Unbeaten for the last three full seasons, the West Genesee girls swim team is maintaining that dominance in 2013 – and setting some history along the way.
The Wildcats’ tough 95-91 victory at Jamesville-DeWitt on Tuesday night included two instances where WG swimmers broke J-D pool records.
In the 100-yard freestyle, Olivia Castro did something particularly special, as her winning time of 53.84 seconds shattered a mark that Liverpool’s Kara Selig set nearly 40 years ago and beat J-D’s Alden Coyne by more than three seconds, a big margin for a sprint.
Not stopping there, Castro went on to join Rebecca Kanoza, Brianna Smith and Kaitlin Dunning in the closing event, the 400 freestyle relay, with the outcome of the meet still in doubt thanks to the Red Rams’ success in other events.
With the pressure on, WG recorded a time of 3:46.20, getting the clinching points for the meet and, at the same time, setting a second pool mark, erasing the one J-D had established in 1996.
Much earlier in the meet, Castro and Smith, paired with Shannon Cahalan and Erin Dowler, won the opening 200 medley relay in 1:58.12, leaving the Rams (2:01.23) in the second spot. Castro immediately followed by claiming the 200 freestyle in 2:00.01, more than seven seconds ahead of J-D’s Erin Salvo (2:07.76).
Dunning had her big moment in the 500 freestyle, winning that race in 5:42.59, with J-D’s Meghan Parker (5:51.31) nearly nine seconds behind. Abby Uczen rolled to 228.9 points to beat the Rams’ Taylor Cook (195.4 points) in diving.
Elsewhere, Smith won the 100 backstroke in 1:05.38, part of a 1-2-3 finish with Becca Kanoza (1:07.83) and Hannah Kanoza (1:10.72), and was second in the 50 freestyle.
Cahalan was a close second (1:02.76) to J-D’s Kalie Coyne (1:01.98) in the 100 butterfly, Dowler took third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:15.69. The Wildcats’ quartet of Dunning, Chezeki Bourdau, Sinead Guy and Victoria Lee were second (1:48.44) to J-D (1:45.78) in the 200 freestyle relay.
