Broncos have come a long way in a short time
LINCOLN — It wasn’t the way the Burrilllville High boys’ and girls’ swim teams wanted to open their Division III dual meets against Smithfield at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Flanagan campus natatorium.
First, officials disqualified the girls’ 200-yard medley relay for an individual’s premature start, and the boys’ squad suffered the same fate due to an illegal breaststroke pull on a push-off.
Two events later, officials deemed senior Paul Miller had rolled onto his stomach an instant too early before his breaststroke leg of the 200 individual medley
and disqualified him, too.
Head coach Sharon D’Antuno could have become upset by the fundamental mistakes her swimmers made, but instead called them “easily fixable,” and praised them for giving it “their all.
“The difference in this team from what it once was three years ago, when we started, is remarkable,” she said after her finmen had sustained a 48-17 loss and aquagirls a 68-11 defeat. “When we first started the program (the 2016-17 season), we had four or five boys and maybe six or seven girls, and not all of them swam. Now we’re up to 18 or 19 kids in all, and 10 of them are girls.
“It’s awesome, how everyone has come together and improved.”
Noted Miller, who after the “issue” in the 200 IM actually won the 100-yard freestyle with a decent time of 1:21.11 (with junior teammate Jordan Stansfield second): “It was closer to a club three years ago. We’d have some kids practicing, but others could barely get up and down the pool. I think they joined because they wanted to be part of a team.
“The practices were less structured, and we swam less yardage; everyone would come less prepared,” he added. “We’d swim maybe 500 yards in a practice, and we were less prepared because (competitive) swimming was brand new to most of us. It was a learning process for all of us.
“Now there’s more of a routine to it. (The workouts) are more structured; we’re going 2,000-2,500 yards per practice, and it shows in the times.”
It certainly did in a meet last month gainst the Sentinels. Both sophomore Beth Beauchamp and junior Eric Broderick managed PRs of 39.18 and 30.87, respectively, in the 50 freestyle, and senior tri-captain Andrea Gruttadauria finished second in the 500 freestyle with a lifetime-best 7:40.41.
That happened to shatter her previous PR by approximately one minute.
Her marked improvement, however, didn’t seem to stun her a bit.
“I can believe it because now I’m in a pool (practicing) five days a week,” Gruttadauria said. “I train two days with this team and the other three with the Woonsocket Whalers (youth team out of Woonsocket YMCA), so I’m doing a lot more yardage.”
When asked how much swimming has helped her and her teammates, those who have stuck with the varsity program over these past three seasons, she laughed, “Are you kidding? Swimming got me a job. Now I’m teaching little kids how to swim at Woonsocket Y, and I’m a lifeguard there.
“Any my teammates, they’ve improved so much, gotten so much faster. We’re all so much closer; we’ve become almost like a big family.”
In some cases, the females are improving faster than their male counterparts. Take, for instance, the 200 freestyle relay of sophomore Angie Allard, senior tri-captain Jess Rogers, junior Nikki Felice and Gruttaduria, who took third in 2:36.21 against Smithfield.
The boys’ relay quartet of Broderick, sophomore Seth Boulet, junior Desmond Busse and frosh Alex Gruttadauria finished in 2:41.95.
The same didn’t happen in the 100 backstroke, when Colin Boisvert and Jordan Stansfield placed second and third with respective clockings of 1:28.79 and 1:47.24. In the previous event, the girl’ 100 back, sophomore Lexi Janelle – in her first-ever competitive race in water – placed third overall in 1:52.21.
Naturally, she was thrilled with the time, but more so that her teammates had cheered her on during the entire event.
There’s no question the girls’ score would have been closer if senior tri-captain Amara D’Antuono hadn’t been on the mend. She tore an ACL in May while playing soccer for a club team.
“It was sore all summer, and I finally went to the doctor in August; he sent me for an MRI and told me it was completely torn,” she explained. “He said I either could have surgery and get it fixed or not play sports at the level I was playing before, at least not for a while.
“I still haven’t been in the water yet, but I swam a little this summer” as a lifeguard at Kendbrin Swim & Tennis Club in East Providence. “I’m hoping I can come back in a couple of weeks. I do miss it, the competitive aspect; once I’m in the water and I here my teammates cheering, that gets me going. I’ll also say I don’t miss the waiting around (between events, when nervous butterflies really get moving).
“As for a program, everyone’s gotten so much faster, and technique has gotten better. The quality of swimming is better, and so is the amount of people who want to do it. I know I asked a lot of girls on the soccer team if they wanted to join and some of them said they did. That’s why the team has grown.
“We’re a real team now.”
Stated assistant coach Cathie Miller: “They’re so motivated and enthusiastic. These kids have great team spirit; they all root for each other, and – at practice – the older kids help the younger ones. This is such a fantastic group of kids. When you tell them you want them to do something or try something, they’re like sponges. They accept it and try it, and they’ve gotten faster because of it.”