*** As seen in Tonawanda Sun, Oct. 26, 2018 edition ***
Swimming for a league title and breaking records might be daunting for some people. But for Kenmore West’s Gillian Boal, the 72 hours of the 2018 Niagara Frontier League Championships from Oct. 17 to 19 at Niagara Wheatfield were just another day on the job.
The Blue Devil senior won the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.87) and the 50 freestyle as part of her team’s fourth-place overall finish at the event with 180 points on a night where Niagara-Wheatfield won the league title for the fourth year in a row. But it was her performance in the latter event that made her stand out in front of the packed bleachers.
In the preliminary round, Boal set a new NW pool record for the event with a time of 24.53 seconds – but she was just getting started. In the finals, Boal won the league title in the event and broke her own newly established record in 24.49, fending off North Tonawanda freshman Alaina Roberts (25.30) in a close finish on the final turn.
“I was just focusing on my own lane,” Boal said. “I wasn’t really paying attention to anyone else but myself. Just tried to stay focused. I knew that I wanted to try and re-break the record that I had broken the previous night so I did that and I was happy about that… It’s nice to have another school record somewhere and that my name will be on the board next to other great swimmers.”
Kenmore West head coach Carrie Meetze was proud of how her team – consisting of only 12 swimmers – is rallying together at the right time with the Class A Championships on deck and her lone senior leading the way.
“With such a small team, I thought that we swam really well,” Meetze said. “We made a lot of best times and we are now peaking at the right time… (Gillian) is the only senior so they all kind of look (up) at her. The team’s extremely young. It’s her senior year and she’s already qualified for two events at the state meet.”
Boal’s teammates also shined in both individual and relay events. Sophomore Bailey Wiegand finished second in both the 200 IM (2:20.31) and the 100 butterfly (1:03.77) events. Freshman Megan Munro finished fourth in the 100 backstroke. As a team, Boal, Malkiewicz, Wiegand and Munro finished third in the 200 medley relay (2:02.99) and third in the 400 freestyle relay as Boal, Emma Jones, Skylar Nebrich and Munro had a time of 3:58.82.
For the Lady Jacks, Roberts’ second-place finish in the 50 freestyle (25.30 seconds) and fourth-place showing in the 100 butterfly (1:05.50) paced NT to sixth-place with 96 points. Strong swimming from Allison Chaplin and a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays also were key.
NT head coach Matt Schutt was pleased with how his team has progressed compared to last season.
“Last year, we were in eighth place and we made up a 65-point deficit (this year) and came out on top of Lockport by five points,” the second-year coach said. “I can’t even describe how well my girls did tonight.”
Roberts was excited about the whole event, but especially in her battle against Boal which she dropped her time by nearly 1.5 seconds. Roberts said she’ll use this performance as a springboard for next season.
“I honestly never thought I’d ever get this far,” she said. “I’m just so happy to have this opportunity to come out and swim. I love what I do…. (NFLs) really taught me that you really have to push yourself and you have to learn what other swimmers do.”
In NT’s relays, Allison Chaplin, Cierra Williams, Megan Orrange and Roberts finished in 200 freestyle relay in 1:54.06. In the 400 freestyle relay, Roberts, Williams and Chaplin were joined by Leah Gardiner and finished in 4:16.65.
While Kenmore East finished last with 65 points, head coach Nathan Bourke saw some positives out of his young team. Sophomore Payton Taylor was fifth in the 100 freestyle (1:11.46), while the 200 Medley Relay was seventh (2:13.27). Fellow underclassmen Alice Budzich and Natalie Lesinski finished near the top of the B-Final events.
Bourke noted that this was a good first test for his young team down the road.
“This type of atmosphere was new to them on (Oct. 17),” Bourke said. “They might not have placed really well however this was some of our best times and that’s really what what matters right now. And I was super impressed today with them. They dropped even more time.”
The Bulldogs look to continue to improve starting with Taylor, who has qualified for seven different events at states.
“Payton has been swimming year-round and she continues to work really hard,” added Bourke. “She continues to work hard on her turns and improving those, making them stronger, less breathing.”
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