Farmington Valley Y Swimmers Sweep Yankee Cluster Championships

By: Alyse Evasius
GRANBY CT, ‑‑February 28, 2013—The Farmington Valley Y Tsunamis Swim Team have plenty to celebrate about with their amazing trifeca win, taking Girls Overall 1^st Place, Boys Overall 1^st Place and the coveted Team 1st Place Overall finish at the 2013 Yankee Clusters Championships. The meet was held at Maloney High School in Meriden, CT, February 22-24. Participating swimmers from the team ranged in age from 6 to 17, and swam in as many as 3 individual and 2 relay events. More than 890 swimmers from 14 YMCA teams in the state participated in this huge event.

The three-day meet started with the 11 & Over age group swimming all of the distance events; 200 yard and 500 yard Freestyle, 200 yard Individual Medley along with the 100 yard Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly. Top three finishes by many of the Tsunami swimmers gained the team points from the get-go—Abigail Thrall, Sydney Perks, Lilia Dunnigan, Owen Perks and Grant Kimble all had first place finishes on Friday night. Helena Brody and Spencer Kimble both finished second and Brian Berry finished with a solid third in the 500 yard freestyle.

Saturday morning was the 8 & Under age groups’ time to shine. Solid performances in the Medley relays started off the meet—both the girls ‘A’ relay powered by Jillena Plowucha, Rachel Shenkman, Megan Dunnigan and Amelia Rogers and the boys ‘A’ relay led by Max Larock, Jacob Scotto, James Phillips and Jake Isakoff finished in second place.  This set the pace for solid individual performances from all of the 8 & Unders, including multiple top-three finishes by Megan Dunnigan, Jillena Plowucha and Max Larock.

The excitement continued Saturday afternoon with the 9-10 age group. Both ‘A’ relays finished in the top two, again setting the pace for a plethora of best-time swims. Top-three finishes were turned in by Joe Rusnock, Alex Beauchene, Charles Perks, Liam Dunnigan, Madelyn Seminara, Daphne Peterson, Elsie Phillips and Maya Brody. Once again the ‘A’ relays placed in the top three racking up more points for the Tsunamis.

Sunday morning began with the 11-12 age group, and will most likely to be voted the most exciting session of all the weekend. The relay of Abigail Thrall, Baily Edgren, Sydney Perks and Lilia Dunnigan brought the entire crowd to their feet with an exciting first-place finish in the opening event. Keeping that rhythm, Lilia Dunnigan, Sydney Perks and Abigail Thrall all placed in the top spots in their individual events. The freestyle relay once again had the crowd on their feet as the foursome of Dunnigan, Katelin Isakoff, Bianca Ceolin and Thrall came from behind to secure a first place finish in the girls’ final event.

Sunday afternoon marked the final session of the three-day meet. The 13 and Over group swam the last leg of the event. Many of the swimmers had been at the meet for the entire three days, cheering on teammates and siblings, but the excitement and energy of the swimmers (and the crowd) had not diminished. The boys 13 and Over medley relay of Owen Perks, Christian Malone, Michael Morsch and Brian Berry firmly took hold of first on their opening relay. The individual events followed; Helena Brody, Grant Kimble, Michael Morsch, Christian Malone, Holly Corcoran, Owen Perks and Brian Berry all landing in the top three. Finishing the meet with aplomb was the freestyle relay of Perks, Berry, Morsch and Malone who blew away the second place team by more than 6 seconds.

Congratulations to the new Yankee Cluster Champions, and their Head Coach Cassie Maliar for a tremendous finish to an amazing season. For more information about the Tsunamis Swim Team, please contact the Farmington Valley YMCA at 860-653-5524 ext. 131.