In the last swim meet of the season the girls beat archrival, Plainview, 54-48, leaving the Wantagh Girls’ Varsity Swim & Dive Team with the Conference II Championship title and an undefeated season, 6-0. Before the meet, 5 time Olympic swimmer, Dara Torres sent the swim team an encouraging video to wish the team good luck. It worked!
The whole meet, on October 21, was extremely passionate. The pressure and intensity filled the humid air of the Plainview H.S. pool. Sam Darling won the 200 free in 2:10.63 and the 500 free in 5:56.72. Jasmine Chu also won the 200 IM in 2:19.12 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:15.3. Nicole Charkowick won the 50 free in 25.63 seconds and the 100 free in 58.42 seconds. Senior Victoria Zozzaro broke the Wantagh High School Diving record for the 3rd time with a score of, 306.90. Lauren Schroeder, Sam Scibelli, Nicole Charkowick, and Jasmine Chu won the 400-free relay in 3:56.72. This was the race that led Wantagh to the conference title.
“This was the most intense meet I’ve ever been to and probably the most fun meet ever,” said Zozzaro, who led the team at Divisions with a first-place finish with a new school record of 535.80. She qualified for both counties and states. “It’s incredible to see all of our hard work pay off and win the conference title!” Every race mattered in this meet and all the girls on the team played an important role in the victory.
In another big meet, the girls were up against Massapequa – they had to win. Wantagh squashed Massapequa, 103-84. It was a very intense and inspiring meet for everyone.
Wantagh upset Lynbrook, 90-80 at the Greis outdoor pool where Lynbrook practices. Wantagh’s girls were not used to swimming and then getting out of the pool and freezing. There was also no diving because the pool wasn’t deep enough, so Wantagh had even more of a disadvantage because its 3 divers Victoria Zozzaro, Jaiden Molyneux, and Victoria Gorgone weren’t able to help earn points.
Despite the home-pool advantage and no diving, Wantagh swam brilliantly. The first 3 races Wantagh was losing by only a few points. In the 50 freestyle individual, Nicole Charkowick took 1st place, Lauren Schroeder took 2nd place, and Meghan Daly took 5th place which lead to the turning point of the meet leaving Wantagh in the lead for good.
The senior meet was the most emotional meet this season. Wantagh took on Jericho in this must-win meet, October 16. Jericho was 4-1 and the Warriors were 4-0. The win kept the swimmers conference title hopes alive. Every race counted. It was a close meet. Senior Diver, Victoria Zozzaro set the school diving record with the score of 299.7, breaking her previous record of 269.5. Right after the diving was the senior ceremony where Coach Rafferty talked about each senior. The underclassmen made posters and gave them to the seniors. It was very emotional. The younger swimmers have all looked up to this group of seniors. Wantagh led by only a few points with only a few races left. Jasmine Chu, Caitlin Murphy, and Grace McKenna took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the 100 breaststroke leaving the score, 93-79. The final score: Wantagh 97 Jericho 89.
The team beat Levittown, 103-83, in their first meet on September 18. The girls won again in their second meet against Sewanhaka on September 28. The girls won 111-73.
In the Swimming Divisions on October 28, Wantagh took home the bronze. Divisions led some girls to qualify for counties and states. Coaches Rafferty and Jones worked incredibly hard to make this championship season come true.