Fairport Swimmers Capture State Title
    March 1, 2003

Buffalo, NY - Following a disappointing second place finish at the Section 5 Championship meet, the Fairport swimmers knew that they would have to be at their best to defend their state championship against their rivals from Pittsford.

Coach Mike Kennedy took full advantage of the two-week break after sectionals to get his swimmers focused on the state meet held at Erie Community College in downtown Buffalo. Preliminaries for the swimming events were held on Friday, Feb. 28, with the top 16 swimmers in each event advancing to the finals on Saturday, March 1.

All of the diving rounds were held at ECC on Friday morning.

Throughout the season Fairport was able to get off to a quick start in the first event, the 200 medley relay. The state meet proved to be no exception. In the preliminaries the Fairport foursome of Jim Wood, Jon Roberts, Jeff Wood and Andy Amyot qualified in first place, well ahead of the other teams, with a time 0.1 of a second off the state record set in 1989 by Greece.

On Saturday, the team came back to capture the win and smash the record with an automatic All-American time of 1:35.06. The Wood brothers, Roberts, and Amyot had been focused on setting the state record since winning the event last year and were thrilled with the win and the record.

Jeff Wood, who achieved an automatic All-American time with his sectional victory, was Fairport's lone representative in the 200 freestyle. Wood swam a great race on Friday to qualify for the championship final. In the final on Saturday, Jeff swam strong against the top freestyle swimmers in New York and finished in fourth place to lead all Section 5 swimmers.

Matt McGraw, Jim Wood and Roberts then led a strong contingent of Section 5 swimmers against the rest of the state in the 200 individual medley. Roberts had his best time of the season in the preliminary round leading all qualifiers with a 1:52.78 while Wood also had an excellent swim and qualified for the consolation final. McGraw had a strong performance finishing in 22nd place with a time of 2:03.46. On Saturday, Jim Wood finished in third place in the consolation final good enough for 11th place overall. Roberts finished in 1:52.55, which is a new Section 5 record and automatic All-American time. Roberts' effort, however, was not quite enough to hold off an excellent swimmer from Skaneateles and he finished in second place overall.

Amyot was one of five Section 5 swimmers who advanced through the preliminary round to qualify for Saturday's championship final in the 50 free. On Saturday Amyot sprinted very well in a strong field and finished in sixth place with an All-American consideration time of 21.61.

Earlier Friday morning, Fairport diver Ryan McLaughlin performed 11 strong dives and finished in 15th place with 386.85 points.

The 100 butterfly saw Amyot qualify for his second championship final of the meet. In the final heat, Amyot was in a tight and exciting race with less than two seconds separating second to eighth places. Amyot had a great effort and touched in fifth place with an excellent time of 52.70.

Next up for Fairport was Jeff Wood in the 500 free. Jeff again swam a strong preliminary heat and was able to advance to his second individual final on Saturday. In the final heat Jeff finished the endurance event in a time of 4:43.13, good enough for sixth place overall and a consideration time for All-American.

In probably the surprise performance of the meet for the Raiders, the 200 free relay team snapped the second state record of the day for Fairport. The team of Roberts, Kurt Schwarz, Cyrus Salehi, and Amyot cruised to the second qualifying spot in Friday's preliminaries. On Saturday, with Jeff Wood taking the place of Schwarz, the team took the title and state record finishing in 1:25.80, which is also an automatic All-American time.

The two Fairport relay records accounted for the only state records set in the always highly competitive state meet.

The 100 back has been one of the deepest events for Fairport all season and the Raiders brought three individuals to Buffalo to compete. In the preliminary heats each of the Fairport swimmers performed well with Jim Wood and McGraw both advancing to the consolation round and Jeff Kaemmerlen turning in a fine time of 58.25 to finish in 26th place. On Saturday, McGraw and Wood battled one another to the finish to claim the 13th and 14th spots, respectively.

In the final event of the meet for Fairport, Roberts had his eye on defending his 100 breast championship from last season and making a run at the state record having finished just 0.08 of a second off the standard at the Section 5 championship.

In Friday's preliminary heat Roberts again came close to the state mark with a time of 56.92 to qualify in the top spot for the final heat. In almost an identical performance on Saturday, the sophomore claimed his second consecutive state title in the 100 breast with a fast time of 56.98.

Overall, it was a highly successful state meet for the Red Raiders claiming three state titles while snapping two long-standing state records. When the scores were totaled up the Fairport team was able to celebrate another team title having beaten the team from Pittsford by 33.5 points.

Section 5 dominated the competition with 734.5 points, more than the second, third, and fourth place sections combined.

 

Originally published in the Perinton-Fairport Post

 

    
     

2003