Trumbull beats Lady Wreckers

Sometimes, a team is outgunned and can't do anything about the final result.

A case in point was the Staples girls swimming team's season-opening meet at home against Trumbull last Thursday. Although Trumbull defeated Staples, 100-84, Coach Mike Laux was proud of his team.

"We did fine and had a great meet under the circumstances," Laux said. "It was a good meet and everyone swam their hardest. We'll have a good team by the end of the year."

Lady Wreckers senior captain Margot Bruce said, "Trumbull is a very good team. I would have liked to have won but I thought it went well. We swam our best and that's what counts at the end of the day."

Junior Gabby Wimer led Staples by winning the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 29.64 seconds and the 100-meter freestyle (1:05.06). Classmate Caroline Valerio was fourth in the 50-free (31.47) and senior captain Stephanie Nussbaum (1:07.88) was fourth in the 100-free.

"We've been working hard and everyone cheering for me at the side of the pool, helped," Wimer said. "In the 50, I made sure I picked it up and got faster as the race went on. In the 100, the third 25 was the most important and I made sure I got off the wall very quickly."

Senior captain Schaefer Andrews (180.09) won diving for the Lady Wreckers. Diving was the only event in which Staples outpointed Trumbull (the teams were deadlocked 8-8 in the events Wimer won) as junior Michelle Mastrianni (143.55) took third.

"I tried to focus hard, have fun and plant my toes," Andrews said.

Freshman Verity Abel (1:07.6) won the 100-meter butterfly for the Lady Wreckers. Abel also took second in the 200-meter individual medley (2:20.40) and sophomore Sarah Cooperman took fourth in the 200-IM (2:28.00).

In the previous years, senior captain Molly Loftus dominated distance freestyle events but Lady Eagle junior Caitlin Cole was too much. Cole won the 200-meter freestyle (2:15.77) and 400-meter freestyle (4:41.54) and Loftus settled for second in the 400-free (4:43.51) and third in the 200-free (2:20.40). Nussbaum (2:28) and senior Caitlin Wiederecht (2:33.54) were four-five in the 200-free and Cooperman (5:01.88) and junior Emily Greene (5:42.00) were four-five in the 400-free.

Valerio (1:15.44) and sophomore Alexis Teixeira (1:16.55) were three-four in the 100-meter backstroke and freshman Gabby LeBlanc (1:24.20) and sophomore Anita Vohra (1:27.08) were three-four in the 100-meter breaststroke.

Trumbull won all three relays. Teixeira, LeBlanc, Loftus and Bruce carried the 200-meter medley relay team (2:18.05) to second place. Wimer, Bruce, Nussbaum and Abel led the 200-meter freestyle relay team (2:00.88) to the silver and Wimer, Nussbaum, Loftus and Abel powered the 400-meter freestyle relay team (4:19.85) to second place.

"Everyone tried their hardest and Trumbull is a great team," Andrews said. "We swam well but Trumbull was better."

Nussbaum said, "I thought we did very well. A lot of girls had best times, which is impressive for the first meet of the season and we can only improve from here."

And it doesn't get easier for the Lady Wreckers as they will travel to defending FCIAC and Class M champion and State Open runnerup Darien on Friday.