Chappaqua and Mount Kisco Swim Teams Finish Strong at County Championships

The five participating teams from Chappaqua and Mount Kisco continued to compete on the fourth and final day of the Westchester County Swimming Association's annual championships. Several local swimmers finished with strong results.

At the end of the meet, the top area team was Chappaqua Swim and Tennis, which finished in sixth place with a combined team score of 117 points. Birchwood was the second best, finishing only two points behind, in seventh place with 115 points. Birchwood finished tied for fifth in the girls team score with 76 points, only eight points from finishing in the top three.

Willowbrook ended its run at the meet in 20th place with 50 points, while Mount Kisco Memorial finished in 25th place, with 25 points. The strongest team overall was Lake Isle, which went wire-to-wire during the four day meet and finished with 220 points.

The best performance of the day from swimmers in the Chappaqua area came from CS&T's Katie Duncalf, as she took first place in the 17-and-under 100-yard backstroke. She came within less than a second of setting the meet record.

Duncalf talked about how she was proud not only about winning the race but proud of all the people who helped her along the way.

"It's a great feeling. I'm really proud of myself, I'm more proud of all the people that helped me get here, like my coaches, my parents and my friends," she said.

Her coach, Dan Levy, talked about the performance of his team as a whole and how he was proud of their performance over the four days at the meet.

"I couldn't be any prouder," he said. "It's a testament to the whole team for how many people we have here cheering on everybody and were going to go to Playland to celebrate everything that has been accomplished not just here at the meet, but the whole summer."

In the girls 14-and-under 100 yard breaststroke CS&T's Zoe Kerrich finished in fifth place and Birchwood's Genna McLaughlin finished in seventh

In the girls 12-and-under 50 yard freestyle CS&T's River Elms finished in fifth, and in the 13-and-under 200 yard freestyle relay, CS&T finished in fourth place as a group.

In the girls 10-and-under 50-yard butterfly, Birchwood's Cate Sawkins came in third place, just less than a second from first. In the same race CS&T swimmer Gaige Elms finished in fifth, two seconds behind Sawkins. Sawkins also finished with the most points of any girl in the 10-and–under age group.

Birchwood's best performance of the day came in the boys 13-and-under 200 yard freestyle relay as they came in second place, two seconds behind the winner. In that same race CS&T finished in eighth. Birchwood's Josh Tesser finished up in sixth place in the 17-and-under 100-yard backstroke.

For Willowbrook and Mount Kisco Memorial, the only finalists on the day came in the girls 12-and-under 50-yard free style. Erica Silverman of Willowbrook finished in second place, less than half a second off the pace and Mary Fitzsimmons of Mount Kisco Memorial finished in sixth.

Editor's Note: The original version of this story referred to Katie Duncalf as "Katie Dunlap." It has been corrected.