Sports
Y Swim Team Surprises at Long Course Nationals
The Piranhas finished as one of the best teams in the finals Friday night.
This year’s YMCA National Long Course Championship at the University of Maryland wasn't supposed to be such a fruitful experience for the Fanwood-Scotch Plains YMCA swim team.
The team lost 13 point earners from last year’s seventh-place team finish, including three-event winner Scott Marino, who graduated from St. Joseph High School in Metuchen and is great now at Penn State.
But surprise.
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The young team had a strong tournament overall, finishing 17th with 201 points out of 247 teams. The team was 16th going into the finals Friday night. The boys finished 12th in the final standings with 111 points, the girls were 18th with 90.
“We lost so many swimmers that we looked at this year as a rebuilding year,’’ said Head Coach Chris Feinthel. “But everybody got their personal best even in the relays. It was exciting. You have to get your best time if you want to place at all.’’
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One of the better examples of how surprising a week it was for the team was 16-year-old Dan Naplitano. He came into the tournament seeded 50th in the 200-meter butterfly, but finished 13th with a 1:38.64 in the final heat.
“It was great to see,’’ Feinthel said.
Other place winners were 16-year-old Hannah Markey, who was 15th in the 100 breast at 34.65, and 18-year-old Zach Peart, who was 15th in the 50 backstroke in 29.18.
“It was a very good night,’’ said Feinthel, who is in his fifth year as head coach.
The boys 400-meter medley relay team of Peart (backstroke), 15-year-old Greg Baliko (backstroke), Naplitano (butterfly) and 16-year-old Will Brown (freestyle) placed seventh with a 3:10 final heat time.
“That was a great race for us,’’ Feinthel said.
The girl’s medley was 10th with a 3:31.69 time in the final with 14-year-old Jessica Cronin (back), Markey (breast), 15-year-old Gabby Levine (butterfly) and 17-year-old Ariana Lyons (freestyle). The girls 200 freestyle team was 10th at 1:23.71 with Markey, Lyons and sisters 16-year-old Jessica Colucci and 18-year-old Nicole Colucci.
“Last year, we were so happy with what we did,’’ Feinthel said. “But we knew this year was a new year and we had a lot of work to do. Now, we know a lot of these kids will be back after doing so well this year.’’
The team will now head into the shortcourse season, he said.
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