Several Goshen swimmers qualify for Sections

It was a mixed bag for the lady Gladiators swim team as they added one win and one loss to their record last week. They are currently at 5-8 for the season.

On Tuesday the team headed up to Kingston. In the 200 Free, Grace Matthews pushed herself to the max to overtake her competitor in the last 25 yards, winning by less than half of a second and securing a personal best time of 2:07.42. Later in the meet Rhyanne Ruffy competed in the 100 Fly. With a time of 1:08.29, she secured a spot in Sections. The 100 Free saw Grace Matthews completing the event in 59.50, which qualified for Sections. In that same event Amelie McDonnell cut 5.5 seconds off of her time, giving her a new personal best. The streak of personal bests continued in the 500 Free with Keira Albanese shaving over 15 seconds from her time. Tasha Zellner-Portella and Alexis Sofia added valuable points to the Gladiator’s score, taking first and second positions respectively for the 100 Back. Rounding out the meet included Ellis Rocchio clinching first place in the 100 Breast with a time of 1:34.28 while Liv Gawronski returned from an injury to secure a personal best in the same event.

Thursday brought Red Hook to Goshen for Senior Night and the most nail-biting meet of the season as the lady Gladiators were forced to come from behind to achieve the win. After a double disqualification in the first event, the Gladiators had to dig deep. Grace Matthews and Aimee Mancuso began the comeback by scoring critical points for the team in the 200 Free. The girls proved that they were in it to win during the next event, 200 IM, with Tasha Zellner-Portella, Keira Albanese and Alexis Sofia sweeping the top three spots. Goshen dominated the 100 Fly with Rhyanne Ruffy and Keira Albanese coming in first and second, respectively. Of note, Chester swimmer, Siel Johnson won the 100 Fly and with a great time of 1:04.97 landed a spot in Sections. The Red Hook team fought back and with only a few points separating the two teams, it all came down to the final relay. With a time of 4:17.56 the team of Rhyanne Ruffy, Keira Albanese, Grace Matthews and Tasha Zellner-Portela won first place and pushed the team past Red Hook.

The celebration on Senior Night continued as the team acknowledged the two seniors who are graduating this year, Amelie McDonnell and Liv Gawronski. McDonnell plans to attend the University of Albany and study international relations while Gawronski hopes to attend Cornell to begin studies to become a veterinarian.

The team is currently ranked eighth in Section IX and will be competing in the OCIAA meet this week at Washingtonville.