- By Reed Dewey
- Sports
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The Lansing Community Aquatic Team recently completed its 2006-2007 short course (25-yard pool) season. Through a tremendous team effort, the CATS were, once again, the Southern Tier Swim League Champions. In addition to the full team effort at STSL champs, several members of the team qualified for, and competed in the Niagara Swimming District Gold Championship Meet. Of approximately fifty teams from Central and Western NY, the LCATs finished in third place at Gold Districts, behind two powerhouse teams from the Buffalo area. This was quite an accomplishment for the CATS, considering it wasn’t long ago the team had a tough time cracking into the top forty at Golds. As the short course season winds down for many swimmers, it revs up for others who qualify for a variety of upper level championship competitions. Over the last month of the short course season, LCATs sent representatives to Speedo Sectional Championships in Boston, Junior Nationals in Orlando and the Eastern States Zones Championships in Buffalo. There were several swimmer highlights at these meets.
Hans Roser and Jake Sangren had great meets at Junior Nationals. Jake was right on his 100 Back time and had a nice drop in his 50 Back. He also improved his standing in both events, dropping from somewhere in the mid 40s in the 100 to the low 30s. In his 50 he went into the meet ranked in the low 40s, as well, and ended up with the 11th fastest time in the meet. That was a swim that set him up well for his stellar performance at Zones.Hans had fantastic drops in time and standing in his 200 and 100 Breast swims, setting new team records in both events. His 200 was the highlight, dropping 2.0 seconds to finish at 2:04.97. That swim put him in 10th place going into finals. The finals swim is one I'm sure he'd like to get back, but, still, five days earlier would have been a best time for him. 2:04 is pretty quick. It also qualified him for Short Course Nationals, held in Atlanta in the fall, and made Hans the LCAT's first
National level qualifier.
Both Hans and Jake did a great job representing our club at Junior Nationals. This is especially true when considering this was the first trip to Juniors for both boys and when taking into account that their big meet (Boys’ High School States) was just four short weeks earlier.
At Zone Championships, a meet for the top age-group swimmers in the northeast quadrant of the United States, almost every LCAT swimmer hit multiple best times. The CATS had 6 Zone Champions crowned and 14 Top 8 finishes in individual events over the course of the meet. Many of the club’s swimmers teamed with other swimmers from the Niagara District to swim some great relays, as well.
Jake Sangren won both Backstroke events and qualified for this summer’s Junior Nationals with his 100 swim. His time of 51.76 also broke the Eastern Zone Meet record. Now folks will be able to read through the Zones Meet program and see “Katie Hoff, Beth Botsford, Michael Phelps, Jake Sangren, . . .” That’s pretty neat for Jake!! As with Hans’s 200 Breast, Jake’s 100 Back precludes him from future Zones competition. If you aren’t going to make the Zone Team, that’s the best way to do it. Additionally, Jake led Niagara’s winning 200 Medley Relay with a 23.87 backstroke split.
Erin McElfresh, affectionately known by several monikers (McFresh, McFreak, etc.), hit her first 11-12 Age Group, T-16 Reportable Time with an incredible swim in the 200 Fly. Erin’s time not only set the new club record for 11-12 Girls, it set the club’s Open record in the event and came within about 2 tenths of the Niagara District Record for 11-12 Girls. Not too bad for an 11-year-old!!
Ryan Nicholson was a standout among the 10-and-unders, winning 4 of his 6 events and earning silver and bronze in his others. With those swims, Ryan hit 5 personal best times, reset 3 of his Niagara District records (200 Free, 50 Free, and 100 Fly), and set new Niagara District Records in the 50 Fly (28.69) and 200 I.M. (2:23.54). All of Ryan’s swims were T-16 times. This meet capped an absolutely amazing season for Ryan. By season’s end, Ryan had compiled a total of 11 Niagara District records, 14 USA Swimming National Top 16 Reportable Times and broke a meet record previously held by Michael Phelps. At Gold Championships, Ryan also teamed up with Ronan Corgel, Thomas Towner, and Faadhil Moheed to set the Niagara District 400 Medley Relay record (5:24.95) for 10-and-under boys.
Those are some outstanding highlights. Added to that were some great swims, best times, and incredible attitudes from Erin O’Brien, Emily O’Brien, Aaron “Woobie” Mychack and Matt Heise, all either swimming in their first Zones or there for the first time in a new age-group. Every winter and summer, Eastern Zones brings in most of the fastest age-group swimmers from the northeast quadrant of the country. Being part of it is a big deal. Making and taking the next big step isn’t always easy. For every swimmer, just about every meet is going to have its ups and downs. As a group, these swimmers performed very well and were excellent ambassadors to Niagara and to their club.
The short course season ended with Zones and the long course (50-meter pool) season kicked-off with several CATS heading to New Jersey for the BAC Memorial Day Invitational in Rutgers. Over the past two weeks, the team has also had their first summer season league meet and an open, long course invitational in Webster. Through the course of these three meets, the swimmers have been off to a quick start, having already broken over 40 club records. Among them, Anna Conte’s 50-meter Breast (44.70) and Erin McElfresh’s 400-meter Free (4:42.25) stand out. Anna came on strong over the past few weeks to break Becky Mapes’s 1999 record for 10-and-under girls by over 3 seconds. Erin’s 400 broke a 30-year-old BAC meet record, smashed the club’s 11-12 girls’ record and toppled Nikki Dean’s open female club record. For those who know of Nikki’s talents as a senior swimmer, Erin’s swim, as a young 12-year-old, is nothing short of jaw-dropping. It currently ranks her third in the nation.
The club welcomes new swimmers, Caitlin Nicholson, Viktor Lillard, Matt Valvo , Adam Zelehowsky and Lucas Zelehowsky to the team.
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