Fairport Girls Hold Swimming Banquet

December 07, 2000 - A festive atmosphere greeted the swimmers as the banquet committee did a fantastic job of decorating the banquet hall in true Mexican style, genuine Mexican artifacts mixed in with colorful flowers and the Fairport traditional red and blue balloons filled the room which added to the excitement of celebrating an incredibly wonderful season for these talented athletes.

The season was filled with many swimmers achieving personal bests and culminated with a real team effort in winning the sectional meet.

In addition, seven swimmers advanced to the state meet.

After enjoying the buffet, the program began with the introduction of the junior varsity and varsity athletes and presentation of the traditional paper plate awards given to swimmers by their respective captains. These awards were very well thought out and a good laugh was enjoyed by all.

The individual awards were presented by coach Mike Fortner, who filled in admirably as host for the event for Mike Kennedy, who had knee surgery two days before.

This year, the JV Most Valuable Players award was presented to two swimmers, Karalynn Wendell and Robin Woodward. The Most Improved JV swimmer was Carrie Steurer and the Coaches Award was given to Stephanie Chan.

Coach Fortner presented the Most Valuable Player Award to two varsity swimmers, Jamie Adams and Christy Breen. The Most Improved Swimmer Award went to Becky Potvin and the Coaches Award went to Nicole DiBello.

The Springboard Award, presented by diving coach Dave Salmon, was given to Laurissa Prystaj for an incredible diving season.

Additionally, the Spark Plug Award was presented to Carla Reidy and the Red Raider Award to Laurissa Prystaj. These two athletes will be invited to the Red Raider banquet in June with all the Spark Plug and Red Raider winners from all the other Fairport teams.

The Scholastic Swimmer Award, presented to the junior or senior swimmer with the highest average since the eight-grade, was awarded to Jamie Adams.

Coach Fortner also presented medals to Laurissa Prystaj and Jamie Adams for breaking team records in diving and 100 breast stroke, respectively.

All Monroe County league awards were also presented. First-team award winners were Jamie Adams, Jessica Blaha, Christy Breen, Krista Larson, Becky Potvin, Laurissa Prystaj and Kristen Schirmuhly.

Second-team awards were presented to Nicole DiBello, Erin Legg and Megan McGraw.

Sectional patches were awarded to Jamie Adams in the 200 IM and 100 breast for fastest times in Class A and Laurissa Prystaj for highest diving score in Class A.

The final event of the evening was the announcement of the 2001 captains and the traditional "passing of the towel." Seniors Carla Reidy and Kristen Schirmuhly "passed the towel" to juniors Jamie Adams and Christy Breen.

The season was a memorable one for all the athletes, coaches and parents and all are excited for next year's team.

Originally published in the Perinton-Fairport Post

2000