Lady Rams swimmers set 5 personal best records in close home loss to best team in their conference
September 21, 2023 at 12:03 a.m.
The numbers were deceptive. Despite losing seven of their best swimmers to graduation, five Lady Rams swimmers raced to personal best record times in their home Carver Center pool last week in a close loss to Pearl River/Albertus Magnus, the number one-ranked team in the conference.
It was Port Chester's first meet of the new fall season, and their coach said the Lady Rams did themselves proud.
"We did not outscore them, but we had a good thing going—we kept up with them, stayed close and gave them a good competitive meet with five of our swimmers setting personal best records," inspirational head coach Colleen Cahill said after the Wednesday (9/13) meet.
Race against clock
Her ever-improving Lady Rams came out on the wrong end of a 50-36 score against the combined Pearl River/Magnus team.
But it was the way her Lady Rams lost that left Cahill proud of their performance in front of a packed home crowd.
"In swimming, we always race against our personal best times, and as long as those times show steady, good improvement, we are doing something right," she said. "And as long as our balcony was completely packed with friends and family taking every available spot to observe our team's progress, that makes for an even more exciting, competitive meet and reinforces the notion that we have a good thing going with the growth of Lady Rams swimming."
Good, better, best
That good thing going includes the fact that:
*Senior Nicole Ortega-Illesca broke two of her own records in the 100-yard butterfly. “All of a sudden, she gained speed in the last leg of the 100 and is now one of the fastest butterfly swimmers we have ever had," Cahill said. "She also swam her personal record 100-yard freestyle time as part of the 400 freestyle relay. She is looking great this year and I am excited to see how much further she can go. She is looking to swim at a D3 college next year, but nothing is official yet."
Other personal records broken include:
*Junior Morgan Saunders in the 50-yard freestyle
*Junior Sophia Tellez in the 50-yard backstroke leg of the 200-yard relay.
*Sophomore Ariana Orellana in the 200-yard freestyle.
*Sophomore Brenda Cordova in the 100-yard freestyle
In another highlight, senior Melody Sapione, swimming the very strong backstroke leg of the difficult 200-yard individual medley, the team's most difficult event.
Positive result
"The end result was that we had many close finishes and took second place and some third places in almost every event," said Cahill. "This may not sound impressive right off the bat, but compared to past seasons, this is showing an overall team improvement. In the old days, we only would take 3rd and 4th. Now we have homegrown swimmers who are eligible to fill and swim in every event, something that had been a struggle in the past. It is something I am very proud of. I truly feel the combination of our intensive, very early morning pool practice and the double practice sessions of weight room strength and conditioning training with Coach Corey Crane on Tuesdays is paying off."
The early risers
She isn't kidding when she says early morning pool practices because the weekday practices run from 5:45 a.m. to 8 a.m., barely leaving time to shower, change and make it to class on time. That takes a lot of motivation. And is a tribute to how much the Lady Rams have bought into Cahill's dedication to making them the best swimmers they can be.
So Cahill, a former collegiate swimmer at Fordham/Marymount, thinks the best is yet to come. She is looking for more personal bests and quite possibly wins at upcoming away meets against Mount Vernon and Yorktown/Somers Wednesday (9/27) and the following Monday (10/2), respectively, both at 4:30 p.m. Further away tests include a return match against Mount Vernon next Wednesday (10/4) and Brewster Friday (10/6) along with Peekskill (10/11) and Harrison (10/13), all at 4:30 p.m., before the Rams return home Oct. 16 for a match against Woodlands, also at 4:30 p.m. That's a lot of time for the Rams to see whether the pool will be half empty or half full when it comes to a win/loss record and more personal best records.
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