Woodland swimmers wrap up season at states

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BEACON FALLS — Woodland’s Sydney Corneau and Chrissy Leeper were named to the All-Naugatuck Valley League girls swim team to wrap up the final week of competition for the Hawks.

Corneau and Leeper, both senior captains, just missed lifetime-best times last Tuesday at the Class S state finals. Woodland finished 13th overall with 159.5 points in the state meet won by Lauralton Hall with 801.

A week after setting the school record in the 100-yard butterfly, Leeper took sixth overall in the states with a finish of 1 minute, 3.17 seconds for her best finish of the day. Her record time last week was 1:03.02.

Corneau’s top result came in the 50 free with a time of 26.69 seconds.

“They were our leaders in and out of the pool,” Woodland coach Mike Magas said of Corneau and Leeper. “They were our top point-producers and they were our catalysts for success throughout the season.”

The states also marked the final meet for senior swimmers Rachel Gerard, Rebecca Grabowski, Sarah Parker, Whitney Stow, Emily Trumbley and co-captain Jesse Erickson.

“We’re going to miss all the seniors because each one of them were important not only in the pool, but out of it,” Magas added. “They helped our younger swimmers learn what it takes to swim at this level.”

Leeper, Parker, Corneau and Trumbley finished 10th overall in the state’s medley relay event in a season-best time of 2:06.79.

While senior divers Kim Thrasher and Liz Martin did not qualify for the state finals, they were key performers during the season. Both attained lifetime-best point totals during the season.

“If it wasn’t for Kim and Liz getting us points, we would have lost some of those meets that were close,” Magas said.

Another relay showed the promise of next season.

Junior Brianna Christiano joined sophomores Emma Sardinskas and Sara Fowler, along with freshman Chloe Ariola, in the 400 free relay. The foursome combined to produce a season-best time in the states and mark the progress that was made during the year with a time of 4:22.90.

“With all the missed days of practice due to the storm we didn’t know what to expect down the stretch,” Magas said. “But we had a very positive season and we have talent coming back.”Reply to: