BY MATT SCHOOLEY
Central individuals excel Katie Aldrich won two individual events, and Central earned a fourth-place finish during the Division I state swimming championships at the University of New Hampshire.
Central individuals excel Katie Aldrich won two individual events, and Central earned a fourth-place finish during the Division I state swimming championships at the University of New Hampshire.
The Little Green girls swim team scored 146 points on Saturday, Feb. 14, but were unable to overcome state champion Dover. Still, Central sent four swimmers to the Meet of Champions (MOC) on Sunday, Feb. 15, where Christina Denbow starred.
Aldrich was victorious in both the 200-yard freestyle and 100- yard backstroke at the D-I event, and she was also a member of the first-place 200-yard medley relay team with Denbow, Elizabeth Morin and Brianna Laliberty.
In addition to her role with the relay team, Denbow also was second in the 100-yard breaststroke and third in the 200-yard individual medley (IM), ahead of Morin, who was eighth in the event.
Morin also scored points in the 100-yard breaststroke, placing ninth.
The next day at the MOC, Denbow won the 100 breaststroke and duplicated her thirdplace effort in the 200 IM. Aldrich took second in the 100 back and fifth in the 100 free.
Laliberty was 14th in the 100 free, and she joined with Katie Donovan, Denbow and Alrich to take seventh in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Goffstown has MOC presence Goffstown sent two swimmers to the Meet of Champions after the boys team finished 13th and the girls 16th during the Division I state swimming championships.
On Saturday, Feb. 14, the boys earned 28 points and the girls managed 14, but the Bishop Guertin boys and Dover girls came away from the event as champions.
Zachary Smith was the only Goffstown boys swimmer to make it to the Sunday, Feb. 15, Meet of Champions, after he qualified Saturday with a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly and thirdplace finish in the 200-yard individual medley (IM).
Sinea Johnson was the sole representative at the Meet of Champions from the girls team, qualifying with a fifth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle during Saturday’s meet.
Smith went on to finish eighth in the fly and 10th in the IM on Sunday, while Johnson came in ninth in the state in the freestyle.
With just 27 swimmers among the two Goffstown teams, head coach Matt Hammond said he keeps expectations reasonable heading into the state event.
Hammond also said each swimmer achieved a personal record during the season, and he was happy with the efforts of his team.
“With a smaller team, you set your goals to just do your best (individually),” said Hammond. “You train that way. We go after personal bests at each meet, and I chart progress through the season. With a 27-athlete team, unless every one is a state champion, we aren’t going to bring home a state championship. Our goals are personal.”
Jenkins leads Bow High Richard Jenkins posted two top-five finishes for Bow High School at the Meet of Champions after leading the Falcons to an eighth-place finish the previous day at the Division II state swimming championships.
On Saturday, Feb. 14, the Bow boys earned 78 points, keyed by wins from Jenkins in the 200- yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke at the University of New Hampshire.
With the finishes, Jenkins earned spots in those events at the Meet of Champions on Sunday, Feb. 15, where he came in second in the backstroke and fourth in the freestyle.
Also at the Meet of Champions for the Falcons boys team was the 4x200 freestyle relay team of Jackson Rand, Ethan Johnson, Steven Bosse and Wouter Roelandts. The team set a new school record with a time of 1 minutes, 42.63 seconds, placing 13th.
Roelandts also competed in the 50-yard freestyle, coming in ninth with a time of 23.8 seconds, and Rand finished 13th in the 200-yard individual medley (IM) in 2:22.20.
Also during the state meet, the Falcons girls team finished the day with 12 points, finishing in 18th place.
Julia Uchida was the lone Bow swimmer to qualify for the Meet of Champions, taking 13th place in the 200-yard IM on Sunday with a time of 2:33.85.