Competitive swimming always has obstacles, but this year, they were five-fold with trying to find access to pool time, a shortened season and, of course, the social distancing and mask requirements put in place by whatever school and/or facility they were swimming for and in. While swimming is an individual sport for the most part, nothing gets the competitive juices flowing like having someone next to you to race, or a relay team vying for the top spot against another team’s relay. That was another layer of tradition and normalcy that was stripped away with the Covid-19 protocols. Section 9 teams, if they were able to get access to water, had to do “virtual races,” which means that they raced against themselves and the clock and not against another team, except when the times were all compiled.
Despite all of this, four swimmers — two from New Paltz and two from Kingston — emerged with podium finishes in last weekend’s Section 9 competition, as they swam in the Covid-19 vortex, against themselves or some imaginary rival.
Sixteen-year-old Brady Saunders, a New Paltz High School junior, just out-touched Kingston High School senior Mason Delisio in the 50-yard freestyle — the splash-and-dash of the aquatic world — with a time of 22.53 for second place to Delisio’s 22.54, which earned him third place. The top finisher was Ryan Lerner from Washingtonville with a time of 22.49. New Paltz senior Alex Demis was in the virtual mix punching in a 23.59 to earn him an eighth-place medal. Demis will swim for Wesleyan University next year.
The Saunders/Delisio duo was side-by-side again in the 100-yard freestyle, with the Kingston senior swimming a blazing 49.72 for third place and Saunders right behind him with a 49.90 to secure fourth place. Demis was sixth in this race with a 50.71.
Kingston High School sophomore Andrew Sammons, swam to a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, almost going under the 1:04 mark with a 1:04.00. The New Paltz High School freestyle relay team of Will D’Angelo, Logan Pece, Demis and Saunders rallied for a second-place finish in a time of 1:34.39.
Kingston also had a relay garner a medal with its 200-yard medley team of Chris Lekaj (backstroke), Sammons (breaststroke), Delisio (butterfly) and Adam Murphy (freestyle anchor). The team finished fifth in the Section 9 competition with a time of 1:44.58.
Caps off to the Section 9 coaches and swimmers for being able to put a season together despite the absence of a bring-the-house-down feeling that athletes are used to. They were swimming upstream, but they were still swimming fast.