Taconic's Sommerville, Hoosac's Girls Shine at County Individuals Meet
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But she was still among the best at the Berkshire County Individuals Meet at Simon's Rock.
Whitney won the 50-yard freestyle, placed second in the 100 backstroke and helped the Hurricanes to two second-place finishes in the relays, all while battling a nasty head cold that almost led her to sit out the final meet before next week's sectionals.
"I'm pretty happy with how I swam," Whitney said. "It's the end of the season. I've been sick for a while. I'm pretty happy with my swims.
"I'm glad that I went. I almost didn't go because I've been sick. I was able to push through, and I'm going to be fine. I'm pretty happy with today, and the significance of today is that it shows I can keep pushing through."
Although the meet is a last-chance qualifier for the Western Massachusetts and state championships, that was not a factor for swimmers like Whitney, who already is heading to Springfield next week to swim in multiple events.
The same could be said for a number of yesterday's winners, including Taconic's George Sommerville, who turned in the day's most dominating performances in winning the 100 butterfly and the 100 breaststroke.
Sommerville came into the day with marks this season well under the qualifying times in each discipline, and he shaved times off his season-best marks in each event at the Kilpatrick Athletic Center.
In the fly, Sommerville finished in 53.99 seconds -- nearly six seconds ahead of his nearest competitor and nearly five seconds under the state qualifying time of 58.81.
In the breaststroke, Sommerville's 1:02.52 beat the state mark (1:07.75) by more than five seconds, and he was more than 11 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
Sommerville also swam backstroke on Taconic's winning medley relay quartet (1:54.43) and swam anchor on the school's second-place 200 free relay.
He said he is comfortable swimming whatever discipline the team needs him to cover on any particular day.
"I wouldn't consider myself a specialist," said Sommerville, a senior who swam last fall with Williamstown's Purple Valley Aquatics. "At practice every day, we do our best, work on drills and starts.
"I'm kind of all over the place. If they need me to do a 500 [freestyle], I'll do a 500. If they need me to do a 200 [individual medley], I'll do a 200 IM."
In addition to the backstroke and breaststroke, Sommerville has qualified for the postseason in the 50 free and the 100 free. At next week's Western Mass meet, he plans to swim the 100 fly and the 100 free. At the state meet in Boston, he is eyeing the 50 free and 100 breast.
While Sommerville turned some of the biggest individual margins of the day for Taconic, the Monument Mountain boys as a group cleaned up. Besides winning both the 4-by-50 and 4-by-100 free relays, the Spartans got individual wins from Brandon Louison (200 free), Derrek Rueger (200 IM) and William Palmer (50 free and 100 free).
Monument's boys went 1-2-3 in the 50 free, where Palmer was chased by teammates Zachary Richardson and John Collingwood.
Taconic's Quinton Cookis and Lucas Benjamin went 1-2 in the 500 free.
On the girls' side, St. Joseph's Jessie Tobin was a double winner in the 200 IM and 100 free and swam the anchor leg on the team's 200 free relay quartet that qualified for states with a time of 1:52.87, comfortably below the qualifying time of 1:54.00.
Hoosac Valley's Ellie Field won the 200 free and the 100 fly. Her teammate, Cori Ghidotti, won the 100 breaststroke and
swam anchor on the Hurricanes' victorious 200 free relay quartet.
Monument won the other two girls relays and got an individual win from Emma Wilber in the 100 back. The 500 free was won by Hannah French of New Lebanon/Berlin (N.Y.), which, like Taconic Hills (N.Y.) and Mount Anthony (Vt.), swims in the Berkshire County league but is not eligible for Western Mass or states.
Hoosac Valley's girls, who went undefeated in the dual meet season, will be at the sectional meet in force with at least seven swimmers next weekend next weekend. And even though no one new was added to the school's Western Mass roster on Saturday, it was a productive day for the 'Canes.
"They're still finishing strong," Hoosac coach Eryn Brewer said of those Hurricanes who will not be swimming at Western Mass. "The relays really shocked me today. They did great relay times. I'm happy with everybody."
GIRLS
200 Medley Relay: 1. Monument Mountain (Maeve Wilber, Rowan Rice, Emma Wilber, Caroline Bissaillon), 1:57.69; 2. Hoosac Valley (Emma Whitney, Cori Ghidotti, Alyssa Bush, Ellie Field), 1:59.88; 3. St. Joseph (Jessie Tobin, Katie Nugai, Theresa Kirsimagi, Aileen Archambault), 2:10.90.
200 Freestyle: 1. Field, Hoosac, 2:01.65; 2. Elizabeth Bernardy, Hoosac, 2:07.21; 3. Bush, Hoosac, 2:10.26.
200 Individual medley: 1. Tobin, St. Joseph, 2:18.17; 2. Wilber, Monument, 2:19.27; 3. Phebe Hall, Mount Anthony (Vt.), 2:23.64.
50 Freestyle: 1. E. Whitney, Hoosac, 26.69; 2. Mia Modafferi, Taconic, 26.73; 3. Michaella Vecchiarelli, Hoosac, 27.05.
100 Butterfly: 1. Field, Hoosac, 1:04.10; 2. Bush, Hoosac, 1:05.42; 3. Theresa Murphy, Pittsfield, 1:06.94.
100 Freestyle: 1. Tobin, St. Joseph, 57.21; 2. Cori Ghidotti, Hoosac, 58.74; 3. Kate Ahearn, Mount Anthony (Vt.), 59.45.
500 Freestyle: 1. Hannah French, New Lebanon/Berlin (N.Y.), 6:04.65; 2. Kayla Dillon, Monument, 6:18.06; 3. Mary Kirsimagi, St. Joseph, 6:28.89).
200 Free relay: 1. Hoosac (Vecchiarelli, Bernardy, Bush, Ghidotti), 1:49.76; 2. Monument (Rice, Wilber, Dillon, Bissaillon), 1:52.17; 3. St. Joseph (Archambault, Nugai, M. Kirsimagi, Tobin), 1:52.87.
100 Backstroke: 1. Wilber, Monument, 1:03.07; 2. E. Whitney, Hoosac, 1:03.37; 3. Gillian Campbell, Taconic, 1:08.34.
100 Breaststroke: 1. Ghidotti, Hoosac, 1:13.91; 2. Bernardy, Hoosac, 1:13.95; 3. Wilber, Monument, 1:16.05.
400 Free relay: 1. Monument (Rice, E. Wilber, M. Wilber, Bissaillon), 3:56.07; 2. Hoosac (E. Whitney, J. Whitney, Bernardy, Field), 3:58.11; 3. New Lebanon/Berlin (N.Y.), 4:24.97.
BOYS
200 Medley relay: 1. Taconic (Lucas Benjamin, George Sommerville, Steven Davila, Jeremy Haven), 1:54.43; 2. Monument Mountain (John Collingwood, Benjamin Wyatt, Nicholas Gray, Zachary Richardson), 1:57.86; 3. Pittsfield (Lucas Goodwin, Greg Fournier, Aaron Coty, Zach Williams), 1:59.39.
200 Freestyle: 1. Brandon Louison, Monument, 1:57.33; 2. Dominc Roy, Monument, 2:04.26; 3. Ted Koch, Taconic Hills (N.Y.), 2:15.33.
200 Individual medley: 1. Derrek Rueger, Monument, 2:16.64; 2. Ryan Spencer, Mount Anthony (Vt.), 2:20.83; 3. Fournier, Pittsfield, 2:26.98.
50 Freestyle: 1. William Palmer, Monument, 23.56; 2. Richardson, Monument, 24.83; 3. Collingwood, Monument, 24.96.
100 Butterfly: 1. Sommerville, Taconic, 53.99; 2. Louison, Monument, 59.71; 3. Davila, Taconic, 1:15.64.
100 Freestyle: 1. Palmer, Monument, 52.76; 2. Richardson, Monument, 56.97; 3. Coty, Pittsfield, 57.28.
500 Freestyle: 1. Quinton Cookis, Taconic, 6:12.37; 2. Benjamin, Taconic, 6:22.47; 3. Max Spence, Pittsfield, 6:27.24.
200 Free relay: 1. Monument (Dominic Roy, Louison, Collingwood, Palmer), 1:37.50; 2. Taconic (Haven, Benjamin, Frank DeBaggis, Sommerville), 1;42.72; 3. Pittsfield (Lucas Godwin, Matt Salvie, Brian Desrosiers, Max Spence), 1:51.76.
100 Backstroke: 1. Spencer, Mount Anthony (Vt.), 1:03.06; 2. Rueger, Monument, 1:04.15; 3. Roy, Monument, 1:06.66.
100 Breaststroke: 1. Sommerville, Taconic, 1:02.52; 2. Benjamin, Monument, 1:13.99; 3. Fournier, Pittsfield, 1:14.61.
400 Free relay: 1. Monument (Rueger, Roy, Louison, Palmer), 3:44.59; 2. Pittsfield (Fournier, Desrosiers, Coty, Zach Williams), 3:57.03; 3. Monument (Richadson, Quinn Abrams, Nicholas Gray, Mazy Moeini-Feizabadi), 4:20.07.