Pittsofrd’s Emma Corby en route to her 100 Butterfly win.
Pittsford’s Emma Corby (right) gets a hug from competitor and close friend, Victor’s Natalie Zaravella after Corby’s win in the 100 Butterfly during the Section V Class A Swimming finals. Corby’s time was 56.10.
Pittsford’s Katie Smith shares a hug with Emma Corby after winning the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay.
There are a few things that happen every year during the early part of November in western New York. The leaves fall off the trees, apples go out of season and Pittsford wins swimming sectionals.
Friday was the annual tradition of the Pittsford girls team taking the Class A title at Webster Aquatic Center, the 14th year in a row the Panthers have won.
There was one event in particular that showed their dominance and that was the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Becca Evans, Emma Corby, Lindsay Stone and Katie Smith beat their own state record from a year ago with a 1:34.22, over half a second better than than their 1:34.73 from 2014.
All four of those swimmers also won individual events.
Pittsford head coach Marty Keating said despite all the success, winning sectionals never gets old.
“The kids keep it fresh, they just keep coming and coming,” said Keating. “We’re actually a young team. As long as we keep them working and hoping they don’t mess around with those cross-eyed boys, we’ll be alright.”
Pittsford’s Emma Corby off the blocks ti win the 100 Butterfly.
For Smith, this year has had its struggles. Smith had her workload increased getting ready for Olympic trials in 2016 in Omaha, Nebraska and fatigue may have started to set in.
“I’ve been working all offseason and it gets tiring after long practices, then meets and morning practices on top of that,” Smith said. “I kept working and all my training is starting to pay off. Hopefully with some rest at states, I’ll do better.”
Smith fought through whatever fatigue she may have had at won the 50 in 22.78, setting a new state record she held already held. She is the first swimmer in the state’s history to go under 23 seconds.
She also took first in the 100 freestyle with automatic qualifying time.
Pittsford’s Katie Smith after winning the 50 yard Freestyle.
“It was hard for her to accept the fact she should be going faster,” said Keating. “I tried to tell her she hasn’t had to really fire it up yet and when she made the states she went, ‘Whoa, I guess I am ready’”.
Stone was the other Pittsford double winner in the 200 and 500 freestyles.
Stone and Smith are close friends away from the pool but are different in it. Smith didn’t get started with swimming until eighth grade while Stone has been swimming since a young age.
“Lindsay has always been into swimming, even though she won her first state title as a freshman, she was a veteran,” said Keating. “She knows who the competition is, what they do, where they live and how many times they brush their teeth a day. She really knows them.”
The Pittsford party crasher on Friday was Natalie Zaravella of Victor, who won the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke, and also was on the winning 200 medley relay team.
She helped Victor to second place in the meet.
Zaravella showed her breaststroke muscles in the 200 IM, Trailing by nearly three seconds to Evans as they entered the third leg, Zaravella not only dug into the lead, she took it with a split of 36.44 to Evans’ 39.81. Zaravella continued to pull away in the freestyle leg.
Zaravella trailed her teammate Mia Baggett by a nose for most of the 100 breaststroke, but was able to pull out the victory in the final 25 yards.
Grace Chen of Fairport was the only winner from another school in the 100 backstroke with a 57.48.
Section V Class A Championships
Teams: 1. Pittsford 607, 2. Victor 279, 3. Penfield 247, 4. Fairport 226, 5. Rush-Henrietta 205, 6. Webster 195, 7. Hilton 156, 8. Greece 137, 9. Churchville-Chili 78, 10, Gates Chili.
200 medley relay: 1. Victor (Abby Fenn, Mia Baggett, Natalie Zaravella, Caroline Wood) 1:47.89*, 2. Pittsford (Stephie Riley, Sarah Minnigh, Emma Corby, Sara Smith) 1:48.80*, 3. Penfield (Charlotte Jarvis, Nina Catalfo, Serafinia Viola, Toni Naccarella) 1:49.16*; 200 freestyle: 1.Lindsay Stone (P) 1:51.04*, 2. Bailey Klafehn (H) 26.48*3. Molly Brennan (P) 1:55.19; 200 IM: 1. Zaravella (V) 2:06.56*, 2. Becca Evans (P) 2:09.04*, 3. Sarah Minnigh (P) 2:13.19; 50 freestyle: 1. Katie Smith (P) 22.78^, 2. Serafina Viola (Pen) 23.87*, 3. Toni Naccarella (Pen) 24.06*; 100 butterfly: 1. Corby (P) 56.10*, 2. Anna Eggert (W) 58.70*, 3. Megan Deuel (P) 59.08*; 100 freestyle: 1. Smith (P) 50.91**, 2. Naccarella (Pen) 52.43C*, 3. Katie Burns (R-H) 52.50*; 500 freestyle: 1. Stone (P) 4:53.04**, 2. Brennan (P) 5:07.50C*, 3. Knickerbock (P) 5:07.70*; 200 freestyle relay: 1. Pittsford (Evans, Corby, Stone, Smith) 1:34.22^, 2. Rush-Henrietta (Lucia Berkhof, Alicia Shenal, Sarah Sinclair, Burns) 1:38.67*, 3. Webster (Mia Klasner, Allison Broccolo, Lauren Nicastro, Melissa Carroll) 1:40.22*; 100 backstroke: 1. Chen (F) 57.48)*, 2. Riley (P) 58.33*, 3. Bianca Lopez (P) 58.89*; 100 breaststroke: Zaravella (V) 1:06.79*, 2. Baggett (V) 1:07.09*, 3. Catalfo (Pen) 1:08.53*; 400 freestyle relay: 1. Pittsford (Stone, Corby, Evans, Smith) 3:27.89C**, 2. Rush-Henrietta (Berkhof, Shenal, Maddie Kirch, Burns) 3:37.37*, 3. Penfield (Jarvis, Viola, Catalfo, Naccarella) 3:37.41*.
*NYS qualifying time; **Automatic All-American; ^State record