- By Reed Dewey
- Sports
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The LCATs placed 6th out of approximately 50 teams in attendance from the Niagara Swimming District. Niagara includes all USA Swimming Club teams from The Ithaca area west to Buffalo, north to Liverpool/Syracuse and south to the Binghamton area.
All but one of the 25 LCAT qualifiers attending the meet scored, meaning they placed in the top 16 in the Niagara District at the championship meet. As a collective, the team hit 155 personal best times out of about 170 events entered. That 155 includes return swims for evening finals and consolation finals
Several swimmers had multiple first place, championship final (top 8) and/or consolation final (9th-16th place) finishes:
| Ryan Nicholson: top 8 finalist in every event swum, including several 1st place finishes Nicole Heise:1st place 50 Back and top 8/16 in several others Erin McElfresh: set 2 Niagara District Records in the 9-10 age group (200 and 500 Free) and swam 4 National Top 16 times for 9-10 girls 50 Fly (30.07), 100 Free (59.61), 200 Free (2:07.85), 500 Free (5:41.13). Hans Roser: 3 first-place finishes and top 8/16 in several others Nikki Dean:1st place 200 Free and several top 8/16 finishes Megan Lloyd: Top 8/16 in several events, including hitting the second fastest 50 and 100 breast times at the meet for 9-10 girls Jake Sangren: Top 8/16 in several events Dan Miller: Top 8/16 in several events Natalie O’Brien: top 8/16 in several events Joon Suh:Top 8 |
Mary Carroll, Sterling Gell, Hannah Wingate, Amanda Burke, Andrew Mowson, Kevin Nicholson, Matt Heise, Abby Lippitt, Erin O’Brien, Emily O’Brien, Scott Sevey, Josh Barber, Graham and Ella Graffin all placed top 16, or better, as well.
Nikki, Hans and Jake all swam times that would have either eclipsed, or come close to breaking, current Lansing high school team records. Jake’s 100 Back (56.01) was faster than the current record held by Rick Ducharme. Nikki’s 200 Free time of 1:56.88 (she swam 1:56.14 the previous week at Speedo Champs held at Harvard) and her 500 Free (5:13.23) are both faster than the current school records. Hans came close in his key events; 100 Breast and 200 I.M.
The meet was filled with exceptional races by the LCAT swimmers, as well as with great swims from other swimmers from around Niagara.
Erin, Ryan, Hans, Nikki, Megan, Jake, N. Heise and Sterling have qualified for, and have been selected to compete in, the Eastern Zone Championships to be held in Long Island at the end of this month. Kevin, Amanda, Emily and "MOJO" Mowson also achieved qualifying times or met selection qualification for the meet. This meet is offered to some of the fastest age-group swimmers from the northeastern quadrant of the U.S.
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