Over the weekend, the swim team traveled to Lancaster, PA to compete in the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships hosted by Franklin & Marshall College. The event is one of the premier private school meets in the country and has been held annually since 1935. It was the Bears’ third appearance at the event, including trips in 2019 and 2022. The event was canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021.

Friday Prelims

On the first morning of the event, Brooke Shteierman set the tone by shaving four seconds off of her lifetime-best 200 freestyle mark to clock in at 2:12.55. Her swim set the tone for the team as Scarlett Wigington, Naomi Crane, Amelia Griffin, Chris Liu, and Hugo MacDonald all swam personal bests in a variety of events.

Earning C finals berths were the 200 medley relay teams of Griffin, Kaitlyn Tse, Naomi Crane, and Ruthie Crane and James Wigington, Sebastian Guadalupe-Pena, Liu, and Stephen Cisz. Tse (200 IM) and Griffin (50 free) earned places in the C final, while the 200 free relay quad of Gavin Paton, MacDonald, Sam Specht, and Oliver Griffin earned a B finals berth after placing 15th in prelims.

Friday Finals

In the finals, three school records fell on a memorable evening of racing. Griffin, Tse, Naomi Crane, and Ruthie Crane swam a 1:55.37 in the 200 medley relay to rewrite a 2021 record of 1:56.84 set by Griffin, Tse, Ruthie, and Sofia Arrascue. Tse broke Stony Brook Hall of Famer Amanda Shapiro’s 200 IM record of 2:13.42, set in 2002, with a 2:13.19 swim. Finally, Griffin eclipsed Rebecca Crane’s 2019 time of 25.06 with a 25.02 mark in the 50 free to cap a historic night.

The boys’ 200 medley relay took 22nd overall, while the boys’ 200 free relay nabbed 15th place.

Saturday Prelims

On a big day of swims, MacDonald, Guadalupe-Pena, Shteierman, Naomi Crane, Specht, Tiwa Ojutiku, Paton, and Oliver Griffin achieved lifetime best swims. In addition, Amelia swam a personal best in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.07, narrowly missing another school record time. Ruthie Crane, Naomi Crane, Tse, and Amelia closed out a strong morning by breaking a fourth school record after hitting 3:45.38 in the 400 free relay to outpace the 3:48.45 set by Madi Sargent, Yesenia McKee, Rachel Crane, and Rebecca Crane in 2017.

Earning finals appearances were Ruthie Crane (500 free/C Final), Tse (100 breaststroke/ B Final), and the girls’ 400 free relay squad (B Final).

Saturday Finals

On the final night of swimming, Tse grabbed her second school record of the weekend by racing to a 1:07.20 mark in the 100 breaststroke to clip Shapiro’s 2002 time of 1:07.66 and finish 11th overall. The 400 free relay squad broke the sixth record of the weekend, moving past their newly minted time with mark of 3:44.45 to take 14th in the final. Ruthie Crane took 23rd in the 500 free final.

In the team scoring, the girls’ team placed 21st overall, while the boys took 23rd. In combined team scores, the Bears placed 26th out of 39 teams.

With Easterns now behind them, the Bears look ahead to the NYSAIS State Championship this week.

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