Alden Coyne, who led Jamesville-DeWitt’s girls swim team to a perfect season, a Section III Class B title and the George Falwell Cup, set more records in her last appearance in the pool for the Red Rams.
A large contingent of J-D swimmers were present at Ithaca College for last weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet, including Coyne, who earned a pair of top-10 finishes in the sprints.
Entering the 50-yard freestyle, Coyne had posted a best time of 24.06 seconds prior to the state meet, but improved to 23.98 seconds to finish seventh in the qualifying round. Then, in the finals a day later, Coyne lowered that mark again, to 23.96 seconds, a new Section III Class B record as she took eighth place. Pittsford’s Katie Smith won with 22.77 seconds.
Moving to the 100-yard freestyle, Coyne smashed another sectional Class B mark when she tore to a time of 52.47 seconds, more than half a second faster than her previous best of 53 seconds flat. Qualifying 10th for the final, Coyne improved to eighth place, even though her time slipped a bit to 52.54 seconds. Pelham’s Katherine Douglass won the state title in 50.32 seconds.
J-D had a presence in all three relay events, too. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Coyne, Samantha Coombs, Alexis Phillips and Katie Salvo could not improve upon their season-best 1:38.99, but did qualify in 1;39.70 and, with a finals time of 1:39.45, took 11th placer as Pittsford won in a state-record 1:33.77.
Coyne, who is going to Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland to swim next fall, also swam in the 200-yard medley relay with Alexis Farchione, Marissa Potamianos and Meg Parker, where J-D got 22nd place in 1:52.52, off from the 1:50.86 it earned earlier this fall with Long Beach prevailing in a state-record 1:44.63.
Finally, in the 400-yard freestyle relay, Phillips, Coombs, Salvo and Potamianos, who posted 3:40.35 this season, had 3:42.53 in this race to get 32nd place, with Pittsford getting yet another state record when it won in 3:25.24.
Individually, Phillips got to 25th place in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:58.78, slower than her 1:57.24 from the regular season and the 1:57.30 of her qualifying heat. Coombs was 46th in the 50-yard freestyle in 25.44 seconds as CBA’s Annie Fletcher took 38th place in the 100-yard backstroke in 59.90 seconds, up from her regular-season 1:00.45.
