Pawtucket’s Tetreault picks up title
PROVIDENCE – Before the start of Saturday afternoon’s Interscholastic Swimming Championships, La Salle Academy assistant coach Paul McCaffrey had predicted a certain phenomenal swim by sophomore and fellow native Pawtucketer Maddie Tetreault.
He indicated that, despite the fact she was seeded second behind North Kingstown 10th-grader Abigail Maguire in the 500-yard freestyle – actually, by a vast 15-plus seconds – he sensed a triumph. It all stemmed only from the way she’s been training in practice.
If you want to call McCaffrey a clairvoyant, it would be more than appropriate. In the final heat of the 500, easily the most exciting of the day at Brown University’s Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatic Center, Tetreault whittled away at a near-two second deficit at the 250 mark.
She also eclipsed shortfalls of 1.35 over the last 100 and .83 with 50 yards remaining to steal a thrilling, first state championship.
She did so with a lifetime-best clocking of 5:01.06, just .19 ahead of Maguire, who just happens to be her teammate on the USA Swimming Bluefish Aquatics of Attleboro.
“I think I just put my head down and thought, ‘Use your kick and go!’” laughed Tetreault following a much-deserved warmdown – and long after a second-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley (naturally with another PR of 2:08.39). “After the 300, I could kind of feel myself gaining on her – like, every 50, coming off the touch pads, I could see I was getting closer.
“On the last 50, I knew I was still behind, but I could see her out of the corner of my eye,” she added. “I knew if I just put my head down, didn’t take a breath and (streamlined) into the wall, I could do it.”
She chuckled, then added, “I actually thought, ‘I’m taller than she is, so I hope it matters.’”
Turns out, it did because “I think Abby is eight-10 inches shorter than me; it feels great to win a state championship. Afterward, she said, ‘You swim so good.’ and I just said, ‘Gee, that was fun.’ We’re always swimming in the same 500 races, so we really push each other.”
Tetreault, a Darlington resident, wasn’t even close to being done. In the Rams’ 400 freestyle relay, she anchored the team of sophomore Jordyn Raftery, freshman Mia Gajic and senior Sam Karlson that shattered the state record by .49.
The only problem: Tetreault and Co. (3:37.96) finished behind the triumphant Barrington quartet, which closed in 3:36.63 and demolished the 2017 mark held by North Kingstown (3:38.45). For the record, Tetreault clocked 53.96 on the leg, and also propelled La Salle fourth in the 200 medley relay (1:52.99).
Not surprisingly, Sandy Gorham’s Eagles coasted to the team crown with 298 points, 37 more than runner-up NK and 58 better than No. 3 La Salle (240).
Prout took fourth (161, East Greenwich fifth (150), Bay View sixth (141) and Moses Brown seventh (134.5), while Cumberland reigned among Blackstone Valley squads with 115, six more than Classical.
Actually, Clippers head coach Rod McGarry couldn’t get over how well his swimmers competed; he claimed they surprised even him.
“It’s been just like the boys (earlier in the day),” he stated. “We finished with 15 PRs or season-best times for the relays, which is phenomenal. Coming off last week, I was wondering if we’d have a ‘relay time-drop hangover’ because we swam so well (at the D-II championship meet). I was wondering if the kids’ heads would be in it.”
He didn’t need to fret. The 200 freestyle relay foursome of freshman Chelsea Friedland, senior Cammy Cronin, junior Kheara Zito and classmate Caroline Shen uncorked a phenomenal clocking of 1:42.49, a season best by approximately two seconds, and snared fourth overall.
(Those Clipper actually were only .98 out of second, that belonging to the Skippers. For the record, the same quartet took fifth in the 400 freestyle relay in another winter-best 3:47.38).
“I told the girls in the 200 free relay, ‘Let’s go up there and go all out, This is our baby,’ and they responded beyond my wildest dreams,” he added. “I know they were pretty stoked after going 1:44 last week at D-Is, but 1:42? It’s unreal.”
For Shen in particular, the way these championships played out meant a great deal to her.
She didn’t place as high as she’d have liked, collecting fourths in both the 50 freestyle (24.80) and 100 freestyle (54.08), yet was quietly thrilled with the fact she finally had notched a couple of personal-best times.
“I was so close to breaking 54,” she sighed after the 100 distance. “I will say I wasn’t expecting this beforehand. I didn’t think I’d do this well. My mindset, I had a lot going on mentally, but seeing what I did, it’s crazy; it feels tremendous. I’ve been on these plateaus (meaning swimming the same times without improvement meet after meet), and all I can say it’s about time I did this.
“I think it came from my teammates and my family,” she added. “Nobody gave up on me. They were behind me, even when I wasn’t behind myself.”
The senior captain Cronin competed in only one individual event for her beloved Clippers, and it paid off with a 13th in the 100 butterfly, not to mention a career-best clocking of 1:03.79.
“It feels so good to swim a PR in my last (individual) race,” Cronin said with McGarry by her side. “That’s what I promised my college coaches when they started to recruit me (among them Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clarkson University); I told them I’d be under 1:04, and now I am.
“I’m interested in going into chemical engineering, but I also want to swim.”
Offered McGarry: “For the last individual swim of her career, it’s a helluva’ way to go out. No one loves high school swimming more than Cammy Cronin. I’ve known her for four years, and she revels in this. I know (former CHS legendary coach) Bruce Calvert would have loved coaching her.”
Cronin also combined with freshman Catherine Shen and seniors Abby Dion and Caitlyn Longest to snare 13th in the 200 medley relay with another campaign-leading 2:01.41.
Another pivotal point scorer for CHS included Friedland, who took ninth in the 200 freestyle (2:02,41) and 11th in the 100 backstroke (1:03.32).
For Lincoln, which accumulated 50 points for sole possession of 14th, fellow frosh Sadie Brown racked up 44 on her contributions. After joining juniors Amanda Allen and Anna Vygoder and senior captain Lily Jacobson on the 11th-place 200 medley relay, she earned seventh in the 200 individual medley (PR of 2:13.31) and a terrific third in the 500 freestyle (lifetime-best 5:24.24).
“For my first-ever state meet, this feels great. It’s better than I hoped for,” Brown noted. “I’m most pleased with my time in the IM, because I dropped three seconds (from my previous best). I was only a second faster in the 500.
“As for what Maddie (Tetreault) did? That girl is so fast.”
Brown’s coach, Tom DiIorio, seemed more impressed with his own thin lightning bolt.
“Wow. For a freshman, wow,” he laughed following Brown’s 500. “I mean, she’s still a young one, still a baby compared to everyone else, but she sure doesn’t swim like one.
“The thing about her is she wanted to swim the 500 instead of doing the 200 IM,” he added. “She wanted to (compete) in the 100 breast and 500, but I said, ‘No way. You’re doing the IM and the 500 because you need that rest in between.
“I don’t know if she was happy about it, but she’s now staring at two new PRs.”