BRATTLEBORO — The New Hampshire Swim Association (NHSA) State Championships were held last weekend and several members of the Brattleboro Swim Team (BST) turned in impressive performances as part of The Keene Family YMCA Dolphins Swim Team.
The Keene Family YMCA Dolphins Swim Team placed fourth in the state championships overall with 1,405.50 team points. Executive Swim Club won the state championships with 4,438 team points. Upper Valley Aquatic Club placed second with 2,969 and Rockingham Area Youth Swimming placed third with 2,431 team points.
“Forty-nine-point 39 percent of all of the times that were swum in all of those events were personal bests,” said coach Pedr Seymour. “That’s huge. That’s a big deal. Half of the events, half of the swims were personal records. Each swimmer, most of them swam four individual events and about half of them swam two relays. So, that was pretty cool.”
Several members of the Brattleboro Swim Team were competing in the Girls 11-12 division. Brattleboro’s Natalie Macaluso turned in several great individual performances. Macaluso finished in third place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:03.66. In the 50-yard freestyle, she placed fifth with a time of 29.63. Macaluso wasn’t done though. In the 50-yard backstroke she placed third with a time of 34.36.
In the 50-yard breaststroke, the day belonged to Brattleboro’s Hazel Rupard who finished first with a time of 38.97. Teammates Zessi Kurz finished fourth (42.82) in the category and Brattleboro’s Tenley Rea finished in fifth (43.10).
In the 50-yard fly, the Dolphins Norah Corindia finished in third place with a time of 32:52. Rupard finished in 11th (37.40) and BST’s Sophie Paluch finished in 21st (42.54).
Two other members of the Keene Family YMCA Dolphins Swim Team who also swim for BST also had good showings in the 100-yard freestyle. Tenley Rea finished in eighth place with a time of 1:12.52 and Sophie Paluch (BST) finished 23rd (1:23.31) in the event.
In the Girls 9-12 200 yard free relay, the team of Macaluso, Rupard, Harper Murray and Corindia finished took third place. The relay team of Sophie Tarnowski, Emma Hoke, Rea and Sawyer Condap finished in ninth place.
In the Girls 13-14 division, Brattleboro’s Root Rosenberg had a 10th place finish in the 100-yard fly with a time of 1:37.04. Rosenberg also took 33rd in the 100-yard freestyle (1:24.09) and 35th in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 35.89.
In the 100-yard breaststroke, Rea finished in 15 place with a time of 1:34.49.
In addition to the strong performances at some of the larger meets, Seymour said the program as a whole is growing.
“The single most encouraging thing is that we have an even distribution of kids in each age group and that’s a great sign of growth,” Seymour said. “Right now, we have a really great distribution of kids in all those age groups. We also have this great developmental coach Megan Alberta. She does an incredible job with seven-, eight-, and nine-year-old kids and getting them ready to the more challenging practice groups. As the head coach I get all excited when we have these super competitive swimmers who are swimming at the highest levels.”
In the Girls 8 & Under division, Brattleboro’s Julia Paluch placed 25th in the 25-yard freestyle with a time of 27.76. In the 25-yard backstroke, she placed 12th (27.33), and in the 25-yard breaststroke she finished 16th (41.65.)
In the Girls 9-10 division, Brattleboro’s Solen Rosenberg placed 18th in the 100-yard individual medley (1:55.97) and 25th in the 50-yard freestyle (44.00).
In the Girls 10 & U category, the relay team of Nora Battaglia, Abby Mitchell, Solen Rosenberg and Brooklyn Pymm placed eighth in the 200 yard free relay.
In the Boys 11-12 division, Brattleboro’s Owen Houghton placed 8th in the 50-yard fly (39.91), 12th in the 50-yard backstroke (41.08) and 15th in the 50-yard freestyle (33.53).
