On a glorious Saturday at opposite ends of the New York map, four swimmers, and a runner, helped deliver a pair of state championships to Christian Brothers Academy.
At Buffalo’s Erie Community College, CBA’s swimming quartet of Summer Schmitt, Lexy McCauley, Kathryn Coughlin and Maggie Fletcher took top honors in the 200-yard medley relay.
Meanwhile, at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, senior Brendan Smith beat the field in the New York State Federation cross country championship race.
Already with a Section III team title on its resume, the CBA swimmers ventured to Buffalo bent on atoning for a second-place finish in that same 200 medley relay in last year’s state meet.
Schmitt, McCauley, Coughlin and Fletcher posted Friday’s low qualifying time of one minute, 46.97 seconds. Then it blazed through Saturday’s final in 1:46.74, setting a Section III record, earning All-American consideration and beating the runner-up, Clarence, by more than two seconds.
In fact, CBA almost won three times at the state meet. Schmitt, the sectional record-holder in the 100 butterfly, dueled with Niskayuna’s Maggie Jordan in that event, qualifying second and, in 56.08 seconds, dropping the final to Jordan by just 0.15 seconds.
As for Coughlin, she went to her specialty, the 100 breaststroke, and qualified in 1:04.86. Coughlin improved her time to 1:04.21 in the finals, earning All-American consideration, and took third place behind Brooklyn Tech’s Annie Zhu (1:01.14) and Sewanhaka’s Olivia Chan (1:02.76).
Elsewhere at the state meet, Schmitt was seventh in the 100 backstroke in 58.13 seconds. Coughlin took 16th in the 200 individual medley (2:15.72), while Fletcher got 16th in the 200 freestyle (1:59.37) and 18th in the 500 freestyle in 5:08.74. Fletcher, McCauley, Coughlin and Schmitt combined for 14th place in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:41.50.
While all this was going on, Brendan Smith, fresh off winning the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C race at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill on Nov. 12, stood up against a gathering of most of the state’s best cross country runners at Bowdoin Park.
Over 5,000 meters, Smith dueled with a tight pack, as the top seven runners finished less than 10 seconds apart. In particular, Dan Galford (Monsignor Farrell) pushed Smith to the line, but in 15 minutes, 58.8 seconds, Smith edged Galford (15:59.6) by eight-tenths of a second.
Megan Pierce also ran at the Federation meet on the girls side, the CBA freshman taking 75th place in a clocking of 20:03.9. Bronxville’s Mary Cain won in 17:40 flat, with West Genesee’s Laura Leff (18:09.9) in second place.
Neither of the state Class A champion teams from Fayetteville-Manlius competed, choosing instead to train and prepare for the Nike Nationals in Portland, Ore., early next month.
