Scotties sending three relays to states
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. – This Ballston Spa group of swimmers and divers may be the charmed ones, sharing the power of three relay teams this weekend, hoping to power themselves into the New York State Public High School Athletic Association state meet at Ithaca College.
This is the first time that the Scotties have sent three relay teams to the state meet.
“One of the main things, which is great, is that we have the advantage of both swimming and diving is that you can qualify in-season,” Ballston Spa swimming Coach Ted Sny-
der said. “We had a great race with Shenendehowa at their pool at our dual meet and then we qualified the 200-medley relay and then the 200-freestyle relay.
“Then we could try to focus and get our 400-freestyle relay to qualify at sectionals for states. So that was nice to be able to have that.”
The 11th-ranked Ballston Spa 200-yard medley relay will consist of sophomore Emma Hoffman, sophomore Corrine Pepper, senior Tierra Damico and senior Annalise Pepper. The Scotties 37th-ranked 200-relay will be made up of Annalise Pepper, Damico, senior Kaitlyn Dybowski and junior Sarah Helly. Closing out the event will be the local 400-yard relay team of Hoffman, Annalise Pepper, Dybowski and Corrine Pepper.
Having a full day both on Friday will be Emma Hoffman who qualified in the 100-butterfly and the 100-backstroke individual events along with Corrine Pepper who will also swim in the 100-freestyle and 100-breaststroke.
Hoffman qualified for her individual events on the final day of the Section 2 season, in the finals of both individual events.
“It’s really exciting and I’m just glad that all the hard work paid off,” Emma Hoffman said.
“I’m mostly excited to swim. I’ve been working hard all season and I’m excited to see how fast I can go.”
This is the third state meet for Hoffman who is hoping that the Scotties can move up at least one spot in Friday’s preliminaries of the 200-medley relay and make the prestigious ‘A’ final Saturday. The secondfastest times will be in the ‘B’ final and the next group will compete in Saturday’s ‘C’ finals.
“Right now hoping to make the top 10 make the ‘A’ final, we’re hoping to do that and I’m just looking to improve my seeds for my two individual events.”
For underclassman Corrine Pepper, this is her fourth trip to the state meet and as a veteran she is a bit calmer than some competitors.
“I’m with a lot of my friends from other teams too, so I’m pretty comfortable because I’m with people I know, but it’s stressful because I really want to do well,” Corrine Pepper said. “I want to pump myself up and get ready to race fast.
“My goal is to make finals. I don’t know about ‘A’ finals, but at least at least the ‘C’ final. You want to swim on Saturday for an individual, that’s my goal.”
Her older sister, Annalise will swim in all three relays and hopes the strength in number will make the Scotties faster in the water.
I feel like I always do perform best during relays and I feel like that’s true with a lot of swimmers just because you’re not just swimming for yourself, you’re swimming for your whole team and everyone is depending on you,” Annalise Pepper said. “So if you don’t perform well, you could potentially hurt your whole team, but if you swim really well, you could potentially help your teammates.”
Her fourth and final states appearance is already guaranteed to be special.
“I think it is different because I’m in three relays this year and we’ve never sent that many relays before,” she said. “We also are sending more girls than we ever have. We’re going to have a lot of exciting team energy so it probably will be a little different.
“The first year I went there was just four and we were only swimming one relay and that was it. Now we’re swimming all three relays, girls or something, individual event and there’s six of us. So it’s definitely going to have a much different feel than it did back that first year.”
Also making a memorable final trip will be Damico who hopes to complete 11-dives all on Friday and be part of the 200-yard medley relay…again.
Damico has qualified for the state meet four times as a swimmer and this is the second year she has also qualified as a diver.
With diving now set as a single event beginning Friday afternoon, Damico’s schedule has become more manageable.
“Two years ago when I started diving I didn’t expect to make state and do all this and I think it was new to them too,” Tierra Damico said. “I made it and then they were like you have to do both and they go on at the same time. I had to quickly get out of my swim skin and put on my diving suit and then do warm-ups. That’s a lot.”
Making her fourth trip to the meet and getting ready for a 14-hour day at the pool on Friday, she’s learned a few things.
“I learned to rest on the bus ride down, that’s a big one,” Damico said. “You don’t have a lot of socializing time, you really have to like focus on yourself and not pay attention to every single other thing around you because it’s very hectic there and loud.
“You have to make sure you eat too. You don’t want to eat before a race either because then you get worried you’re going to get upset but you really need to.”
The senior wants to go out on top, with her medley-relay teammates and her diving, if she can make it past the first six dives, would be a positive trip her senior year.
Snyder is asking his six girls to enjoy the trip and the weekend.
“If you just do your time pretty much that you did at sectionals, you’re probably going to come back (Saturday finals), that’s the way the state need works,” Snyder said. “We do our best to get them there. But you know there’s no doubt, it’s a reward.”