Fairport Swimmers And Divers Find Success At States

by Becky Bersani

On November 18th and 19th, nine girls from the swimming and diving team competed and finished second at the state competition. The meet was held
at Erie Community College in Buffalo.

This year’s state team consisted of six swimmers and three divers. The swimmers were Erin McGraw (junior), Lauren Default (junior), Emily Gardner (sophomore), Devina Tyagi (sophomore), Andrea Hageman (sophomore), and Jenna Wood
(freshman). The divers were Gretchen Schroeder (senior), Becky Bersani (senior), and Jenny Chiang (freshman).

On Friday, the girls competed in the preliminary events. Fairport had girls in ten of the twelve events. In the morning, the three divers performed the first eight of their eleven dives. All three finished in the top sixteen and made it to the finals the following day. In the afternoon, the swimmers took the pool by storm, swimming in
the 200 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 100 fly, 100 backstroke, 100 free, 100 breast, 200 free relay, and 400 free relay. McGraw, Dufault, Tyagi, and Wood made it to finals the
next day.

On Saturday, Fairport rocked the finals. They kicked off the meet with a first place finish in the 200 freestyle, won by McGraw. Next, the divers tore up their event with
Chiang finishing 3rd, Bersani 8th, and Schroeder 11th. After diving, Dufault came in 8th in the 100 free. In McGraw’s 100 fly, she finished second, but placed first in the public awards. Then came the 200 free relay. For the second year in a row, Fairport
took first place with a time of 1:37.85. In the 100 breaststroke, Wood finished 6th
in the public awards. Fairport struck gold again in the 400 free relay with another win. Their time was an astonishing 3:33.69. As a team, Fairport finished in second place behind Ithaca.

This was an amazing year for Fairport’s swimming and diving team. Congratulations on your victories!

Originally published in the Lampion.

2005