Sports
Highland Swimmers Achieve Best Times During County Championships
The swimmers competed at Memorial Pool in Westfield Friday night.
Highland Swim Club coach Bill Reichel had a clipboard and pen at Memorial Pool in Westfield Friday night. On a wall outside of the boy’s locker room was the listing of the place winners at the annual 11-and-over Union County Outdoor Swim League championships.
Reichel had a lot of jotting to do—his swimmers were everywhere.
“I would say that probably between 70 and 90 percent of our kids dropped their best times,’’ said Reichel, who's in his 24th year as coach. “We went 1-2-3 in a lot of events. Overall, they did fantastic.’’
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That’s the point in these late-season meets—finish the objectives youngsters map out for themselves in late June. The league championships continued Saturday morning at Memorial with swimmers 10 and under.
One of the older swimmers who were successful was 18-year-old Kim Rizzo, who will continue her athletics to Marymount University in Arlington, VA, in the fall. Rizzo, who has been swimming at Highland since she was five, won the 15-18 butterfly and backstroke. She said the wins were her first as a member of the team.
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“It’s one of my last races for Highland,’’ Rizzo said. “Everybody wants to win when they’re in the pool, and it’s great to win. It’s my first time winning. I’ve been swimming here a long time.’’
Rizzo is also a synchronized swimmer. Synchronized swimming is a hybrid form of swimming, dance and figure skating.
Reichel said Rizzo will focus on competitive swimming in college.
“She’s an excellent kid and she’ll do well in college concentrating on swimming,’’ he said. “I don’t believe she’s going to continue to pursue synchronized swimming. But I think she’s going to do very well in competitive swimming. She has a lot of talent.’’
Among the other many winners for Highland was Kelsey Ross, who won the 15-18 IM in 1:12.28, the freestyle in 29.26 and the breaststroke in 37.13. Don Keenan won the 15-18 breaststroke in 33.00 and the freestyle in 26.31. Jeff Peart won the 11-12 IM in 1:13.91 and the breaststroke in 41.34. Daniel Pesin won the 13-14 IM in 1:09.49 and the backstroke in 31.92. Connor Lockier won the 15-18 breaststroke and Allison McBrearty won the 13-14 IM in 1:17.97. Austin Engelhardt won the 13-14 breaststroke and Alexa Buckley took the 11-12 breaststroke.
Scotch Plain's Willow Grove Swim Club had two winners at the championship meet: Amanda Banasiak won the 11-12 freestyle and teammate Alex Skoog won the 11-12 freestyle in 30.10 and backstroke in 36.84.
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