Jamesville-DeWitt girls swimming star Alden Coyne would emerge as a medal contender during last weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships, held at Ithaca College.
Coyne, a junior, would post Section III’s best qualifying finish in any race, going 24.16 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle Friday to set a school record and advance to the finals in fifth place, not far behind Pittsford’s Katie Smith, who was first in 23.26 seconds to earn All-American honors.
Not content with that, Coyne, in Saturday’s final, lowered her school mark again, to 24.14 seconds, and finished in a dead heat with Scotia-Glenville’s Olivia Jack, each of them sharing fourth place. Smith won in 23.08 seconds, just missing out on beating the state record of 23.05.
Later, Coyne would qualify ninth in the 100 freestyle in 53.22 seconds, again with Smith (51.11 seconds) in front and West Genesee’s Olivia Castro (53.16 seconds) one spot ahead of Coyne.
But in Saturday’s final, Coyne and Castro would duel again, and this time Coyne came out on top, in 52.42 seconds to give her a solo fifth-place finish ahead of Castro, who was fifth despite improving to 52.50 seconds. Orchard Park’s Andrea Ernst, in 50.88 seconds, prevented Smith (51.08 seconds) from a sprint sweep.
Meanwhile, Coyne’s J-D teammate, Hayley Schultz, set her own school mark in the 100 breaststroke, posting a time of 1:06.64, which put her 11th among qualifiers, just missing the finals. She could only managed 1:07.79 a day later, finishing 16th overall.
In the pair of relays where J-D took part, Coyne, Alexis Phillips, Meg Parker and Samantha Coombs would qualify 17th in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:40.35, and then finish 19th in the finals, posting 1:40.67.
This came after a 200 medley relay where Schultz and Coyne, joined by Marissa Potamianos and Sophia Farchione, qualified 23rd in 1:51.98, but moved up to 20th place in the finals in 1:52.73, one spot ahead of Oswego, who won its consolation race in 1:51.71, but finished one spot behind the Rams.
As for CBA’s top swimmers, Annie Fletcher made her way to 28th place in the 100 backstroke, breaking the one-minute mark as she posted 59.71 seconds, and then winning her heat in the consolation bracket in 59.31 seconds to end up in 21st place, while also taking 36th place (5:15.44) in the 500 freestyle. Julia Torell made her way to 51st place in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.11.
