Lady Ram swimmers beat Mount Vernon 78-61
October 5, 2023 at 1:35 a.m.
The surprising Lady Rams swim team may be all wet, but it's in a good way because they keep right on improving as evidenced by their 78-61 away win over Mount Vernon last Wednesday (9/27).
In winning their first meet of the fall season, the Rams won eight of the 11 events and one of the races they lost was by a fraction of a second in a photo finish in the most exciting race of the meet.
Order of finish
What made it so exciting was the final order of finish because Port Chester wound up coming in second, third and fourth, the Rams’ second place finisher losing out by a touch while her three/four finishing teammates both set personal records in the 200-yard freestyle.
About that touch: When a race is too close to call, it comes down to what the touch pads say.
And what, you may well ask, is a touch pad.
Glad you asked.
Measuring touch
Touch pads are part of a physical electronic timing device Mount Vernon has in their pool that measures the exact moment someone touches the wall at the finish line. That exactness was very much needed because the human eye couldn't tell who finished first, Mount Vernon's Elle DeGrandpre or Port Chester's Jaina Gonzalez. But the touch pads could, registering DeGrandpre's time at 3:05.14 while Gonzalez was clocked in at 3:05.59 with Ashley Zapata and Arianna Orellana right on her heels, each breaking their own personal record.
And the meet got off on the right foot from the very first event when the Rams took first and second in the 200-yard medley relay with the Rams’ winning team consisting of Gonzalez (back stroke), Chenoa Marquez (breast stroke), Nicole Ortega (butterfly) and Morgan Saunders (freestyle).
Off and swimming
And the Rams were off and swimming.
How did they win? Let us count the ways, one by one, won by won.
Marquez came back to win the 200-yard individual medley with Melody Sapione finishing third.
Melody Sapione and Mariangel Osorio are facing the camera as the Port Chester Lady Rams swim team celebrates their win over Mount Vernon on Wednesday, Sept. 27.Courtesy of Colleen Cahill
Estefana Bautista won the 50-yard freestyle, Ortega won the 100-yard free, Marquez did it again, taking first in the 500-yard free.
Then Saunders, Bautista, Ortega and Kimberly Rivera teamed up to win the 200-yard freestyle relay, Gonzalez won the 100-yard backstroke and Ortega, Marquez, Rivera and Saunders came back for a final encore by winning the 400-yard relay to close out the meet.
Practice pays
It was the kind of overall team performance that makes all the early morning pre-school practices worthwhile—and that is saying a lot because the Lady Rams swim team works out between 5:45 and 8 a.m. daily at their Carver Center home pool with their head coach Colleen Cahill and assistant coach Anton Raskin with one non-meet day a week set aside for an additional workout in the high school weight room.
And now the fall season pace picks up as the team comes into the home stretch with away meets Friday (10/6) at Brewster, next Wednesday (10/11) at Peekskill, Friday (10/13) versus Harrison and an upcoming Monday (10/16) at Woodlands, all at 4:30 p.m. And it is all leading up to Homecoming Senior Night Oct. 18 against Brewster. Way off in the distance on Oct. 21, a Saturday, loom the Conference Championships at the Peekskill Middle School. Last year, the Rams medaled in the championships for the first time. And they'd like to do it again this time around.
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