Darien splashes Lady Wrecker swimmers

Going into its home meet with Darien Friday, the Staples girls swimming team knew getting a win would be extremely difficult.

Darien is one of the five best teams in the state and knowing that, Staples coach Mike Laux continued to focus on his midseason training and preparing his girls for the postseason meets. As expected, the Lady Wreckers dropped to 2-3 in its 101-77 loss to the Darien Lady Blue Wave (4-1), but nevertheless, Staples was pleased with its performance because it took many positives from the meet.

"We swam all right for midseason training," Laux said.

All of the Lady Wreckers swam hard against a superior team. One major positive sign for them was the return of sophomore Verity Abel, who missed four meets because she had mono.

"It felt very nice to be with my team and it was nice to swim with them," Abel said.

Although Abel delivered two victories, it wasn't easy for her because she's still regaining her strength.

"I felt a lot more tired than I normally did," said Abel, who remained undeterred by her adversity. "Since it was my first meet back, I tried to do as much for the team as possible. I was excited and I had a lot of energy in my races."

Abel's first victory came in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:40.86.

"In the 400, I just tried to pace myself as well as I could and stay even or pull ahead of the girl next to me," Abel said. "I guess I wanted it."

Only one event took place in between the 400-free and 100-meter backstroke, which gave her very little time to rest in between events. Nevertheless, Abel was undeterred and won the 100-back (1:08.62).

"I was actually not expecting a good result in the 100-back because I was tired from the 400-free," Abel said. "I just tried as hard as I could and pushed myself."

Freshman Stacy Kaneko (1:14.75) and junior Alexis Teixeira (1:17.33) placed third and fifth, respectively, in the 100-back.

Unfortunately for Staples, those were the only events it won.

Senior captain Gabby Wimer took second in the 50-meter freestyle (29.79) and 100-meter freestyle (1:05.04). Kaneko was fourth in the 100-free (1:06.05).

The Lady Wreckers opened the meet by finishing second in the 200-meter medley relay (2:12.81) with Kaneko, freshman Jessi Taets, Abel and Wimer. Their 400-meter freestyle relay team (4:21.16) of Wimer, freshman Jordan Santarella, Kaneko and Abel also took second.

Darien took the top two spots in the 200-meter freestyle relay. Taets, Santarella, junior Rebecca Raab and senior captain Caroline Valerio led Staples' 200-free relay team (2:03.01) to third place.

In the 100-meter breaststroke, sophomore Gabby LeBlanc (1:25.67), junior Anita Vohra (1:25.89) and Taets (1:27.16) finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Santarella (1:15.77) and Valerio (1:16.03) were three-four in the 100-meter butterfly. Senior captain Michelle Mastrianni took third (170).

The Lady Blue Wave swept the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley. Senior Emily Greene was Staples' top swimming in the 200-free (2:35.65) and junior Patricia Maragos led the Lady Wreckers in the 200-IM (2:53.27) with both garnering fourth-place finishes in their respective events.