Goldback girls make big splash in new pool

By Mike Zummo
Posted 9/8/21

It’s been nearly three years since the Newburgh Free Academy girls’ swim team has hosted a meet.

But the Goldbacks inaugurated their new pool in a big way last Thursday with a 97-76 …

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Goldback girls make big splash in new pool

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It’s been nearly three years since the Newburgh Free Academy girls’ swim team has hosted a meet.

But the Goldbacks inaugurated their new pool in a big way last Thursday with a 97-76 win over the FDR Presidents.

“I can’t even say how happy I am to be back here with the girls,” senior Megan Cameron said. “And I know we still have our masks on, but our pool is so nice, as you can see. It just brings memories back, and I’m just so glad that we’re able to spend my last year with everybody back at our home pool.”

The pool was closed in February 2019 when a leak in the main drain was discovered, and the renovation was passed the following May by a super majority vote as part of the district’s capital project.

That was still with the COVID-19 pandemic a year away. Now, the pandemic is still here, but the Goldbacks have come home.

“It was a great way to break the new pool in,” Newburgh coach Pat Kavanagh said. “It was a really competitive meet where both teams were really evenly matched, and our kids swam really, really competitively.”

Cameron closed the meet with two strong performances in the meet’s final two events. She won the 100-yard breaststroke over FDR’s Cassandra Jarvis by 0.13 seconds.

Then she anchored the next event, the 400-yard freestyle relay with the Goldbacks trailing by about four seconds and ran down the Presidents’ Emma Jarvis and touched the wall 0.03 seconds before Jarvis did.

“That’s my usual schedule,” Cameron said. “It’s the breaststroke, then the 400 free, so I had to do what I usually do. But really at that point, it’s just give what you have left, and hope for the best and outrace the girl next to you.”

There hasn’t been the opportunity to race down the girl ahead during the last season as the COVID-19 pandemic had swimmers competing virtually from their home pools.

Even entering the new season, Kavanagh was nervous heading into Thursday’s swim meet.

“We only had a week, like five or six days of practice,” Kavanagh said. “We have a lot of new swimmers and a lot of young swimmers that haven’t had a true varsity experience. I was a little bit nervous, but they were competitive from the start.”

The Goldbacks only trailed after the first event, when the Presidents won the 200-yard medley relay by over three seconds, but took the lead for good when Julia Steiner, Vivian Piscitella and Leah Walsh went first, second and fourth respectively in the 200-yard freestyle to take an 18-12 lead.

Their 21- point victory was the largest lead the Goldbacks held. They led by 17 at three different points in the meet.

Steiner (200-, 500-yard freestyle) won two events. Jenna Bunch won the 50-yard freestyle, Taylor Chiaramonte won the diving event in addition to Cameron’s win the 100-yard breaststroke.

Both divers, Chiaramonte and Katherine Bell, qualified for the Section 9 championship meet, meeting the six-dive standard of 140 points.

Cameron also qualified in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke and Elle Gerbes qualified in the 100-yard butterfly.

“I don’t really know what to expect,” Cameron said. “But I do expect that every girl tries their hardest and just tries to be better than they were at the last meet. That’s really all we can hope for.”

Newburgh 97, FDR 76

200-yard medley relay: 2. Bunch, Cameron, Gerbes, Chiaramonte – 2:10.10; 3. Martin, Ozkovalak, Losghar, VanDalinda – 2:31.51
200-yard freestyle: 1. Julia Steiner – 2:22.28; 2. Vivian Piscitella – 2:25.46; 4. Leah Walsh – 2:36.12
200-yard individual medley: 2. Megan Cameron – 2:30.63; 4. AnnMarie Martin – 3:00.54; 5. Lara Ozkovalak – 3:02.37
50-yard freestyle: 1. Jenna Bunch – 28.32; 3. Paige Kubin – 33.36
Diving: 1. Taylor Chiaramonte – 155.20; 2. Katherine Bell – 143.65
100-yard butterfly: 2. Elle Gerbes – 1:09.52
100-yard freestyle: 3. Allison VanDalinda – 1:08.20; 4. Morhain Losghar – 1:10.03; 6. Ava Forbes – 1:34.24
500-yard freestyle: 1. Julia Steiner – 6:28.55; 2. Vivian Piscitella – 6:38.40; 4. Leah Walsh – 7:01.02
200-yard freestyle relay: 2. Bunch, Piscitella, Steiner, Losghar – 2:03.10; 3. Ozkovalak, Walsh, Chiaramonte, VanDalinda – 2:14.20; 4. Vera, Kubin, Forbes, Bell – 2:26.29
100-yard backstroke: 2. Elle Gerbes – 1:12.76; 3. Jenna Bunch – 1:12.86; 5. AnnMarie Martin – 1:23.99.
100-yard breaststroke: 1. Megan Cameron – 1:16.89; 5. Lara Ozkovalak – 1:33.95; 6. Paige Kubin – 1:37.82
400-yard freestyle relay: 1. Gerges, Steiner, Piscitella, Cameron – 4:24.60; 3. VanDalinda, Martin, Losghar, Walsh – 4:55.52.