Lake Isle Swimmers Start Fast at Season Opener

A little less than a year after being crowned overall Westchester County Swimming & Diving Champions, the team from the Lake Isle Country Club in Eastchester got their 2011 season underway on the right foot Thursday morning, defeating the Larchmont Yacht Club in their first meet of the summer. The meet – held at the Lake Isle pool – was relatively close throughout, although the home team eventually came out on top by a score of 258 to 211.

For Lake Isle Head Coach Kevin Lavalle, now in his fourth year with the team, Thursday’s meet was the perfect opportunity for his swimmers – both old and new – to quite literally get their feet wet competition wise, and get used to going up against swimmers from other teams again.

“The beginning of the season is always exciting,” Lavalle said. “It’s fun to get the first meet underway to look at what kind of team we really have. There’s only so much you can do during practice to prepare but actually getting out and watching the kids perform is always fun.”

Lake Isle lost a number of its top performers to “graduation” last summer, as after swimmers turn 18 they are no longer eligible to compete for the country club, so this summer's team is mostly comprised of younger and fresher faces – including many that are young for their age group – something Lavalle says should make for an exciting and unpredictable season.

“We don’t really know what we have until we see them compete,” he said. “It’s great to see how well they did today not knowing how they’re going to do in the older divisions and against older kids. I think we have a real strong team, a young team, so it’s fun to think about what the future will hold.”

Many of those young swimmers had big performances in Thursday’s season opener, including double winners Juliana Rivera (8 & Under girls freestyle and backstroke), Johji Nonaka (8 & Under boys freestyle and butterfly), and Chris Torres (8 & Under boys backstroke and breaststroke). Lake Isle also had four triple winners on the day, including Nick Torres (10 & Under boys freestyle, backstroke and butterfly), Jessica Catarinacchio (14 & Under girls freestyle, breaststroke and butterfly), Tyler Staffin (14 & Under boys freestyle, backstroke and butterfly), and Sora Shiraishi (17 & Under boys freestyle, breaststroke and butterfly).

Nine-year-old Nick Torres turned in an exceptionally impressive performance Thursday morning, breaking a Lake Isle Swim Team record in the 10 & Under 50-yard backstroke with a time of 34.06 seconds. Torres later combined with teammates Aidan Bowers, Ryan Maierle, and Luca Quinones to set the second team record of the day, this time in the 10 & Under freestyle relay.

“We had some great performances today, some expected, some weren’t,” Coach Lavalle said. “Now we build from here and look forward to the next four or five weeks of the season. We’ve had a couple years of success here and we’re hoping to continue that. Every meet is a new challenge, so we’re just happy to get the season started with a win.”