Fairport Swimmers and Divers Place Second at Sectionals
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Fairport Swimmers and Divers Place Second at Sectionals |
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Jeff Wood leads 5 swimmers who qualify for NY State meet By John Kaemmerlen February 21, 2005 - Coaches Mike Kennedy, Dave Salmon, Mike Fortner, and Steve Hawkins-Rusch led the Fairport High School team to the Class A Sectional meet at the Webster Aquatic Center, hoping to improve on last year's 3rd place finish. Preliminaries were held on Feb 18, and the top 16 in each event swam again in finals on Feb. 20. The finals session opened with Fairport senior and co-captain Jeff Wood being recognized for the area's top swimming honor, Monroe County Swimmer of the Year. The Red Raiders were seeded 3rd in the 200 yard medley relay, but in finals the foursome of Wood, Jake Fisher, Hans Feng, and Jeff Kaemmerlen swam a fast 1:38.30, earning the win by 0.45 seconds. Wood came right back in the 200 freestyle, edging Pittsford's Brian Possee in the marquee event of the meet in a very fast 1:41.15, an automatic All-American time. Fairport also showed depth in this event with Aram Salehi finishing 9th in 1:52.90, Jerry Woytash 10th in 1:54.08, and co-captain Tim Jacobs 11th in 1:55.99, adding lots of points to the Fairport total. Fisher placed 4th in the 200 yard individual medley in 2:03.24, earning a trip to the New York State Championship meet. Chris Razavi placed 10th in 2:10.49. Kaemmerlen, also a co-captain, placed 2nd in the 50 free in a quick 21.98 seconds, earning a trip to States. Jim Beaudry was 9th in 23.05, Dylan Scheemaker placed 15th in 24.48, and George Wasickanin swam a time of 25.25. In the diving competition held previously, Eric Hallimen placed 2nd and Pat Dineen was 6th, adding needed points to the Fairport column. Feng added himself to the Fairport State team in an individual event by placing 6th in the 100 yard butterfly in 55.34 seconds. Scheemaker placed 14th in 1:01.63, Peter Koenig was 18th in 1:02.92, and John Steffen swam a best time by 7 seconds in 1:04.19. Kaemmerlen qualified 1st in the 100 free in 48.27 seconds, a top 10 state time this year. In the finals, he finished 5th in 49.08 seconds. Beaudry earned his 2nd #9 spot in 50.35 seconds, followed by Wasickanin in 54.74 in 15th and Nate Morales in 57.11. In the 500 yard freestyle, Woytash was 4th in 5:03.44, Salehi 6th in 5:12.33, Jacobs 12th in 5:23.50, and Harrington 18th in 5:44.25. The Red Raider quartet of Beaudry, Scheemaker, Salehi, and Fisher placed 5th in the 200 free relay in 1:35.41. Wood displayed his dominance in Section V with a six second victory in the 100 yard backstroke in a blazing 50.46 seconds. This time was a new school, Section V, and Class A record, and an automatic All-American time. Koenig added Fairport points with an 8th place finish in 1:02.09. Fairport's talent showed again with 3 swimmers in the 100 breaststroke finals. Fisher placed 2nd in 1:00.95, and Feng placed 3rd in 1:01.67, both times qualifying them for States. Razavi placed 6th in 1:04.97, and Harrington swam a 1:14.78 time. In the meet's final event, the Red Raider foursome of Kaemmerlen, Beaudry, Wood, and Feng finished 3rd in the 400 yard freestyle relay in a fast 3:17.55 seconds. This cemented their # 2 finish with 373 points, 40 more than Penfield who edged them for the # 2 spot last year. Fourteen of Fairport's 16 athletes scored points in this meet. At the close of the meet, Fairport Coach Mike Kennedy was honored as the Section V Class A Coach of the Year. He commented on his team: "These student athletes made tremendous progress from November to February, and it showed in many outstanding swims at this meet. They jelled as a team, helped by great leadership from our four seniors. The only thing we lacked in competing for the top spot was numbers, in that we were a small team of 16 swimmers and divers. We have demonstrated for many years that we can bring athletes into this program and help them develop excellence in the sport of swimming and a love for the sport. If we can interest new athletes and get our numbers back up, we can get back to our top position in Section V." Wood, Kaemmerlen, Fisher, Feng, and Beaudry will be competing for Fairport at the State High School Championship meet March 4 and 5.
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