swim 1104 4710ASaturday October 31, 2015 Watkins Glen, NY – It was a Happy Halloween for the Ladycats Varsity Swimming and Diving when they gave Coach Diane Hicks-Hughes a big treat with a 3rd IAC Championship in a row. Overall team scores for the championships were:

1. Lansing - 484 

2. Watkins Glen - 382 

3. Waverly - 327.5

 4. Southern Cayuga - 252

 5. Dryden Varsity - 180.5

 6. Odessa Montour - 170 

7. Whitney Point - 86 

Lansing swimmers won 8 of 12 events and had 8 swimmers garner IAC All Star Honors in 9 different events. Coach H2 noted that 64% of the team achieved season best times at the meet.

swim 1104 4842APhotos by Robert Romano

Top scoring performances were:

Paige Kieper (Senior, Captain) - 2 Individual 1st Place finishes in the 50 Free and 100 Back, along with swims on the 1st Place 200 Medley Relay (Back) and 2nd Place 400 Freestyle Relay.

Grace Ferris (Junior) – 2 Individual 1st Place finishes in the 200 Individual Medley and the 100 Breast Stroke, along with swims on the1st Place 200 Medley Relay (Breast) and 1st Place 200 Freestyle Relays.

Katie Weaver (Junior) - 2 Individual 1st Place finishes in the 200 Freestyle and the 100 Butterfly, along with swims on the1st Place 200 Medley Relay (Fly) and 1st Place 200 Freestyle Relays.

Scoring/Placing results for Lansing by event was as follows.

200 Medley Relay

Senior Captain Paige Kieper (Back) and her A Relay teammates Grace Ferris (Breast, 11), Katie Weaver (Fly, 11) and Caroline Dennis (Free,10) started off the defense of the championship with 1st Place time of 1:55.96, ahead of 2nd place  Watkins Glen who went a 1.59.27; earning 40 Points for Lansing. 

200 Freestyle:

The Ladycat swimmers scored 45 points in this event lead by Katie Weaver with a winning time of 2:02.53. She was joined by fellow swimmers Senior Lizzy Drake in 3rd as well as Juniors Krista Taylor in 9th and Michelle Romano in 18th.

200 Individual Medley:

Lansing scored a total of 46 points in this event. Leading the scoring was Grace Ferris with a 1st place time of 2:23.36. Freshman Laura Ferris, 8th Grader Katie Barr and Senior Captain Tori Swanson added to the points with 6th, 9th and 13th place finishes respectively. 

50 Freestyle:

This event is always an exciting race at meets of this caliber and with the top 3 spots separated by less than a second this year’s 50 Free was no exception. In a start to finish nail biter, Paige Kieper was able to out touch a equally fast Claire Rejman (10) from Southern Cayuga to capture 1st place with an winning time of 25.44; just 0.03 seconds ahead of Rejman’s 25.47. Close behind was Lansing’s Caroline Dennis in 3rd Place with a time of 26.27.  

Additional scorers for Lansing were Libby Weaver (9), 5th Place and Megan Matheny (10) 9th. In total the swimmers added 59 Points, the most for any one event on the day.

Diving:

Meghan Matheny scored a personal best for 11 Dives of 417.30 and 2nd place of Lansing.  

100 Butterfly:

The Ladycats really flew in this event, adding 50 Points combined to Lansing’s total.  Katie Weaver took her second Individual 1st Place finish in this event with a winning time of 1:01.44 and fending off a strong challenge from Waverly’s Kennedy Wheeler, who swam a strong 1:02.12 2nd place time Lansing swimmers Marin Allen (10) was 3rd, followed closely by Jackie Brown in 4th and Freshman Laura Ferris in 9th. Overall a very strong performance was given by the butterflyers for Lansing at the championships.

swim 1104 4652A

100 Freestyle:

36 Points were scored by the swimmers for the Ladycats in this event. Lansing Swimmer Caroline Dennis faced off against Claire Rejman of Southern Cayuga, and unfortunately Rejman prevailed with a winning time of 55.19 over Dennis’s solid 57.47.  Rounding out the scoring for Lansing were Libby Weaver in 4th, Katie Barr in 8th and Krista Taylor(11) in 14th.

500 Freestyle:

4 Ladycat swimmers combined for 26 points in this event for Lansing. Top swimmer in the event was Senior Lizzy Drake with 4th place finish and a time of 6:00.11. Also swimming were Lexi Ryan (11) in 8th; Michelle Romano (11) in 18th and Lanaia Hubbard (10) in 20th.


200 Freestyle Relay:

As with the 50 Freestyle, the 200 Freestyle Relay is typically a very exciting and close affair. This year’s 200 Free Relay did not disappoint the hundreds of spectators on hand to watch the competition. In the end Lansing’s A relay of Katie Weaver, Grace Ferris, Megan Matheny and Libby Weaver were able to win over a strong challenge from Watkins Glen’s A Relay of Emma Allington, Peighton Cervoni, Sara Gardner and Katherine Meehan. In a back and forth battle Lansing prevailed with a winning time of 1:48.18 to 1:48.67 for Watkins. 

The win added 40 points to Lansing’s score.

100 Backstroke:

swim 1104 4553A

The Ladycats put 48 more points on the board in this event and were lead again by Senior Captain Paige Kieper; who comfortably achieved her second 1st place win with her 1:02.73 time in this event. 

The real race in the backstroke was for second; featuring some great swimming Marin Allen from Lansing,  Julia Angotti of Southern Cayuga and Peighton Cervoni of Watkins Glen. After the first 50 yards Cervoni was leading the three with Angotti second and Allen third; all within 0.57 seconds of each other at the first turn by the blocks.  

However, it is at the finish of the second fifty yards where the time really counts and that was where, after a neck and neck sprint, Allen just out touched Angotti by 1/100 of a second to capture 2nd place. Cerovini, fell to 4th.

Also placing for Lansing was Senior Captain Tori Swanson in 11th and Junior Lexi Ryan in 12th.

100 Breaststroke:

The 100 Breaststroke was another, and perhaps the most, exciting race on the day. Featuring a great race between top seed in the event Senior Katherine Meehan of Watkins Glen vs. Junior Grace Ferris of Lansing; the event was highly anticipated by many in attendance. 

Meehan got out to an early lead on Ferris, over a full second ahead after the first 50 yards.  She stayed ahead until the final turn to the last 25 yards. However, Ferris would not be denied, roaring off the final wall to pass Meehan and finish in 1st place with a winning time of 1:13.37 to Meehan’s 1:14.62. 

Ferris along with fellow teammates, Jackie Brown in 5th, Amanda Van (12) in 11th and Katy Dedrick (12) in 22nd combined for another 40 Points for Lansing.

400 Freestyle Relay:

The final 34 points for Lansing’s 484 point total was earned with a 2nd Place finish in this event by Lansing’s A relay team of Caroline Dennis, Libby Weaver, Marin Allen and Paige Kieper with a time of 3:57.93.  The Ladycats finished just behind a very strong Southern Cayuga team of Catherine Reynolds, Lauryn Mattoon, Julia Angotti and Claire Rejman who won with a 3:55.35.

IAC ALL STARS:

Qualifying for the IAC All Stars with either a 1st Place Relay Finish or 1st thru 3rd showing in Individual Competition for Lansing were:

Seniors

Paige Kieper – 50 Free (1st), 100 Back (1st) & 200 Medley Relay

Lizzy Drake -  200 Free (3rd)

Juniors

Grace Ferris – 200 IM (1st), 100 Breast (1st), 200 Medley Relay & 200 Freestyle Relay

Katie Weaver – 200 Free (1st), 100 Fly (1st), 200 Medley Relay & 200 Freestyle Relay

Sophomores

Caroline Dennis – 50 Free (3rd), 100 Free (2nd) & 200 Medley Relay

Meghan Matheny – Diving (2nd) & 200 Freestyle Relay

Marin Allen – 100 Fly (3rd) & 100 Back (2nd)

Freshmen

Libby Weaver – 200 Freestyle Relay


The LadyCats will move on to defend their Class C Sectional Championship




Wednesday  November 4th @ Watkins Glen – Section IV Class C Preliminaries

Saturday November 7th @ Owego – Section IV Class C Finals