Members of the Manchester Swim Team Rapids, with a number of local swimmers, placed fourth out of 14 teams during the New Hampshire Swim Association Short Course Championship Meet recently. (Courtesy Photo)

DURHAM - The Manchester Swim Team Rapids placed fourth out of 14 teams at the New Hampshire Swim Association Short Course Championship Meet on March 11 to 13 held at the University of New Hampshire's Swasey Pool in Durham.

Chris Walczyk's recordbreaking win in the 17- and 18- year-old male 100-yard breaststroke led the team. Walczyk broke the New Hampshire Swim Association record by over a second with a time of 1:04.36. He also placed first in the 200- yard individual medley and the 100-yard freestyle, posting new championship meet records in each. Walczyk finished the meet in a tie for first place in the 15- to 18-year-old age group overall point scores.

Six other MST swimmers broke meet records at the championship, including Milan Sandhu in the 9- and 10-yearold boys 100 free, Maria Colella in the 11- and 12-year-old girls 200 IM; Kerry McCann in the 13- and 14-year-old girls 500 free; Ashley Green in the 15- and 16-year-old women 500 free; Kendra Decelle in the 17- and 18-year-old women 200 IM; and Carolyn O.Hara in the 17- and 18-year-old women 200 free.

Also, Sandhu, O'Hara and McCann each topped their age group categories for individual point rankings. Sandhu won all three of his events, O'Hara was a triple winner, and McCann finished first twice and also took second in another event.

Christina Denbow was a second- place point swimmer in the female 9- and 10-year-old age group, taking two firsts and a second. Colella was second in the 11- and 12-year-old ranking with one first-place finish and two second-place showings.

The younger swimmers from MST had a good showing, too. Lizzie Aldrich, 8, finished second out of 40 swimmers, highlighted by a first-place showing the 25 free. Karam Sandhu, 8, was third in the 8- and-under male point totals.

Five 11- to 12-year-old Rapids swimmers in the female division placed in the top 20 of the overall point scores, including Katie Aldrich, Kelsey Ewing and Stephanie Lynn in the top 10. Katie Donovan and Abigail Mitchell were in the second group of 10 overall.

Eleven female MST swimmers in the 15- to 18-year-old category scored points for the team. Among them were Ashley Green and Jackie Foster, who each won one race. Amy Burke and Anna Buchta joined this duo in the top 10 of the 15- to 18-year-old 100 free, while Whitney Powers took 11th. Burke and Powers both recorded personal records (PR) for the distance.

In the 13- and 14-year-old female point standings, Leah Burke ranked sixth and Marissa Lynn was eighth, recording a PR in each of her three events.

Ryan Mitchell was in the top 20 in total points for 11- and 12-year-old males, including a fifth-place showing the 200 free. The 13- and 14-year-old male swimmers placed four swimmers in the point running, led by Hayden Mitchell, who was 16th overall and posted PRs in his three events. Kyle Pinheiro was another strong 15- to 18- year-old male swimmer, taking 14th overall with three strong finishes.

In the relays, Katie Aldrich, Stephanie Lynn, Colella, Katie Donovan and Kelsey Ewing mixed and matched for a firstand second-place showing.

Other swimmers scoring points for MST included Zachery Bonte, Kyle Colella, Riley Ewing, Alex Ewing, Lucas Ford, Elizabeth Morin, Brian Lynch, Sean Brown, Matt Goczalk, Fritz Manson, Colin Conneally, Caitlin McCullough, Mary Casinghino, Delia Helie, Kendra Decelle, Melissa Goczalk, Whitney Powers, Chris O'Connell, Brian Volonte, Sean McCann and Scott Ewing.

Swimmers who contributed to the MST finish were Hayley Berg, Katherine Berg, Savannah Breton, Corey Ford, Mary Claire Kramer, Savannah Lavoie, Olivia McQuade, Danielle Morin, Kathryn O'Neil, Amy Willer and Ciaran Mahon. Most had a personal best for at least one of their events in this meet.

Although the event marked the end of the winter season, spring training starts April 18. For details, call Steve VanDerBeken at 623-4179, Jean Mitchell at 668-9048, Andy Bonte at 627- 9512, or visit manchesterswimteam.com.