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WEST NYACK – At the Felix Festa Pool of the annual Section 1 Swimming Championships, a sign with a drawing and warning is placed on a wall across the pool.
“Caution. Slippery bridge,” the depiction goes, and the depiction seems to squander balance.
The sign was posted, but not for Serene Jourdy, a freshman at Horace Greeley, who has enjoyed what can happen on rainy pool floors.
Jourdy, at last July’s Festa to cheer on his Westchester Aquatics teammates, was not yet on the bridge in a nearby locker room when he slipped and fell.
His elbow now has a long red surgical scar.
The break was so severe that a steel plate and screws had to be inserted.
It’s that those things can slow your way through the airport’s steel security detector gates.
But they don’t stop her in the pool.
At Thursday’s Section 1 swim championships, Jourdy, who swam in her first season for Greeley, posted a personal best time of 55. 74 seconds to win the 100-yard butterfly. That secured him a spot on the Section 1 team that will compete. at the state championships Nov. 17-18 at Webster Schroeder High School outside of Rochester.
“I think I felt very motivated,” said Jourdy, who has competed in the club point for 8 years and considers the 100 butterfly to be his favorite among the occasions when he swims.
Their goal on Thursday was to win and that may not be updated in the United States.
“I just need to do the same thing I did here and have fun,” said Jourdy, one of seven state-qualified swimmers in the 100 butterfly, the three most level-headed by Pelham’s Maddie Horner (958. 04) and Eastchester’s Ally Pfeiffer (59. 06).
With 27 to score, Pfeiffer’s Eastchester team, coached by Maddie Hartigan and Kymani Senior, repeated their tag team championship title.
Eastchester scored 228 points. Clarkstown, which ranked second, finished with 207. Third place went to Horace Greeley (194), fourth to Fox Lane (179) and the combined Sleepy Hollow/Hastings/Edgemont/Irvington team rounded out the top five with 157.
Explaining the finish, Senior, who took part in a post-win dive with swimmers Hartigan and Eagle, said: “I think creating a smart environment allows them to swim fast. They share great strength and are friends.
The medal contenders in Eastchester, USA, will come with Luci Gutierrez, who won the 200 freestyle in 1:48. 19 and also won the 500 freestyle in 4:54. 66.
Not only was her 200-meter freestyle a personal best, but it was also fast enough for Gutierrez to automatically become an All-American, as was runner-up Isabella Budnik of Clarkstown in 1:48. 7.
With six swimmers qualified for the states in this event, third place went to SHEDI’s Lauren Lee (1:49. 38).
Gutierrez, a Westchester Aquatics swimmer who has been competing for the Eagles for more than four years, has traveled to the United States several times. His best result was a tie for sixth place in the two hundred freestyle.
“I’m going to go out first (this year),” he said, explaining that he will “just keep running hard” to get out there and get there.
“The people around me paint very intensely. They push me to be better,” Gutierrez added.
Gutierrez, one of six swimmers qualified for the states in the 500m freestyle.
Second place went to Clarkstown’s Budnik (4:59. 94) and third to John Jay-Cross River/North Salem’s Jessie Crane (5:02. 88).
Gutierrez joined teammates Lauren Maierle, Sofia Torres and Kait Sweeney to win the 200-yard freestyle relay.
They clocked a time of 1:36. 32.
Five groups from Section 1 qualified to compete in the two hundred loose relays.
Second in 1:38. 9 SHEDI (Connie Coulthard, Caitlin Sims, Abby Bartolacci and Lee).
Third place went to Kara Ha, Nicole Euyoque, Grace Hricay and Saskia Aikman of White Plains (1:39. 91).
It was the search for greater camaraderie that contributed to Cornelia Fox’s return to Nyack last year.
Fox, who swam for the RedHawks in seventh and eighth grade, spent the next two years swimming for a Catholic school in New Jersey.
But swimming wasn’t the same. Fox, who also swims for the Congers Swim Club, missed being with his former teammates and also with his friends from the Clarkstown team.
A “group of friends,” he calls them all, noting that he also misses seeing the Westchester kids.
And that’s how he got back to Nyack as a junior.
And Nyack still couldn’t be too happy.
Fox, who will swim for the University of Southern California next year, won the 100-freestyle state championship last year.
On Thursday, he said he could add to his state medal tally.
Fox swam a Section 1 record of 2:00. 76 to win the 200 individual medley.
Her era automatically made her 100 percent American.
Section 1 will send swimmers to the states to compete in the 200-meter individual individual medley.
Eastchester’s Maierle (2:08) and Clarkstown’s Lauren Arciniegas (2:09. 74) placed second and third on Thursday.
Fox also finished second in SHEDI’s 50. 8 Lee (50. 76) in the 100 freestyle. Maierle (52. 09) was third out of 4 state qualifiers in the event.
Lee, who swims out of Larchmont for the Badger Swim Club and will swim next year for Boston College, is saving his appearances for the United States. He qualified and swam in the U. S. He will be in the U. S. in eighth grade and this will be his second state competition.
Lee, whose time was his personal best, recalled being supported by the seniors of the Section 1 team on his first trip to the U. S. He said he intends to “follow tradition” and take on that role with younger teammates this time around.
Fox Lane’s Annabel Smith will also have her moment in the U. S. U. S.
The junior clocked a personal time of 1:03. 91 to easily win the two hundred breaststroke.
Five swimmers from the states in the event.
Greeley’s Finley White (1:06. 83) second and Harrison’s Sophia Bondikov (1:07. 32) third.
Smith, a member of Mount Kisco’s Marlins Marlins Boys and Girls Club swim team, was one of many swimmers who set private bests in Wednesday’s preliminaries and then swam faster in Thursday’s final.
He said his technique for keeping his moves “long but powerful” from the start, and then “the last 50, giving it everything he had. “
After being in the U. S. once, she said she hopes to feel more comfortable this time.
White Plains’ Aikman led 3 state qualifiers in the 50-yard freestyle.
She finished in 24. 16 with Lani Bao of Tappan Zee (24. 24) and Davia Richardson of the Ursulines (24. 74) in third place.
In addition to the 200 individual medley, Clarkstown’s Arciniegas will compete at USA in the 100 yard backstroke, one of seven Section 1 swimmers to do so.
He won Thursday’s championship in 57. 19 with Bao de Tappan Zee (57. 45) and Jourdy de Greeley and third, respectively.
Clarkstown earned two relief victories.
Laura Arciniegas, Alessandra Arciniegas, Kayla Dwyer and Budnik swam a combined time of 1:48. 72 for victory in the two hundred medley relay.
Five others also qualified for the states in the event, adding second-place finishers Fox Lane (Natalie Lovig, Smith, Kelsey Grayson and Maddie Nurenberg), who finished in 1:49. 72, and Greeley (Jourdy, White, Audrey Ho and Sienna White). , who clocked a time of 1:51. 37.
Laura Ariniegas, Alessandra Arciniegas, Dwyer and Budnik swam 3:34. 12 for the gold medal in the 400-yard freestyle.
SHEDI’s Bartolacci, Zoey Wiese, Serena Ke and Lee took position in 3:39. 91 and Scarsdale swam to bronze with Sunny Kang, Joy Kang, Caterina Fogli and Lori Jiang completing in 3:41. 71.
These 3 will also head north to the United States.
Nancy Haggerty covers cross country, track and field, boxing, hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, women’s lacrosse and other occasions for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.
This article appeared in Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Swimming: Eastchester Section 1 Team Champion, Clarkstown Second, Greeley Third
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