By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
The Whitewater High School girls swimming team competed in two meets this past week and the first was against Delavan-Darien on Sept. 8. Whippets head coach Gina Foucault talked about the team’s 125-43 victory.
“The Whippets had an outstanding meet last night,” Foucault said. “Starting the night off perfectly was Meghan Kehoe singing the National Anthem. Adding to a great night were several new swimmers swimming in their first races as Whippets and they did an outstanding job including Maddie Elworthy, Ellie Treder, Grace Raupp, Bianca Sanchez, Laysha Puga and Mikael Schmitt.”
In nine different races, the Whippets’ varsity team earned first-place finishes. Ireland Marinaro was just one of many athletes to record a lifetime-best time and hers came in the 200-meter freestyle.
The team then competed in the Elkhorn Invite on Sept. 10 in a 12-team field. Of those 12 teams, Whitewater finished in eighth.
Because of the higher number of participants, the top-16 in each race earned points for the team. In 13 different races, the Whippets earned points. Of those 13, eight were top-10 finishes and Grace Fanshaw recorded the only two fourth-place finishes.
Fanshaw earned fourth in both the 200 individual medley and in the 400-meter freestyle. Foucault talked about some of the other performances, but couldn’t mention every single race and athlete that stood out.
“Swimming some strong relay splits for the Whippets were Sierra Minton in the 50-meter freestyle with a 31.76 and Morgan Radaj with a 30.56,” she said. “Lizbeth Rodriguez had an outstanding 100-meter breaststroke race as did Brianna Zimdars in the 100-meter butterfly finishing just out of the medals in ninth-place.”
Next up for the Whippets is a meet against Elkhorn on Sept. 20 at Elkhorn Area High School.
