Northport Girls Swimming Succeeds at Counties

After a victory over West Babylon on Oct. 26 and a third place finish at leagues, Northport Varsity Girls’ Swimming placed fourth at counties out of 16 teams on Saturday. This is a fantastic accomplishment for the girls’ first year as an official team.

To start off the meet, Courtney Canfield placed 6th in diving out of 15 - amazing! Then, Northport’s Melanie Newton and Shanna Haddow raced side by side in the 200 freestyle event; Melanie won with a time of 1:57.03 and made states! Shanna also cut two seconds from her seed time and achieved a 2:04.92. The girls’ splits were blisteringly fast!

Nicole Papsco swam a 2:07.04 in the 200 IM event and beat all seven girls who swam against her in the final heat. Next, Northport’s Kathi Unger placed second in her 50 Freestyle heat with a time of 26.75. In the 100 butterfly, Hailey Modelewski chopped two seconds from her seed time and achieved a 1:00.89. 

The meet just kept getting better. Almost every girl from Northport took time off in an event. The last two events, however, were arguably the most exciting. In the first heat of the 100 breastroke event, Northport’s Sam Reilly took more then two seconds off her seed time and won with an outstanding 1:15.17; in the final heat of the event, Nicole Papsco hung on to win with a 1:05.24. And finally, Northport swept the third spot in the 400 Freestyle Relay with a 3:44.21 and shaved four seconds off their best time. It was a great cap to an amazing meet!

This counties meet was one to remember. Each Northport swimmer cut time and swam extremely well. This was Northport’s first year going to counties as an official League 2 team and they sure made their community proud! Congratulations to the Tigers, who are bound to get even more coverage next year. Counties put them on the map!