Pine Bush swimmers keep on winning

By Mike Zummo
Posted 10/13/21

As the dual meet season winds toward its end, the Pine Bush girls’ swimming team is doing what the Pine Bush girls’ swimming team does.

They’re winning, as they’ve posted …

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Pine Bush swimmers keep on winning

Posted

As the dual meet season winds toward its end, the Pine Bush girls’ swimming team is doing what the Pine Bush girls’ swimming team does.

They’re winning, as they’ve posted an unbeaten dual meet season so far with only meets against Monroe-Woodbury and Marlboro remaining.

They continued that run last week with dual-meet victories over Wallkill and Red Hook.

“It’s honestly a blessing,” senior Elishka Hajek said. “I’m so proud and honored to be on a team with such amazing swimmers. We have depth and everyone’s very good. Everyone works very hard.”

Hajek is Pine Bush’s top-ranked swimmer as she is ranked first in Section 9 in the 200-, 50-, 100-yard freestyle events, and the 100-yard backstroke. Not only that, but as of Oct. 5, she had the top time in New York State in the 50-yard freestyle with a 23.79 she posted on Sept. 11. She is also ranked third in the state in the 100-yard freestyle and eighth in the 200-yard freestyle. She’s also fifth in the state in the 100-yard backstroke.

Teammate Mackenzie Gula is ranked fifth in the 200-yard individual medley and seventh in the state in the 100-yard breaststroke. She’s just a sophomore. Gula is also ranked 10th in the 200-yard freestyle.
Pine Bush’s three relay teams are also ranked first in the state.

“These kids are great,” Pine Bush coach John Barth said. “They’ve been swimming for so long and they came together. I’ve been coaching for a long time, and it took a long time to create something like this, and I’m enjoying every second of it. They’ve all bought into the culture of hard work equals good things.”

This year, Pine Bush will have the opportunity to test their mettle against higher competition, unlike last year’s compressed COVID-19 shortened March/April season, where all the meets were run virtually. Now, the competition is back in the pool and there is a postseason to look forward to.

“I think it really helps with the cheering and everything,” Hajek said. “It brings a whole new level of excitement and energy to the pool. We were so lucky that we were able to swim last year, but it was also very difficult because it was just our team, and we didn’t have our opponents in the pool with us.”

The Wallkill Panthers were Pine Bush’s competition on Oct. 5 and didn’t have the depth to compete with the top-ranked Bushmen team, but they did get a couple of wins from their top swimmer, Andie Psilopoulos.
Psilopoulos, who is ranked sixth in the 200-yard individual medley, won that race in 2:20.35. Pine Bush has the top four sectional spots. She also won the 100-yard breaststroke, where she’s ranked fourth. Pine Bush has the top two spots in that event, as well.

Overall, Pine Bush has at least three swimmers in the top 10 in eight events. The only event where Pine Bush isn’t highly ranked is diving.

“We’re in a good spot right now; they’re swimming very well. Getting faster at this point is going to be harder for some of them because when you’re as fast as they are and the amount of time we have, I hope we’re going to go faster. I think we’ll go faster. I’m hoping we can make some big waves up at the state meet, but we’ve got to see what happens.”

Tuesday
Pine Bush 94, Wallkill 59
200-yard medley relay: 1. Pine Bush (Licardi, McKee, O’Shea, Giannini) - 2:00.49; 2. Pine Bush (Egan, Humphrey, Martin, Pearson) - 2:05.35; 3. Pine Bush (Oakes, DeGeorge, Vargas, Sassi) - 2:06.30; 4. Wallkill (Drackett, MacEntee, Bonner, Psilopoulos) - 2:15.03; 5. Wallkill (Weinmann, MacEntee, Lewis, Samaroo) - 3:00.94
200-yard freestyle: 1. Mackenzie Gula (PB) - 1:59.72; 2. Nina Camacho (PB) - 2:20.13; 3. Taylor Dooley (PB) - 2:25.70; 4. Ruth Weinmann (W) - 3:03.14
200-yard individual medley: 1. Andie Psilopoulos (W) - 2:20.35; 2. Samantha McKee (PB) - 2:24.58; 3. Maya Oakes (PB) - 2:35.25; 4. Olivia Jones-Torres (PB) -2:57.73.
50-yard freestyle: 1. Abigail Person (PB) - 28.44; 2. Katherine Sassi (PB) 29.56; 3. Geeta Samaroo (W) - 29.83; 4. Jaedyn Newberns (PB) 30.64; 5. Meghan MacEntee (W) - 36.09
Diving: 1. Paige Gandolfini (PB) - 160.20; 2. Olivia Lazio (PB) - 149.80
100-yard butterfly: 1. Elishka Hajek (PB) - 1:00.34; 2. Sadie DeGeorge (PB) - 1:05.15; 3. Sophia Licardi (PB) - 1:09.68.
100-yard freestyle: 1. Cora Mance (PB) - 58.18; 2. Alexandra Vargas (PB) 59.66; 3. Samaya Drackett (W) - 1:09.58; 4. Rebeca Lockward (PB) - 1:11.62; 5. Julianna Lewis (PB) - 1:32.18
500-yard freestyle: 1. Ashley Martin (PB) - 5:45.04; 2. Sara Ippolito (PB) - 5:53.25; 3. Alanah Giannini (PB) - 6:13.78; 4. Kaitlyn Bonner (W) - 6:22.31.
200-yard freestyle relay: 1. Wallkill (Lewis, Weinmann, MacEntee, Samaroo) - 2:23.35.
100-yard backstroke 1. Kaitlyn Bonner (W) - 1:18.83; 2. Samaya Drackett (W) - 1:18.84; 3. Ruth Weinmann (W) - 1:42.40.
100-yard breaststroke: 1. Andie Psilopoulos (W) - 1:16.68; 2. Meaghan MacEntee (W) - 1:23.16.
400-yard freestyle relay: 1. Wallkill (Drackett, Bonner, MacEntee, Psilopoulos) - 4:30.33.

Thursday
Pine Bush 99, Red Hook 58
200-yard medley relay: 1. Hajek, Martin, Lockward, Sassi - 2:11.04; 2. Giannini, Jones-Torres, Newberns, Licardi - 2:13.63; 3. Camacho, Tique, Pearson, Gula - 2:14.14.
200-yard freestyle: 1. Alexandra Vargas - 2:12.12; 3. Amanda Eagan - 2:16.23; 3. Jaedyn Newberns - 2:26.05.
200-yard individual medley: 1. Sadie DeGeorge - 2:18.07; 2. Samantha McKee - 2:24.99; 3. Maya Oakes - 2:34.76.
50-yard freestyle: 1. Alanah Giannini - 28.98; 2. Katherine Sassi - 29.64; 4. Rebeca Lockward - 32.30.
Diving: 1. Paige Gandolfini - 151.40; 2. Olivia Lazio - 138.10.
100-yard butterfly: 1. Mackenzie Gula = 1:00.74; 2. Melanie Tique - 1:19.20; 3. Nicole McCord - 1:20.20.
100-yard freestyle: 1. Madaghan O’Shea - 55.58; 2. Ashley Martin - 59.27; 3. Sara Ippolito - 1:00.12.
500-yard freestyle: 1. Katie Webster - 5:43.53; 2. Abigail Pearson - 6:17.74; 3. Ella Humphrey - 6:29.62.
2000-yard medley relay: Exhibition only.
100-yard backstroke: Exhibition only.
100-yard breaststroke: Exhibition only.
400-yard freestyle relay: Exhibition only.

Warwick 100, Wallkill 55
200-yard medley relay: 2. Drackett, MacEntee, Bonner, Psilopoulos - 2:14.57.
200-yard freestyle: 1. Andie Psilopoulos - 2:07.84.
200-yard medley relay; 2. Samaya Drackett - 2:52.09.
50-yard freestyle: 2. Meghan MacEntee - 29.90; 5. Julianna Lewis - 36.76; 6. Geeta Samaroo - 37.05.
Diving: No Wallkill competitor.
100-yard butterfly: 2. Kaitlyn Bonner - 1:14.77.
100-yard freestyle: 2. Samaya Drackett - 1:10.58; 4. Ruth Weinmann - 1:17.65.
500-yard freestyle: No Wallkill competitor
200-yard freestyle: 2. Lewis, Weinmann, MacEntee, Samaroo - 2:23.44.
100-yard backstroke: 1. Andie Psilopoulos - 1:06.09; 3. Ruth Weinmann - 1:44.33.
100-yard breaststroke: 2. Meghan MacEntee - 1:23.75; 3. Kaitlyn Bonner - 1:31.06; 4. Julianna Lewis - 2:18.98.
400-yard freestyle: 2. Drackett, Bonner, MacEntee, Psilopoulos - 4:31.76.