A wild and exciting course of events unfolded during the Section III girls swimming championship meet at Nottingham High School, with Christian Brothers and Jamesville-DeWitt in the center of most of the activity.
It was the Red Rams earning the Class B title with 461 points, holding off second-place New Hartford, who got 396 points, and then going on to win Saturday’s overall sectional meet by picking up 264 points, knocking off West Genesee, the Class A champs, who earned 235 points, and CBA, who was third with 230 points.
The local sides would go 1-2 in the 200 medley relay. CBA’s quartet of Summer Schmitt, Julia Torell, Kathryn Coughlin and Maggie Fletcher won in a time of 1:49.29, with J-D’s team of Kalie Coyne, Alden Coyne, Sophia Farchione and Molly Hair second in 1:51.21.
Schmitt was far from done. In the 100 butterfly, she prevailed in 56.04 seconds, with Kalie Coyne (59.66 seconds) in the second spot, and in the 100 backstroke, Schmitt’s winning time of 56.97 seconds set a sectional Class A record, helping her win Most Outstanding Swimmer honors.
Later, in the 100 breaststroke Coughlin avenged a Class A defeat to Baldwinsville’s Charis Parker, prevailing in 1:05.26 to Parker’s 1:06.31.
Maggie Fletcher was victorious in the 500 freestyle in 5:18.75, where teammate Annie Fletcher (5:33.97) was fifth, and Maggie added a sixth in the 50 freestyle. CBA also took third in the 200 freestyle relay, where Torell, Schmitt, Coughlin and Fletcher finished in 1:41.52.
J-D beat them in that event, though, thanks to Hair, Samantha Coombs and the Coyne sisters, who got a time of 1:40.94, just part of the steady point accumulation that led the Red Rams to an overall sectional title.
Beaten in the 100 fly by Schmitt, Kalie Coyne did get the victory in the 200 individual medley, her time of 2:11.16 fending off Coughlin (2:14.91) and breaking the school record she had set in the Class B meet two days earlier.
Taylor Cook rose to second place in diving, earning 369.45 points to only trail Whitesboro’s Emily Deck (426.3 points). Alden Coyne got to fourth in both the 50 freestyle (24.92 seconds) and 100 freestyle (54.02 seconds), with Hair fourth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.42.
Hayley Schultz joined in by finishing fifth in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.81. And to cap off the victory, J-D got sixth in the 400 freestyle relay, where Coombs, Farchione, Meghan Parker and Marissa Potamianos claimed sixth place in 3:54.86.
