed the fact that this tough group of guys swam as a TEAM, and
WON... as a TEAM! Compliments to
our Captains, whether swimming or not, were there supporting and
pushing their teammates to go beyond their limits and most important
believe that after two long days of competition, we will be
victorious. The team even complimented them and thanked them
for the endless support. To the State
team: All the text
messages you all sent each other in the group text... somehow save
them. Those are lifetime memories that you will want to keep
forever. I learn just as much from you as you do from me.
Seeing your effort raises the bar to make be a better coach.
Thank you guys! To the Friars praying and cheering at home: We are a TEAM. Everything that has taken place since this season began 138 days ago has made a difference. Every workout attended. Every race of every event at every meet. Every cheer. Every compliment and positive word of encouragement said to every teammate has mattered. WE ARE FRIARS. It all brought us to this incredible weekend where we can now call ourselves:
STATE
CHAMPIONS! You have that
title for life. It can never be taken away. Your family
and friends will know you are a State Champion. Eventually, so
will your kids and grandkids. Point being... it's forever! I can't wait till the night you guys get to show off your new State Rings! I am so blessed
to be coach, Coach Dan |
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Emily
Bardak
Briana
Gellineau
Gabby
Mattutat
Amanda
Heinz
Michelle Franco
Danielle Pikulik
Kiersten Clancy Kayla Rutigliano |
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ATTENTION
St. Anthony’s Men’s Swim Team 2017-18 This was an extremely talented group trying out for the Boys Varsity Swimming/Diving Team. Everyone did an amazing job! I congratulate all of you on your hard work and tremendous effort! The following have made the team for the 2017-18 season. Please come to practice Tuesday, October 31, 2017
ALL DIVERS REPORT TO PRACTICE Friday, October 27th @ 8 PM
Freshmen: Ryan Arbeeny Dylan Cellamare Richard Chiarella Ryan Gaffney Jack Iorio Caleb Neugebauer Aiden O’Toole Thomas Rosselli Sean Sullivan
Sophomores: Trevor Griffin Sean Kotch Joseph McLaughlin Cole McNulty Connor McVea Mark Owens Sebastian Quiceno Timothy Rupnarain Chris Stange William Swartwout Joe Welling Jonathan Wu Danny Zahn
Juniors: Regan Bruno Dylan Champagne Michael Chang Ian Fitzpatrick Joshua Giardinelli Konall Keane Justin Meyn Michael Stoski Connor Sullivan
Seniors: Jordan Fargo Rory Hughes Connor Lucas Kate McKevitt Fred Rupmarian Burke Sansiviero
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2017 Lady Friars
Eight Straight! According to many
writers and scholars, the number 8 represents balance and power.
Spiritualists say it represents infinity.
This year, the Lady
Friars had all that. They
were a team of balance, power, and infinite respect for their teammates.
With all that combined together… this TEAM was again unstoppable.
EIGHT Straight years!!
Is that incredible or what?
Let’s take a moment and think of how incredible: (What can I say… I’m a coach and my brain works in
numbers and stats) For example:
Let’s just take our Seniors.
Yes, the 6 who just finished their Friar careers at a perfect
36-0! Seniors, if a team
wants to beat your current Friar winning streak… And they started
next year… They would finish in
the year 2026, and you will all be 27 years old! Does that put the
Friars 8 Straight into perspective? We just came off our
two incredibly successful dual meets vs Sacred Heart and The Mary Louis
Academy. They were
monumental dual meets and our team was pushed harder than we have been
since our “streak” started in 2009.
Compliments to our seniors and captains, we talked about how this
would be a tough year and how close those two meets would be way back in
August. Following their
lead, this entire team worked their butts off right from day one.
When it came time to swim those two dual meets: yes, this team
was very nervous… but they were prepared.
We [the coaches] did have to write our lineups around how healthy
Briana’s shoulder was, but God is good to me and answered my prayers and
we had complete lineups with the entire team ready to go.
The end result:
Eight straight Undefeated dual meet seasons! The Lady Friars were
able to exhale a bit. Before
we even thought about Champs, we were all focused on winning the dual
meet season. Plus, we now
got a good look at just how fast those two teams really were.
So a few new deep breaths… and we look forward to Champs! Seeing SHA and TMLA,
we [the coaches] knew that our depth was our strength. We had to use
every bit of it for a run at this one.
SHA has the fastest girls in the league, but we knew that TMLA
was going to have the better 4th entry of the two teams.
So we were going to be challenged with two very different teams.
After a beautiful
week, a cold front came in for Champs weekend… but God had the sun poke
out just for my walk across the parking lot to the My team of Champions
were smiling and hanging posters, calling out “Hi, Coach Dan”, I stopped, put my
bag in the corner and dropped my new team windbreaker on it.
I followed their lead.
I stopped with the paperwork/watch formalities and I said hello
to my team, shaking their hands, patting them on the shoulders and
slapping the “high five” hands that were offered to me. I looked around
at the nervous smiles but saw the excitement in their eyes.
It made me smile back and I hope they saw in my face that I
believed in them. Our warm up lanes
were packed as always. We’re
used to it. Coaches Liz,
Scott and Gennie were already hard at work keeping the 38 girls
organized while I reviewed all our relay options discussed at our
coaches meeting. Our girls
did a great job qualifying our Medley and 400 Free relays during the
season. With so many
talented girls, we didn’t “tip our hat” to the other teams as to who we
were swimming our Finals relays and used so many Friars in Trials.
We also got to see who was swimming for other teams, so our plan
was executed perfectly.
It’s finally here! After 67 days from the
start of this season’s journey…
it’s finally here! Our 200
Medley Relay is walking together across the bulkhead and the Lady Friars
behind me are on their feet.
The clapping and cheers around the pool area begin to grow as
anticipation of what everyone knows will be a great meet is now upon us.
“Backstrokers, step
in.” ** Our medley relay
was swum perfectly by Sydney Berhardt, Jenn Nagle, Hanna Skrodanes, and
Sarah Schatz in Trials. Feet first… Kayla
Rutigliano jumps in. “Take
your mark…” Kayla’s kick-out is
EXACTLY on the 15 yard marker, and the Friars already have their first
lead! Kayla has the fastest backstroke split in the field with a 27.93…
and off the block is Danielle Pikulik.
She has been rock solid all season long and she split a 30.5!
She is followed by one of our toughest fighters, Michelle Franco.
So much more consistent this year, she gets off the block with a
great start and splits a 27.53 fly leg!
I’m already so excited I cheered and hit Coach Gennie’s shoulder…
(sorry for the bruise).
Gabby has made her reputation as a tough closer because she has been
doing it her entire Friar career.
Now in her senior year, she did it again with a 25.5 split and
the Lady Friars have their first 1st place finish of 2017
with a State Qualifying 1:51.56!
This relay ignited the Friars… and the energy level is already
exploding! Freshman Izzy Marone
had her first real pressure swim of the season, the always tough 200
free. Talk about being
thrown into the fire. After
a nervous Trials… Izzy came back to Finals with a vengeance.
She was a whole new swimmer.
(sound like a familiar freshman Champs Nasti?) She was indeed a
confident Friar and ready to go!
She Blew Away her heat by a full 5 seconds… and the cheers behind
me (Izz-ee… Izz-ee…) put a well deserved smile on Izzy’s face.
Her very first Friar points!
Amanda Nasti is now a well seasoned veteran at Champs.
She now rises to the occasion every time.
Nasti’s 7th place, 204.19 200 free brought on the
Friar cheer: A-A-man-da
Nas-ti… Clap, Clap…
Clap, Clap, Clap… High fives all
around… Early in the season,
Kiersten Clancy wasn’t too keen on swimming the 200.
But the more experience she got, the hungrier (is that a word?)
she got to really do well in the event.
The result: she kept dropping her time.
So much so, she swam an unbelievable best time 202.57 and
finished in 5th place overall!
For the ultimate
Friar Fan, and those who were at the STA-TMLA dual meet, your eyes were
focused on the two middle lanes.
That’s right… Joanna McNulty (TMLA) and our own Briana Gellineau
are about to go head to head again!
Can we re-live that awesome Briana “touch-out” that we just
jumped up and down for a week earlier?
Oh yes we can! These two superstars
just go all out. I mean a
thrill to watch. And to make
it really special… Briana
not only won the event with another thrilling half a second touch out,
but she broke a 13 year old record with a: Ready for this…?
A blazing 1:51.46!
Holy fast! (I
could use that on my boys team!)
I was ready to jump out of my seat as I was typing this again. **
States edit: Briana
went on to place 3rd overall in NYS!!! Throughout our
current undefeated run, we have been very dominant in the 200 IM.
This year would be no different.
As the season went on, we did a lot of moving Danielle Pikulik
around deciding on what her second event would be.
She knew all along she would swim just where her team needed her
most. And she was
spectacular as she swam two best times and finished 12th
overall with a 2:23.68.
Right with her was her freshman teammate Sarah Jean Farrell.
This girl has so much potential and I can’t wait to see what her
Friar Future has in store for her.
Her best asset… she can race!
Her Friar Champs individual event debut yielded an 11th
place 2:23.60 swim! In the Final heat…
dead center… Two Black and Gold
FRIAR caps. Best thing about
our caps… you can read them from across the pool.
Well, these two caps belong to Emily Bardak and Amanda Heinz.
I actually had to yell at the team behind me because the cheering
at the start of this heat was like being at a high pitched screaming
Nickelodeon concert. Quiet
for the start… (please!) Amanda Heinz
qualified for States in Trials, so pressure was off, and she could just
concentrate on swimming. As
a result, she went another personal best time of 2:11.84 and finished 2nd
overall! In the lane next to
her… reaching over the lane to congratulate her teammate was Friar Emily
Bardak. She just finished a
blistering State Qualifying 2:07.97 and is now a back to back to back (that’s right… 3 time) 200 IM Champion!
How incredible is that?
Personally, it was an honor for me to hand out the finals medals
to both Amanda and Emily. ** States
edit: Emily Bardak went on
to finish 9th overall in NYS! Oh, the crazy 50
free. Twenty-something
seconds of your heart feeling like it’s going to pound out of your
chest. Why does my anxiety
go so crazy? I’m like a
thrill junkie waiting for all the races to start. For Starters, Deijah
Harris swam the 50 free.
This girl has a heart of gold (Friar gold) and works as hard as any one
of her teammates. I can’t
even put into words how proud I am of her Friar career and all those
personal best times along the way.
Along with Deijah, freshman Anna Descovich, Sophomore Abby
Federlein, and junior Regan Bruno ALL swam personal best 50 free times.
(all 4 grades 9-12 were covered right there! – how cool). What a freshman
season for Arianna Alladio-Zacpal… this girl is one serious Friar!
To be successful in any sport, sure you need talent, but most of
all you need drive and to be “coachable”.
Arianna has both.
That is what fueled her 26.80 13th place finish in the 50
free! Michelle Franco had an
incredible 2nd 25 and roared up in the field to swim an
awesome 27.23. The top
sprinters in the league this year (all teams) were amazing.
Amongst them were our top two Friar finalists, Gabby Mattutat and
Frankie Pellegrino. As
Joanie Cash (SHA) tore up the league record… along side of her, fighting
like the Friars they are, Frankie finished 4th with a 26.03,
and touching the wall right behind her was Gabby Mattutat with a 26.33!
OK… if you were in
the stands watching and wondering why we were going so crazy on the deck
at this point; we really
needed those huge swims. That was
a tight heat with 7 places separated by less than 1 second…
Whew! That’s why I was having a heart attack and gave a monster
high five to Coach Scott as we celebrated those 50 freestyle swims.
If there is one
event that we dominate, it’s the 50 fly.
How about this… our
Ladies finished 4 of the top 5!
That’s right. A
swimmer with some of my favorite stroke techniques of all time, Sydney
Bernhardt finished 5th (32.14).
Always cheering for her teammates first, Sarah Schatz finished 4th
(31.91). Thank goodness she
got healthy enough for Champs, freshman Bella Filagrossi finished 2nd
(31.06). And finally, I
actually call her a 50 fly specialist, mostly because she almost never
loses… Hanna Skrodanes took 1st with a dominating 30.28! The 100 fly – Coach
Scott’s favorite! Yeah, it
still is. I can tell because
it’s only event where he paces.
Emily Teplansky is a well rounded swimmer and those are the best
assets a team can have when writing a Champs lineup.
She swam an awesome 100 fly finishing 14th overall.
The rest (3 more) are all in Finals!
That’s right, big event for the Lady Friars. (can you tell Coach Dan is happy about the much
needed points we are about to get???) Finishing in 6th
overall with her lightning turns and a blistering 28.7 split was
Michelle Franco and her 1:02.36.
Touching the wall in 4th place and just ahead of her
was Gabby Mattutat with her 1:02.27!
Our top Friar was
Woooh…. Oh, oh, oh- oh…
Oh, oh, oh-oh… The bleachers were
rocking! The Friars moved up
and down in unison and I almost thought I was back at Shea Stadium when
it used to move! The team is
psyched, and the chanting didn’t stop.
Ever! Our 100 freestyle
girls are pumped! Think the 50 fly was
dominant? How about the
timed final 100 free… The Lady Friars go
1-2-3-4! That’s right Friar
Fans. 4th –
Kathleen Scanlon (104.09) 3rd – Jenn Nagle – (103.86) 2nd
– Alannah Chernik (103.43), and a dominating event win for Vanessa
Franco who had an unbelievable Champs! (1:01.28) The 100 free Finals
was thought to be a test for us.
Knowing Joanie Cash (SHA, 50.93) and Orla Egan (TMLA, 51.75) were
going to tear up the pool in the top spots, we’d have to hit ‘em like
the Friars always do:
As a Team and with depth! How deep? Well how
about Senior Pleasant Palmer who had the swimming weekend of her life
getting into Finals with her 57.88 and finishing 8th!
WOO! Right with
her was teammate Frankie Pellegrino with an awesome 57.90.
(“Clancy…
get that turnover faster!”)
That’s what I’m screaming at that poor girl as we [coaches] try
to rev her up for a big swim.
Well, that she did as Kiersten Clancy places 5th with
a 56.83! We needed another
big 100 freestyler this season.
Complimenting her backstroke, Kayla Rutigliano was just that
swimmer. She is one tough
competitor and placed 4th overall as a freshman with a 55.16!
What a swim. Pleasant, Frankie,
Clancy and Kayla just scored 84 points for the Friars in one event! HUGE!!!
Woooh…. Oh, oh, oh- oh…
Oh, oh, oh-oh… As a whole, our
league has gotten faster the past few years; but no event has gotten as
fast as the 500 free. The
depth of [league] talent is incredible to watch.
Just for example, the top 6
girls all qualified for States in To compare:
the 200 free, 200 and 400 free relays were next with 3 qualifiers
each. The 500 free Finals
was the heat of the meet. Needing depth for
this one, we called upon two freshmen to step up… and that they did.
Both Sarah Skala (5:47.94) and Catherine Iorio (5:40.05) dropped
two seconds off their prelim times and scored for the Friars in 14th
and 12th place.
Talk about awesome Friar Debuts!
Knowing very well how grueling but satisfying the 500 is… Amanda
Nasti pulled off another awesome Champs swim with a 5:36.04 and finished
10th! Heading to Finals,
we have to remember the “road to the 500” that Briana Gellineau had this
year. Only two weeks prior,
Briana had to rest a shoulder injury that she was medically cleared for
days before the Sacred Heart meet.
Only able to swim the 50 and 100 free at that point, the lineup
was written around her capabilities.
(Swimmers Amanda Nasti, Sarah Farrell, and Catherine Iorio
stepped up for us there).
The Ladies conquered that challenge.
She was able to swim the 200 free for the TMLA meet.
(Heinz, Iorio and Farrell handled the 500).
Finally, only 1 week later, Briana was again swimming the 5.
She battled with the best of the best and gave the Friars a 4th
place finish with a 5:02.70! *** States
edit: Both Briana Gellineau
and Emily Bardak swam the 500 at States.
Emily wanted the challenge of making Finals… and as Emily always
does; she embraces every challenge and goes full on.
Goal reached: Emily
finished in 10th in NYS with a 5:02.71!
(Through Emily’s Friar career, she competed in the 200 free, 200
IM, 100 Fly, 100 Free, and now also the 500 free.
INCREDIBLE) Briana
with another two weeks of training under her belt felt great in the
water and was able to give her usual 110%.
She went on to Break a 13 year, (and 17 days to be exact) School
Record held by Jackie Fasano!
Briana Gellineau finished 6th overall in NY State
swimming a blazing 5:00.10! Big discussions went
into the 200 free relay this year.
For starters, it was the only relay not yet qualified for States.
Normally, I would never turn down an extra shot at making States,
but with the threat of two other strong teams… we had a Championship to
win and needed to play our hand smart.
I went beyond just talking to the coaches and included Emily and
Briana to see where the confidence level was.
We discussed how awesome Amanda Heinz was swimming and that
Kiersen Clancy can handle the pressure. I had no doubt they would
qualify in Finals. Everyone
agreed. So we chose our
Trials swimmers wisely, and got incredible swims from Frankie Pellegrino
(26.96 flat start), Freshman Arianna Alladio Zacpal (26.83), Freshman
Izzy Marone (28.67) and Pleasant Palmer (27.16).
On to Finals, these
relays are going to be FAST! But that’s ok… so
are Friars! Our girls needed a
25.5 average for us to be under the State cut.
If this relay sees Emily split under that… they will be psyched
and follow. Emily’s flat
start split… 25.18! Way
under! Amanda Heinz is
tearing up the pool all weekend and is also under with a 25.41!
Clancy had great swims in the 200 and 100 free and earned a spot
on the Finals relay. She
swims a 25.98 and we are still in good shape because our anchor is
Briana. She splits a 24.19
and the Friars finish 3rd overall AND qualify for States with
a 1:40.76! Whew…
that was awesome. States
edit: At States, with Gabby not having her extra events, she swam in
Finals where our team dropped again to a 1:40.36 where Briana anchored
with a 23.92! (yes, one more
time… a 23.92!) In the 50 back, ** I have to give a
special shout out to Kate McKevitt.
For four years this girl was willing to swim anything to help her
teammates. She finished her
Friar career in the 50 back and of course a personal best time.
Way to go Kate! Our
other 3 backstrokers were all on top giving the Friars a 1-2-3 sweep.
Alannah Cherink (34.75) in 3rd, Skye Bates (34.14) in
2nd, and our 50 back champion is Vanessa Franco blowing away
the competition with a 31.63!
I pulled Vanessa aside to give her a special congratulation.
She really had an amazing swimming weekend and was a double
winner. Vanessa is one Tough
Friar. The 100 back was
going to be a nail biter.
From what I’ve heard, parents in the stands were feeling the pressure as
much as I was. (I actually
enjoyed hearing all your post-Champs “stands stories”.) With Lily getting
sick… we were only down to 3 scoring Friars.
(and let’s not forget Beth Caruana, our backstroke champion, had
graduated). Well, our
Backstroke event is now in the hands of not 1, not 2, but 3 freshmen! I’m pacing.
(And I have to watch out for Michelle Wolf right next to me on
her crutches screaming her head off all day… and I don’t want to nock
her over! Ugg!)
Well, with SHA and TMLA each having 3 swimmers in finals, our 3
freshmen did incredible.
Sarah Skala had a monstrous swim as she WON the consolation heat and
placed 9th with a 1:05.47.
Sarah Farrell moved from her 7th seed to 6th
overall as she dropped another second and swam a 1:04.96.
(that was Big!) But… out in front of
‘em all was the awesome Black and Gold Friar Cap on the head of Kayla
Rutigliano. That girl hates
to lose and thank God for that because her swim sparked her team right
back up.
Woooh…. Oh, oh, oh- oh…
Oh, oh, oh-oh… Kayla finished with
a State qualifying 58.82! State
edit: Kayla went on to
finish 19th overall in NY State! Our 50
breaststrokers were another young group; 2 sophomores and 2 freshmen.
Jenn Nagle, Maria Hernandez, Olivia Ramos, and our top 50
breaststroker Sofia Marinucci did an awesome job. Heading into the 100
breast… the Friar “chants” continued: **
Louder:
Woooh…. Oh, oh, oh- oh…
Oh, oh, oh-oh… Danielle Pikulik
actually said how it was getting her so psyched.
There’s no power on the pool deck like teammates pushing each
other to go beyond what they believe.
Woooh…. Oh, oh, oh- oh…
Oh, oh, oh-oh… Freshman Emily
Teplansky actually had a great meet and swam a second personal best
1:17.53 in the 100 breast finishing 14th.
Gracie Edmonds had an incredible season.
I personally put a lot more pressure on her during the season to
prepare her for Champs.
Gracie was all smiles after her 1:15.44 10th place finish!
As the Friars chant
their way into the 100 breast, we have two of the top breaststrokers in
the middle lanes. The team
was juiced, and down on the deck by the Friars…
it was LOUD. Swimming through the
cheers… it’s a 1-2 Friar finish
with 2nd place Danielle Pikulik with a 1:07.86 and putting
her hands on the wall first was Amanda Heinz!
What a swim! Second
fastest 100 breast in Friar history with a 1:06.83! That event pretty
much put us over the edge to secure the Championship… but there is one
more event left. The Granddaddy!
(isn’t that right, Coach Scott?? Haha) The play here is to
not false start. We must be
safe off the block and we once again make history.
But these Friars, especially these 4, want to leave with a
statement. They, as well as
their teammates, want to cheer and celebrate their victory… Friar Style! The anticipation of
the race had us all on edge.
The Friars behind us are standing on the bleachers.
The parents across the pool are either holding their breath with
their fingers interlocked… or cheering out loud because even they can’t
take the pressure anymore.
Woooh…. Oh, oh, oh- oh…
Oh, oh, oh-oh… Emily Bardak is
shaking out her legs and arms.
Half is nerves, half is preparing to race.
Of course Emily knows her teammates behind her want to see a
great split show up on that board.
As Emily goes… the relay goes. Admittedly, I’m a
little choked up and emotional this being Emily’s final Champs swim.
For 4 years she has been an inspiring spirit making everyone
around her including me, better.
I peek over at Coach Liz and her eyes are watered up and that was
the last thing I needed to see. Putting
my head down to clear my eyes, I do my nervous “circle walk” that I
apparently do in these situations.
Inhale… exhale… Ok, I’m ready.
I hope this relay is! Emily takes off and
we [the team] erupt! Awesome
as always… she touches out the incredible Joanna McNulty (TMLA) by .6
seconds and splits a 53.16!
What a swim (what a career!).
Here is where the
race surprises… Kayla
Rutigliano takes off: and
takes off like a rocket! She
out splits everyone by over a second and a half and the Friars are way
out in front with Kayla’s 54.65 split!
Amanda Heinz just swam the 200 free relay, 100 breast, and now
right back on the block in the 400 free relay.
She empties the tank.
Amanda is lighting with a 54.38 split!
True, SHA and TMLA
have two of the best anchor swimmers there are… But we have Briana
Gellineau! Briana will NOT
be out split… not today. All the girls are
tearing up the pool, but Briana can not be caught.
Especially because she swims the fastest split of the meet with a
51.64! (are you kidding me?!?)
Briana’s hand on the touchpad made it official.
All of it: The Friars have Won
the 400 free relay with a State Qualifying final time of 3:33.83 AND
once again make League History with EIGHT Undefeated Championship
seasons! This team surely
Earned this one! State
edit: This same relay
went on to be 3rd overall in NY State with a NEW St.
Anthony’s school record with the following splits: Check
these out: Bardak (52.48)
Rutigliano (53.95) Heinz (55.18) and Gellineau (51.16) for a relay time
of… 3:32.77!
Holy Fast!
768.5 Championship points,
and it took a TEAM to EARN every one of them.
(and the .5 too!). I
couldn’t be more proud. Neither could our
Captains as they presented the Championship Plaque to their fellow
seniors and Friar Teammates.
As all the phones come out so that the social media world can instantly
know we are Champions, I took a moment to look around at the faces.
The season’s roller coaster of emotions has all ended in just
one… pure elation. I am so
Blessed that I was again front and center to witness and cheer for it
all. Team chants finally
fizzled into team photo time.
Each Lady Friar then walked off the pool deck tall and proud.
A feeling that will last a lifetime! Special thanks to
all my coaches. You know how
special you are to me. Thanks to all the
Friar Parents and Friar Fans.
Without your continued support none of this is possible. To anyone I forgot
to write about… I’m so sorry.
I promise you a standing ovation when this team celebrates at
their Championship Award Dinner
J |
|
Friars Give Back! -
Challenger Surf Camp Challenger
Athletics is dedicated to giving children with special needs an
outlet to play a sport that is usually unavailable to them.
Challenger Surf Camp
was a day at Gilgo Beach dedicated to helping special needs kids
Surf! It was an amazing day well represented by the
Friars... especially the swimmers!
Thank you
for your time and dedication to this incredible event: Friars,
Michelle Franco, Joey Welling, Justin Meyn, Izzy Malone, Connor
Sullivan, Josh Giardinelli, and Kristin Carter. |
|
Friars give
a strong performance at the Relay Carnival! This year
looks to be a perfect mix of veterans and new Friars. Our
senior leadership is off to a great start, and our new Lady
Friars are already doing the Black and Gold proud! Once again,
the Friars brought the house down winning the final 8x25, 200
freestyle relay! The streak continues as we haven't lost
that relay yet! GO FRIARS!! Come support
the Lady Friars as they face OLMA this Tuesday, Sept. 19th in
their first dual meet of the season. 7:30 start at Chaminade HS! |
| 2017 ROSTER |
|
Freshmen |
|
Anna Descovich |
|
Sarah Farrell |
|
Bella Filagrossi |
|
Catherine Iorio |
|
Sofia Marinucci |
|
Isabelle Marone |
|
Olivia Ramos |
|
Michaela Rutigliano |
|
Sarah Skala |
|
Emily Teplansky |
|
Arianna Alladio
Zacpal |
|
Sophomores |
|
Skye Bates |
|
Gracie Edmonds |
|
Abigail Federlein |
|
Michelle Franco |
|
Kat Gamble |
|
Briana Gellineau |
|
Maria Hernandez |
|
Lily Lancellotti |
|
Jenn Nagle |
|
Frankie Pellegrino |
|
Kathleen Scanlon |
|
Michelle Wolf |
|
Juniors |
|
Regan Bruno |
|
Alannah Chernik |
|
Kiersten Clancy |
|
Vanessa Franco |
|
Amanda Heinz |
|
Amanda Nasti |
|
Danielle Pikulik |
|
Sarah Schatz |
|
Hanna Skrodanes |
|
Seniors |
|
Emily Bardak |
|
Sydney Bernhardt |
|
Deijah Harris |
|
Gabriella Mattutat |
|
Katelyn McKevitt |
|
Pleasant Palmer |
|
Girls Swim Team Info for
NEW swimmers
Appryse: It is
required that you register with the Appryse App.
You can find the info on the school web site:
www.StAnthonysHS.org **
Please make sure your doctor physical is only ONE page, your
insurance money ($25) is paid to St. Anthony’s, and that you check
the box “Intends to participate in FALL SPORTS” on the Appryse app.
Fall 2017 Tryouts:
Tryouts this year for all NEW swimmers will be held on Tues.
Sept. 5th at 6 AM at Half Hollow Hills Natatorium.
Half Hollow Hills
Natatorium is 1/2 mile East of St. Anthony's on Wolf Hill Road
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 we will be a travel meet to Washington DC, Fairfax, VA.
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.
Tryouts for all CURRENT
Girls Varsity Swimmers:
Your tryouts will be held
on: Tuesday, August 29th at 6:00 am (regular time)
You MUST be cleared to
swim! NO exceptions! |
All
Swimmers must be Cleared with the AD's office to
tryout. NO Exceptions
