After the Concord area swim meet was rescheduled from Friday because of hazardous weather conditions, swimmers from Concord, Bow, Belmont, Bishop Brady and Pembroke competed in 21 events in the first NHIAA meet of the season for most of the swimmers at the Concord YMCA on Monday night.
Bow had swimmers finish first in six events with multiple competitors, while Concord had four finish first. Belmont and Bishop Brady each finished first in two events.
In the boys’ events, Concord accumulated the most points with 65, Bow had 12 and Belmont and Bishop Brady had 10 each. On the girls’ side, Bow turned in a strong performance, totaling 55 points to Concord’s 47, Belmont’s 24, Bishop Brady’s 10 and Pembroke’s one.
It should be noted that the scoring system indirectly incentivizes the number of swimmers a team has. For example, in the boys’ 500-yard freestyle, Concord’s David Wicks was the only swimmer to participate, so the Tide were the only team to accumulate points from that event.
For the Falcons, Ryan Powers finished first in the boys’ 50-yard freestyle (23.28) and the 100-yard freestyle (51.19), Lena Thompson finished first in the girls’ 200-yard individual medley (2:25.88) and was the only swimmer in the girls’ 100-yard butterfly (1:13.05), Lorraine Schaeffner placed first in the girls’ 50-yard freestyle (26.67) and the girls’ 100-yard freestyle won (58.20).
“Bow’s team had a fantastic night, highlighted by a returning trio of sophomores who placed first in each of their individual events,” head coach Julie Guerrette said. “These three also met the time standards in each of their events to qualify them for the state championship meet in February.”
Guerrette also highlighted the performances of freshmen Sabine Karanouh, who finished second in the girls’ 100-yard backstroke (1:17.37) and third in the girls’ 100-yard freestyle (1:06.47), and Emily Hou, who finished second in the girls’ 100-yard breaststroke (1:24.80) and third in the girls’ 50-yard freestyle (30.36).
On the Concord side, Ryder Fisk placed first in the boys’ 200-yard freestyle (3:03.46), Molly Nyhan finished first in the girls’ 500-yard freestyle (6:42.97), Lily Peterson was the fastest in the girls 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.62) and Oliver Quinn placed first in the boys’ 100-yard breaststroke (1:32.53).
Other notable performances included Bishop Brady’s Danielle Lacourse (1:17.23) edging out Bow’s Karanouh (1:17.37) in the girls’ 100-yard backstroke and Belmont’s Brooke Vetter winning the girls’ 200-yard freestyle (2:30.09).