Lady Wreckers splash Danbury

It couldn't have gotten any better for the Staples girls swimming team Wednesday at Danbury.

Staples won every event it its 101-57 victory and except for one event, the Lady Wreckers swept the top spots in raising their record to 3-6. Danbury dropped to 0-8.

"We're very happy," Staples coach Mike Laux said. "We had a lot of kids make state cuts."

The Lady Wreckers began the meet by going one-two in the 200-yard medley relay. Junior Alexis Teixeira, sophomore Gabbie LeBlanc, senior captain Caroline Valerio and junior Rebecca Raab (2:01.78) won and freshman Stacy Kaneko, sophomore Danleigh Wang and Jocelyn Krim and freshman Layne Crowder (2:12.23) took second.

Teixeira also won the 200-yard individual medley (2:27.44) and 100-yard backstroke (1:07.71).

"It feels great," Teixeira said. "It's been a long season and we've had long practices, but it's paying off. In the IM, coach Laux and I are working on it and it's working out."

Following Teixiera in the 200-IM were juniors Patricia Maragos (2:37.27) and Anita Vohra (2:38.29), while Kaneko (1:09.24) and freshman Haleigh Donovan (1:18.12) were two-three in the 100-back.

Lady Wrecker senior captain Gabby Wimer won the 200-yard freestyle (2:07.98) and 100-yard freestyle (48.93).

"Everybody did a good job cheering and it spurred me on," Wimer said. "I knew Jordan in the next lane tried to make states and I figured by swimming fast, it would make her swim fast."

Wimer was referring to freshman Jordan Santarella, who took second in the 200-free (2:08.55) and qualified for states. Sophomore Sara Banbury (2:27.44) was third in the 200-free, while Krim (1:06.88) and Wang (1:08.36) were two-three in the 100-free.

This is proof how Staples faced its toughest competition from within.

"We always push each other to swim fast in practice, and it's not weird to compete with them during a meet," Wimer said.

The only event that wasn't a sweep was the 50-yard freestyle. Raab (27.41) won, Krim (29.62) took third and edged out Crowder (29.71), who placed fourth.

Senior captain Michelle Mastrianni (155.62) led a sweep in diving. Freshman Olivia Crosby (142.2) and sophomore Anna Violette (139.8) followed.

Valerio (1:05.84) led a sweep in the 100-yard butterfly with freshman Claudia Landowne (1:14.19) taking second and junior Phoebe Corde (1:15.45) placing third. LeBlanc won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:17.68) and was followed by Vohra (1:18.56) and Maragos (1:21.40). Junior Sarah Cooperman (5:35.61) ruled the 500-yard freestyle while sophomore Lucy Slater (6:44) and junior Isabel Gasway (7:14.18) were two-three.

"We went in pretty excited because we wanted to come out with a win," Cooperman said. "Being around positive energy made me ready to go."

Cooperman anchored the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:50.15) and 400-yard freestyle (4:28.22) teams to victory. Raab, Santarella and Wimer preceded Cooperman in the 200-free relay, while Santarella, freshman Malin Hovstadius and Crowder went before her in the 400-free relay.

Kaneko, Valerio, junior Molly Rubidge and Crowder swam for the second-place 200-free relay (1:56.31), and Wimer, Landowne, Gasway and LeBlanc powered the second-place 400-free relay (4:28.22).

"It was a great meet and we had girls make states, which is awesome," Wimer said. "We're not focused on our dual meet record and we want to be in good position at States."