WEBSTER – It proved quite an experience for Skaneateles girls swimming senior Alice Spaulding when she appeared at last weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
Not only did the Lakers star earn a medal in the 50-yard freestyle, Spaulding also was chosen as Section III’s top scholar-athlete and received the Sportsmanship Award along the way.
In all, Spaulding was to take part in four events, from the 50 and 100 freestyle to appearances with Lakers teammates Elizabeth Springer, Olivia Springer, Caitlin Comer, Arianna Matthews and Kyla Palmer in two different relay events.
During Friday’s opening round, Spaulding, just the 35th qualifier in a 50 freestyle field of 40,, improved from 24..74 seconds to 24.44, the 12th-fastest time.
Then, in Saturday’s final round, Spaulding moved up her personal best to 24.25 seconds, leading her to seventh place, less than a second from the winning 23.56 from Corning’s Angelina McKane. She matched the seventh from Baldwinsville’s Eva Smith and only trailed the fourth from Mexico-Oswego’s Alexa von Holtz in the 200 individual medley.
Having gone 53.27 seconds in the 100 freestyle earlier this fall, Spaulding could only manage 54.04 in the opening round and 54.29 in the finals, still putting her in 23rd place. New Hartford’s Katie Lester was fifth in 53.20, the 100 freestyle claimed in 51.33 by Nyack’s Cornelia Fox.
Matthews joined Spaulding and the Springer sisters in the 400 freestyle, where they went 3:41.73 in the early rounds and 3:45.26 in the finals, ultimately earning 24th place as Hauppague=Smithtown, from Long Island, won in 3:30.64.
At least that group got to the finals – not so with the 200 freestyle relay, where that same quartet was disqualified for having one of the swimmers start their leg to soon after a regular-season 1:41.68. Eastchester won that race in 1:37.39.
