Lady Wreckers tame Ridgefield

All the hard practices between meets have paid off for the Staples girls swimming team. Staples, who has gone two weeks between dual meets because of a quirk in the schedule, had intense practices under the tutelage of Head Coach Mike Laux and it put it to use on Friday in a 95-91 victory at Ridgefield to raise its record to 2-3.

Moreover, the Lady Wreckers did it without senior captain Molly Loftus, who was on a college recruiting visit and their win over Ridgefield looms larger because the Lady Tigers are a middle of the pack team. If Staples wins at Westhill on Friday, it will establish itself as the FCIAC's best middle of the pack team. Norwalk, who lost to Staples last month, is in this mix as well.

"It was great and it was an especially big win for us because we were missing Molly Loftus," Laux said. "It was big that we won without her. The key to the win was tremendous improvements."

Lady Wrecker senior captain Stephanie Nussbaum, classmate Caitlin Wiederecht and sophomore Sarah Cooperman especially improved and dropped significant times in their respective events.

"My improvement is due to the training from the week before," Nussbaum said. "We had no meets, Mr. Laux pushed us and it paid off."

Cooperman said, "We've been doing new training and tried harder practices. Our entire team did well against Ridgefield and I'm proud of everyone."

Cooperman had a strong meet in winning both individual events and swam a leg for two winning relay teams. Her first victory came in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 2:18.84.

"I decided to treat it as a sprint race and I tried my hardest," Cooperman said. "I heard my teammates cheer for me, which really motivated me to go faster."

Nussbaum (2:21.78) and Wiederecht (2:28.92) finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 200-free with the former qualifying for the Class LL championships.

Ms. Distance could have been Cooperman's title as she garnered her second victory in the 400-meter freestyle ((4:50.76).

"Mr. Laux told me how to swim it, he had me do it in a way I haven't done it before," Cooperman said. "I used whatever energy I had left and I tried to go for it."

Wiederecht (5:11.90) took third in the 500-free and dropped 16 seconds from her previous personal best.

Freshman Verity Abel continued to be Ms. Dependable for Staples and won two events. Abel's first triumph came in the 200-meter individual medley (2:30.03).

"The 200-IM is one of my best events and I've done it so many times and I have the right technique for it," Abel said.

Placing third and fifth respectively for the Lady Wreckers in the 200-IM were freshman Gabby LeBlanc (2;38.81) and sophomore Alexis Teixeira (2:50.86). LeBlanc qualified for Class LL.

Abel won the 100-meter butterfly (1:07.97) and junior Caroline Valerio took third in the 100-fly (1:14.78).

"I'm primarily a butterflier and each time I race it, it's a different race and I've done it many times," Abel said.

Junior Gabby Wimer delivered Staples' other victory in individual events by capturing the 100-meter freestyle (1:04.26).

"I made sure I got faster and I made sure I dove into my race and kicked more in the second 50," Wimer said.

Nussbaum took second in the 100-free (1:05.78) and qualified for Class LL.

"It feels really good and I worked all season for it," Nussbaum said. "It feels great to achieve it in midseason."

Wimer, Nussbaum, Cooperman and Abel led the 200-meter freestyle (1:56.78) and 400-meter freestyle (4:16.49) relay teams to victory. The 400-free relay was the last event of the meet and Staples was 87-85 leading going into it. The Lady Wreckers needed to win the event in order to win the meet. If they finished second and third, the meet would have ended in a tie and if they didn't win and only grabbed one of the next two places, they would have lost.

"Ridgefield put their good relay in the 200-free and I knew they couldn't touch us in the 400-free," Laux said.

The Lady Tigers won the 200-meter medley relay and Staples had to settle for second in it behind Teixeira, LeBlanc, Valerio and sophomore Becky Raab (2:17). Wimer (29.65) and Raab (31.21) were two-three in the 50-meter freestyle.

Diving is an event the Lady Wreckers usually wins behind senior captain Schaefer Andrews but Ridgefield had a strong diver and Andrews (178.81) had to settle for second. Junior Michelle Mastrianni (147.25) and senior captain Margot Bruce (96.55) took third and fifth, respectively.

Valerio (1:15.74) and Teixeira (1:15.94) took second and third respectively in the 100-meter backstroke. LeBlanc (1:23.91) and sophomores Anita Vohra (1:26.72) and Patricia Maragos (1:26.81) were three-four-five in the 100-meter breaststroke.

"I thought the girls stepped it up and it was one of the most exciting meets in my four years at Staples," Nussbaum said. "We had no meets for two weeks, Mr. Laux pushed us in that time span and it paid off against Ridgefield. Laux motivates us to work hard and to achieve to our potential."