Staples swimmers loses nail biter on Senior Day

Despite turning in great performances, the Staples girls swimming team lost 95-91 at home to Westhill on Senior Day Friday.

"They beat us fair and square," Staples coach Mike Laux said. "We swam well and a lot of kids had their best races of the season and made state-qualifying times, but Westhill won all of the close races. You can't ask our girls to swim better than their bests."

Westhill ended its regular season at 8-2. The Lady Wreckers dropped to 2-5.

"We have the toughest schedule in the state," Laux said. "We face Greenwich, Darien, Wilton, New Canaan, Norwalk, Trumbull and Westhill and all seven teams will finish in the top 10 at State Open."

If Staples and the Lady Vikings flip flopped, just two of the close matchups, the outcome would have been different.

The meet began with Westhill winning the 200-meter medley relay with a time if 2:12.5, edging the first Lady Wrecker foursome of freshman Stacy Kaneko, sophomore Gabbie LeBlanc, freshman Jordan Santarella and junior Rebecca Raab (2:12.61). Staples took third (2:13.80) behind juniors Alexis Teixiera and Anita Vohra, senior captain Caroline Valerio and freshman Jessi Taets.

"I can't fault the kids for not taking first because they all had great times and were right there," Laux said. "At that point, I thought `Oh my God, we're swimming phenomenally.' It was really a great meet."

Sophomore Verity Abel (2:16.26) then won the 200-meter freestyle. Junior Sarah Cooperman (2:21.12) and senior Emily Greene (2:34.09) took second and fifth, respectively.

Westhill was one-two in the 200-meter individual medley. LeBlanc (2:41.54), Santarella (2:45.36) and junior Patricia Maragos (2:51.83) were three-four-five in the 200-IM and the meet was tied, 23-23.

Senior captain Gabby Wimer (29.41) led Staples in the 50-meter freestyle and took second. Raab (30.47) and Taets (30.89) were three-five in the 50-free and the meet was tied, 31-31.

The Lady Vikings inched ahead in diving by grabbing the first two spots. Lady Wrecker senior captain Michelle Mastrianni (175.6) took third and was just short of second place. Sophomore Anna Violette (153.45) and freshman Olivia Crosby (151.25) took fourth and fifth in diving.

"Senior Day was a little disappointing because it was so close," Mastrianni said. "I lost by a couple of points and Gabby lost by a fraction of a second. There were a lot of close but no cigar races."

Mastrianni was referring to the 100-meter freestyle, where Westhill took the top two spots and Wimer (1:03.75) was third, only .03 short of second place. Kaneko (1:05.22) was fourth in the 100-free.

Abel won the 100-meter butterfly (1:09.54). Santarella (1:14.56) and Valerio (1:14.72) were four-five in the 100-fly. Cooperman won the 400-meter freestyle (4:55.17) and Greene (5:19.72) was fourth.

In the 200-meter freestyle relay, the Lady Vikings (1:56.51) eked out a win even though Wimer, Raab, Taets and Abel (1:57.03) almost set a new school record. Sophomore Jocelyn Krim, freshman Laine Crowder, junior Molly Rubidge and Cooperman 2:08.07).

Kaneko (1:12.92) was touched out in the 100-meter backstroke and took second. Westhill (1:12.19) won the 100-back by less than a second. Valerio (1:14.81) and

Teixiera (1:14.90) were three-four in the 100-back.

LeBlanc (1:22.03) and Vohra (1:25.15) were two-three in the 100-meter breaststroke. In order for the Lady Wreckers to tie it, they needed to go one-two in the 400-meter freestyle relay, which is a tough feat against a good team like Westhill.

Wimer, Cooperman, Santarella and Abel (4:16.85) won it but Staples fell short of tying it because Raab, Valerio, LeBlanc and Kaneko (4:32.12) settled for third.

"It was really difficult losing by such a small margin, but the good thing about losing is it tells you what you need to work on," Wimer said. "Everyone who was at the meet saw how evenly matched we were with Westhill and seeing which races could've made a difference tells us what we need to work on going into championships."

Valerio said, "The loss was upsetting, but we all swam the best we could and that's all we can ask of our team. I think with a few flip flopping of swimmers we could have gotten closer to a win, but I think overall on Friday, Westhill was the stronger team."

Staples dropped to 2-6 Monday with a 101-80 home loss to Wilton. Abel won the 400-free (4:38.49).