- By Reed Dewey
- Sports
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The CATS had an incredible team performance throughout, with the younger swimmers putting the team ahead in the A.M. session and the older swimmers increasing that lead as the P.M. session advanced. By the end of the meet, the CATS had outpaced the second place Chenango Aquatics by nearly 1000 points. This is the second consecutive year that the LCATs have been the STSL Champions for the Fall/Winter and the Spring/Summer seasons. It is also the club’s 6th STSL Championship title in the past four years.
The following weekend, approximately 25 LCAT swimmers traveled to Buffalo to compete in the Niagara District J.O. Long Course Championship Meet. Again, the swimmers performed remarkably, with nearly every swimmer achieving multiple personal best times and many setting new long course club records in the process.
The collective efforts of Kim Buffone, Mary Carroll, Nikki Dean, Ella and Graham Graffin, Nicole Heise, Erin McElfresh, Emily, Natalie and Erin O’Brien, Emma Otto-Moudry, Siena and Francis Schickel, Hannah Wingate, Bob Divers, Masataka Fujisaki, Casey Hagin, Sasha Kuznezov, Dan Miller, Kevin and Ryan Nicholson, John Nord, Joe Rogan, Hans Roser and Jake Sangren led to the team’s best finish ever.
The team placed 4th out of 34 teams in the Niagara District, which spans from Buffalo to Syracuse to Bingotown. The top three teams at the J.O. Championship Meet, STAR, Tonawanda Titans and UBAM, are all from the Buffalo area.
Nikki Dean, Erin McElfresh, Nicole Heise, Emily O’Brien, Hans Roser, Jake Sangren, Ryan Nicholson, Kevin Nicholson and Bob Divers all qualified for the Eastern Zone Long Course Championships to be held next week in Buffalo. This meet is open to some of the fastest age-group swimmers from the northeast quadrant of the United States and should be a great opportunity for those LCATs in attendance.
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