The Branford girls swim team met their old Class M rivals, the Wethersfield Eagles, in a dual meet on Thursday at the John O’Connor pool at Walsh Intermediate School. Despite winning the last eight times they swam against each other, the Lady Hornets lost 98 – 86.
Winning for Branford was Paige MacNeil, who won the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 2:03.66 — that’s less than 1 second ahead of Alyssa DiFiore of Wethersfield.
Branford’s Erika Maercklein (pictured) followed with a win in the 200 Yard IM almost 4 seconds ahead of the Eagles Maura Stewart.
In the relays, the 200 yard freestyle team, consisting of Maercklein, MacNeil, Gabija Karosas (pictured) and Caitlin Daley, eked out a close win 1:45:13 to 1:45:98. The 400 yard freestyle relay, with Isabel Albinger, Karosas, Julia Dietz and MacNeil, defeated the Eagles by over 31 seconds, 4:00.20 to 4:32.05.
Additional individual winners were Julia Dietz, the senior captain, who won the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:03.06; and Maercklein, a junior, who won the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:11:04.
The crowd was into the action.
After the meet, Coach Scott Butler said, “Going into the coming week we will be looking for revenge for the two losses we had this week. We are certainly ready to rebound back into the win column again as we will be swimming our strongest line-up of the season.”
It won’t be easy for the Lady Hornets as they are swimming against new SCC member Lauralton Hall, a top 5 ranked team.
For encouragement all they need do is look to the wall.
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