St. E's girls capture title

Abstract

Mountain Lakes slipped to third place, hurt by the absence of freshman sprinter Jessica Owen. Kinnelon freshman Lea Durant upset top-seeded Katie Chambers of Mountain Lakes in the breaststroke, pulling ahead in the final 25 meters.

MORRISTOWN -- The St. Elizabeth swimmers lined up, clutching each others hands as if about to jump off a cliff -- or into the Morristown High School pool. Instead, the Panthers cheered as the team was announced as the Morris County champions.

This is St. Elizabeth's first county swim title since 1993.

"I'm still shaking," Panthers sophomore Ashley Brownstein said about 15 minutes later.

"I was more nervous today than at any other meet. We knew coming in it'd be close. For weeks, even at the beginning of the season. It proved a lot of hard work paid off."

Iron Hills Conference champion Morris Knolls was a surprising second, just 20 points behind St. Elizabeth. Mountain Lakes slipped to third place, hurt by the absence of freshman sprinter Jessica Owen. Chatham and Kinnelon filled out the top five, with Montville just one point back in sixth.

"I'm shocked," Morris Knolls coach Kathy Hall said. "I'm so excited. I don't believe it. I didn't expect the girls to rise to the occasion again."

St. Elizabeth opened the meet with a medley relay victory, and also won the 200 free relay in a meet-record 1:53.91.

Katie O'Gorman won the butterfly, while younger sister Anne was ninth. The elder O'Gorman, a sophomore, also took second in the backstroke. Senior Catie McDonough finished fourth in 200 free and third in the 500 free.

"I feel good for my team," said Panthers sophomore Carolyn Maul, who finished fifth in the breaststroke and 11th in the IM. "It's really amazing, because everyone worked so hard today, and we worked so hard to get here. We did so well."

St. Elizabeth junior Cj Pisano won both freestyle sprints. After a 27.21 in the 50 free, which equaled her best high-school time this season, Pisano was angry "for about two minutes, then I thought, 'Yeah, I got first. Whatever.' I wanted the record, but that didn't happen."

Montville freshman Lauren English continued her domination of Morris County competition, breaking the meet records in the 200 IM (2:25.19) and backstroke (1:04.23). The latter record, set by Tashy Bohm of West Morris, had stood since 1997.

"When I saw the records, my goal was to break them," English said. "My first concern is to go as fast as I can. It's really hard to get all the negative stuff out of my head, just the ongoing battle. I have to think positive. ... I did the best that I could."

Mustangs senior Julie Kim used a "secret plan" to break the school record in the 500 free (5:47.16). She decided not to pace herself off Villa Walsh sophomore Erin Altenburger, after fading in a dual-meet race against Blake Walsh of Kent Place on Thursday with the same strategy. Instead, she negative-split the 500, picking up speed as the race went on.

Kim won both distance races, pulling ahead in the final 50 meters to take the 200 (2:10.2).

Altenburger, a sophomore, was second in the 500 and third in backstroke.

Kinnelon freshman Lea Durant upset top-seeded Katie Chambers of Mountain Lakes in the breaststroke, pulling ahead in the final 25 meters. Chambers finished second, and was also second in the IM.

"I had to win," Durant said. "I wanted to really badly. ... (In the last 50 meters) I kept thinking I had to keep it up, I couldn't let anyone catch up to me. It's great. I wanted to win. I planned to win, and I won."

Jane Havsy can be reached at [phone] or [email protected].