Young Guns Lead Charge for Seventh Straight Title

With one day left in this year’s Westchester County Swimming Championships, and with hopes of a seventh-straight overall team title on the line, the team from Lake Isle has their work cut out for them – but don’t count them out just yet.

Trailing the team from Greenburgh by 31 points in the combined team score and with 14 scoring events left to be contested in Thursday’s final session of the championship meet, Head Coach Kevin Lavelle knows all too well the challenge – and opportunities – that lay ahead.

“Thirty points is a significant deficit, especially when the team you are chasing is as talented as Greenbugh is, but we will come in [today] motivated and ready to swim fast,” Lavelle said. “Our boys team is currently in first, and we haven’t won the boys title since 2008, so that is definitely something we are shooting for. But we are hoping we can get some fast swims Thursday and make a run at the team title.”

Competing in wet and rainy conditions at the Playland pool on Wednesday, Lake Isle benefited from yet another stellar day by its 10 & Under boys swimmers, who racked up crucial points towards both the boys and overall team scores and took home three County titles.

Leading the way once again was 9-year-old Nick Torres, who solidified himself as a legitimate High Points candidate, winning individual titles in the 10 & Under boys 50 Yard Breaststroke and the 10 & Under boys 50 Yard Backstroke. Torres’ winning time of 34.05 in the 50 Yard Backstroke was over two seconds ahead of the second place finisher.

He would later combine with teammates Aidan Bowers, Luca Quinones and Ryan Maierle to take home the 10 & Under 200 Yard Freestyle Relay in a time of 2 minutes and 12.47 seconds, five seconds ahead of second place Scarsdale, securing the quartet’s second relay win at Counties in as many days. Bowers also joined Torres in the finals of the 50 Yard Backstroke, placing third and contributing to a strong team effort that saw Lake Isle take a healthy 20 points lead over second place Scarsdale in the boys competition at the end of Wednesday’s session.

“I’m always happy to have my teammates swimming with me in finals,” Torres said. “In the breaststroke I was kind of nervous because I was the only Lake Isle 10 & Under doing it, so it feels good when my friends are there. I’m just going one event at a time, so that I focus more on each one instead of going crazy thinking of them all at once.”

Also turning in a strong performance for Lake Isle on the boys side Wednesday was 15-year-old Declan Kennon, who placed fifth in the 17 & Under boys 100 Yard Freestyle after coming into the finals as the eighth and last qualifier. Kennon also swam on Lake Isle’s 17 & Under boys 200 Yard Medley along with Rory Kennnon, Brian Martinez and Sora Shiraishi, who placed fifth in a time of 1 minute and 52.24 seconds. Kennon revealed that the performances turned in by Lake Isle’s younger swimmers have been an important motivating factor for the entire team this week, and has brought out the best each team member has to offer.

“They’re carrying our team right now, and making us all better with their performances,” Kennon said. “We all want to step it up because we’re a competitive team, even within ourselves. We have a long tradition of winning on this team, and we want to take this last one.”

On the girls side, Lake Isle’s Georgia Lazaroni continued her strong week at the County Championships, placing fifth in the 12 & Under girls 50 Yard Breaststroke in a time of 35.73 seconds and sixth in the 12 & Under girls 50 Yard Backstroke in a time of 32.25 seconds. Other local scorers on Wednesday included Siwanoy’s Tim Buttigieg, who placed in his second event of the week, finishing sixth in the 14 & Under boys 100 Yard Butterfly.

The final day of the 2011 Westchester County Championsips will kick off later this afternoon at 4 p.m. Today will most likely be the last time swimmers compete at Counties at the Playland pool. The meet schedule and results can be found here.