Greeley Swim Team Wins the Sectional Title Once Again

By Monica D’Ippolito
One by one, each member of the Horace Greeley girls swim team took a celebratory dive into the pool, a tradition that has fast become routine for the Quakers, who took home a third consecutive Section 1 title Wednesday night at Felix Festa Middle School.
“It says that these girls are committed to the sport of swimming as a whole, it says that they trust each other, it says that they work hard,” Greeley coach Suzanne Guziec said shortly after the last event of the evening. “We’re fortunate that we have a group of girls who have that same value and that same mindset and, as a result, it has paid off for the last several years.”
The Quakers handily captured the Section 1 crown once again, totaling 363 points, while Fox Lane took second with 266 points, followed by Clarkstown with 239 points. The combo team of Briarcliff-Pleasantville-Westlake-Valhalla finished in 14th place with 44 points, while Byram Hills tied for 16th with 35.
“I’m just so proud of the girls,” Guziec said. “You know in this section it’s so competitive and the girls all around put up good swims and pushed themselves. So it’s nice to see that their training and their hard work just really paid off.”
Greeley started off the night with Emma Hadley, Olivia Lyman, Erica Silverman and Isabella Weiner swimming to a first-place finish in the 200 yard medley relay with a time of 1:48.58. The Quakers also touched second in the 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays with times of 1:38.99 and 3:34.45, respectively.
“These girls know it’s not easy,” added Guziec. “It’s never something that they take for granted. I guarantee they know it’s going to be work, and for a lot of them their teammates from their club programs are going to push them because when you’re swimming for your school it’s a different mindset.”
Kasia Malendowicz, who was a part of the Quakers’ 200 and 400 yard freestyle relay teams, placed third in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:52.46, but also took first in the 500 yard freestyle with an All-American consideration time of 4:55.01.
“I felt really good halfway through and then I started getting a little tired, but I knew I just had to just keep pushing, keeping my pace and I’m very happy with the way it turned out,” Malendowicz said after her first-place finish. “I think I’m doing really well for the beginning of the season, so hopefully I can keep it up.”
Teammate Hadley, after being a part of the winning 200 yard medley relay team, placed first in the 100 yard backstroke, coming in at 55.57 – an All-American Automatic finish and meet record.
“I had it in my mind going into this meet that I knew how close I was previously, so it was goal of mine,” Hadley said of her record time. “I definitely wanted to go faster and I was hoping on going faster because I wasn’t really happy with my prelim swim. I mean, I was happy with it, but I was planning on going faster.”
Overall, the Quakers had top finishes in virtually every event. Silverman and Weiner placed second and third in the 200 yard IM with times of 2:06.70 and 2:09.86, respectively, while Silverman also touched second in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 57.22.
“Now that’s tough,” said Guziec when asked which event she was the most impressed with. “You know it’s tough when you have a relay that’s gone first place, you got a girl who made All-American considerations, you got a top-three relay in every event… So I don’t think I can pick just one because the talent pool is just so good. Each girl trains so hard and so many of them set PR’s (personal records) between today and Monday that you have to be proud of them for just doing that.”

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Foxes Get a Lift From a Relay Team to Finish Second
Through five events in the Section 1 finals, Fox Lane was in third place, trailing host Clarkstown in the battle to finish runner-up to overwhelming favorite Greeley. The Foxes hadn’t performed particularly well during Monday’s preliminary swim 48 hours earlier and it seemed they would need some kind of big lift if they were going to finish second.
The 200 yard freestyle relay just may have provided that lift.
“The two free relay, the happiest, the most impressed with,” Foxes coach Carolyn Johnson said, looking back on an event in which her swimmers finished third. “They really dug down. They were fifth, they had a very bad prelim swim and they just put it all together and ended up third, got on the podium, and that’s what I think we needed to really solidify second place today.”
Fox Lane finished second overall and had top-three finishes in half of the events, while junior Christina Crowell finished first in diving, accumulating 487.20 points.
“They knew the jobs they had to do,” Johnson said. “Especially in the relays, they knew if they were seeded fifth, they had to get third and they did. If one swimmer was down, not doing well, they knew they had to pick it up and that is what I find to be the absolute best with the Fox Lane girls. They know when to pick it up.”
The Foxes’ Jamie Lee touched third in the 100 yard butterfly and then second in the 100 yard backstroke – behind only Greeley’s Hadley, who earned an All-American Automatic time. Lee, just after swimming in her team’s third-place finish in the 200 yard freestyle relay, wound up with a time of 57.21 in the butterfly.
“I think it’s pretty good,” said Lee. “I’ve been working really hard and I think it looks pretty good going into states. So I’m excited about that. I’m actually really happy with my relays. I think my first medley relay was probably my best. I felt really good on that, and I mean I’ve done OK on the rest of them, but they’re all pretty good all around.”
The 200 yard medley relay team of Maureen O’Sullivan, Lee, Margaret Kleinsmith and Maria Abrams placed third with a time of 1:48.91 and, despite being seeded eighth during the preliminary swim, Abrams earned a second-place finish in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 24.79.
“We’re actually doing really well,” added Lee, just a sophomore. “It was a great season and we had so much young talent, and it was really impressive to see that. I’m used to being the little one and now these young girls are doing so well. It’s awesome and I think we have a really good future.”
-Monica D’Ippolito

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