Westover’s 200 freestyle relay team, left to right, Lydia Mahan, Francesca Dumont, Maddie-Claire Norris and Sophia Andrew, compete at the 2016 New England Prep School Swimming and Diving Division III Championships. (Submitted photo)
Westover School’s swim team came away with many successes after taking part in the 2016 New England Prep School Swimming and Diving (NEPSSA) Division III Championships March 5 at Canterbury School in New Milford for what was a 10-hour competition.
The Wildcats earned 17 new season-best times, including 16 lifetime best times. Fourteen swimmers competed in the eight individual events, with qualifying performances by Francesca Dumont, a freshman from Southbury, in the 200 freestyle; Sophia Andrew, a sophomore from Newtown, in the 100 freestyle; and Lydia Mahan, a sophomore from Litchfield, in both the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle.
In the morning competition, the Wildcats’ earned six new top-ten Westover times, including Andrew in the 50 freestyle at 28.90, good for 20th place. In her first year of competitive swimming, Andrew was the first Wildcat to break 29 seconds this season. The 100 freestyle was Andrew’s second individual event in the day, and she touched at 1:05.21 (16th place) before racing 1:04.91 at night in the consolation heat and finishing 15th overall.
Chloe Kirk, a junior from Woodbury, earned a spot on the top ten in the 500 freestyle, racing a 7:15.83, a lifetime best nearly four seconds better than her lifetime best at the Bud Erichs Invitational tournament a week earlier.
Mahan’s season best with 2:42 in her 200 individual medley earned her a qualifying time for finals. That evening, Mahan’s lifetime best in 200 individual medley of 2:40.52 in consolation finals moved her up into third on the Westover top-ten. In her 500 freestyle, Mahan took it out hard in lane 3 as she trailed the lane 4 swimmer with a fast pace in the Consolation Finals. Mahan’s lifetime best the week before at the Bud Erichs was a 6:14.47, and she chopped 8.5 seconds off that with a third place in her heat at 6:05.89, good for 11th overall, Westover’s highest finish in Finals.
Two of the most exciting events of the day were the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. In the 200, Mahan; Dumont; Maddie-Claire Norris, a freshman from Bethlehem; and Andrew touched at 1:55.97, dropping more than three seconds off their seed time and just over a second off the Westover record set back in 2012. As leadoff, Mahan’s touch at 29.59 puts her 9th All-Time at Westover.
In the last event of the night, the 400 freestyle relay of four freshmen – Dumont, Taryn Carey of Goshen, Gabby Young of Middlebury, and Norris – touched at 4:37, dropping 13 seconds off their seed time. In the B 400 free relay, Eugenia Correa, a sophomore from Merida, Mexico, was leadoff and touched at 1:16.17, well over a second off of her lifetime best. Emily Desjardins, a sophomore from Watertown, Kirk, and Valentina Garcia, a sophomore from Mexico City, Mexico, (legs 2, 3, and 4) each matched or beat their best split this season.
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