Gilmour junior encourages in 100 butterfly

When Alex Figurella needed a litmus test as far as how his progression in 100-yard butterfly was going early in his career, he didn’t have to look far.

The now-Gilmour junior, on a young squad the elder statesman for the Lancers, could gauge where he was watching longtime program fixture Matt Vanone go about his business on a daily basis.

Those lessons from Vanone and his own progression in turn are coming into focus, including a solid performance Jan. 14 in a dual against West Geauga.

Figurella was a double individual-event winner, taking 200 freestyle and later gleaning optimism from a first in 100 fly.

He won with a time of 59.01 seconds, not quite breaking into News-Herald coverage area leaders but dropping 1.31 from his 100 fly time at the Division II SPIRE Sectional a year ago.

Figurella’s 31.17 split to the wall was a 1.08 drop alone.

“I think it’s really big that I’m moving in the right direction,” Figurella said. “It’s been hard to keep myself in the water, recently especially. But going forward toward Viking and hopefully swimming better than I did last year suiting up. It’s our first real meet, and I’m hoping to go 57 or about where I went freshman year. I’m pretty excited about it.

“I feel like it was mainly the endurance to bring back that last 50 at the end. I feel recently that last 25, it’s been struggling for me. Recently, we’ve been doing a lot in the weight room, trying to get through as many practices as we can do while we’re open now. But I’m excited to go forward and hopefully march toward the end of the season.”

As a freshman and sophomore, Figurella soaked in the knowledge watching Vanone perform. One of The News-Herald coverage area’s premier butterfliers throughout his career in Gates Mills, Vanone broke through to get to a D-II ‘A’ final in 100 fly as a senior, taking seventh. He was also 10th in Canton last winter in 50 free.

On a team that is perennially small in roster numbers, Figurella was thankful for that experience with Vanone.

“Matt, he was very professional at every practice,” Figurella said. “He was very on top of things. And he was my role model. I really looked up to him at every practice. I would set standards, as he was the standard. In practice on butterfly, if I could be close to him, that was a big thing for me.

“So watching him go to state, that was huge for me, and I’ve always said since freshman year, I want to be that one day. I met him in his sophomore year when I shadowed, and yeah, we were great friends. He was a great teammate every year.”

For the hosts, Andrew Lewis also logged a highlight swim, taking 100 backstroke with a 59.47, good for a 3.92 drop from the D-II SPIRE Sectional last winter.

On the girls side, Gilmour’s Abby Meyer won 100 fly and 100 breast and was honored as the Lancers’ lone senior on senior night.

West G was paced by Asa Eddy, who took 200 free and 100 back, and Ashley Chase, who reigned in 200 IM and had a firstclass reel-in to capture 100 free. Eddy’s 1:07.99 was a .30 cut from SPIRE a year ago, and Chase’s 56.05 is the fourth-fastest 100 time in The News-Herald coverage area this winter.

Coming soon

For more from this meet, as Chase breaks down her encouraging 100 free and hopes for more after a banner freshman campaign, check back in the coming days on News-Herald.com and in our print edition.