Pats move to .500, swim past ‘Canes on senior night

Matt Metcalf
Posted 2/10/15

The Pilgrim and Warwick Vets girls’ swimming teams practice together regularly throughout the year, so it was only fitting that they both celebrated their senior nights when they faced-off on …

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Pats move to .500, swim past ‘Canes on senior night

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The Pilgrim and Warwick Vets girls’ swimming teams practice together regularly throughout the year, so it was only fitting that they both celebrated their senior nights when they faced-off on Thursday at McDermott Pool.

During a break in the meet, there was a ceremony to honor the five seniors between the two schools – McKenzie Caron, Nicole Gauthier and Drisanna Watson from Pilgrim and Alyssa Flanagan and Phone Htoo from Vets.

“It was nice having a senior night with the kids that they swim with every day,” Pilgrim coach Nisa San Giovanni said.

When it was all said and done, though, the Pats took the meet, 63-25, as they won all 11 of the events.

Pilgrim was led by Sophia Caracuzzo, Mackenzie Fraser and Fortune Premy, who each won two individual events apiece, while also competing on winning relay teams.

The Pats wasted no time, as they won the first event – the 200 medley relay. Fraser, Premy, Caron and Caracuzzo combined for the win in a time of 2:19.21.

Pilgrim’s Elicia Nemirow then won the 200 free, before Fraser placed first in the 200 individual medley. Vets’ Flanagan took second in the 200 free, while Xinnie Mai earned runner-up in the individual medley.

San Giovanni noted that Vets has made significant strides from years past, as the numbers on its roster are up this season.

“Over the years, they’ve had very few kids,” San Giovanni said. “This year, they have a lot of kids and they’ve been working really hard. It was nice to see them have at least two or three lanes of races.”

‘Canes’ coach Tamra Gallo echoed her satisfaction with the program this season.

“I’ve never had a medley relay since I’ve been coaching this team,” Gallo said. “I’ve also never had two free relays. I had 11 kids here tonight, compared to just having four on the team last year. This has just been a fun season.”

The ‘Canes continued to battle, but the Pats gradually stretched their lead.

Caracuzzo won the 100 butterfly in 1:16.40, before Premy took first in the 100 free. After the two individual wins, Pilgrim had a 31-15 lead.

Caracuzzo then edged Mai in the 500 free to make the score 35-19.

From there, Pilgrim continued to dominate. Caron, Watson, Gauthier and Tessa Seeback combined to win the 200 free relay in a time of 2:17.68

San Giovanni wanted to have as many swimmers compete as she could, as her team hasn’t had a chance to practice much due to the weather – a problem that many teams around the state have had to deal with.

“Normally we don’t swim in all of those races, but I wanted to give our kids a chance because we haven’t swam in so long because of the weather,” San Giovanni said. “I wanted to give them a chance to swim everything with the divisional meet coming up.”

The Pats claimed the final three events as well, as Fraser took the 100 backstroke, Caron placed first in the 100 breaststroke and the team of Caracuzzo, Fraser, Caron and Premy won the 400 free relay in a time of 4:47.96.

With the win, the Pats moved to .500 on the season at 3-3.

With all of the cancellations recently, Pilgrim will have a full schedule this week. It’ll host Rogers on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., before facing Shea at Tolman on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. It will then cap-off its week on Friday at Tolman for a 4 p.m. meet.

Vets is in a similar boat. It was set to face Shea at Tolman on Monday, but the meet was cancelled due to weather once again.

The other meet that is scheduled for this week for the ‘Canes is Thursday against Shea at 5:30 p.m. at McDermott Pool.

Pilgrim, in-particular, is feeling good heading down the stretch.

“We’re hoping to peak at the end,” San Giovanni said. “I think the girls that have been swimming regularly for us have been looking really good.”

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