Junior Alyson Baumann (Ron Szot photo).
McKayla Polowy (Silver Creek/Silver Creek) won the 1,650-yard freestyle Saturday on the final day of the Fredonia Blue Devil Swimming & Diving Invitational.
She swam the mile event in 18:31.18. It was her second win during the three-day meet. On Thursday, she rallied to win the 500-yard freestyle. She was also third Friday in the 200-yard free.
The Blue Devils finished third in the team standings. Allegheny won the team title.
The 100-yard freestyle featured a second-place finish by junior Alyson Baumann (North Tonawanda/Niagara Wheatfield) in 54.54 seconds. Freshman teammate Mikayla Reynolds (Fredonia/Fredonia) was seventh.
Polowy, Reynolds, and Baumann combined with sophomore Erin Kalsman (Portville/Portville) to finish second in the meet-ending 400-yard freestyle relay. Their combined time was 3:53.99.
Kalsman was also third in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:20.14 and fourth in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:17.58. She was joined in the fly by junior Lydia Gaughran (Burt/Newfane), who moved up from sixth after preliminaries to fifth in the final by shaving off over three seconds from the afternoon session. Her finals time was 2:25.72.
In the 200-yard breastroke, junior Sierra Parsons (Holland, N.Y./Holland) finished fifth in 2:45.84.
Also, Sam Angrignon (East Aurora/Iroquois), a junior, finished seventh in the 1,650 free.
"This meet serves as our mid-season evaluation," Fredonia Head Coach Arthur Wang said. "Overall, I'm very happy with the results. Everyone at this meet is at different stages of rest. Some impressive swims on the women's side included the 400 medley relay and the 200 medley. The swims from Baumann and Polowy were most impressive. Baumann in her 200 and 100 frees was finally able to reap the benefits of her hard work. Polowy hates to lose, and that's what makes it unique for her, as she is a first-year swimmer and has already established herself as a top competitor in the conference. For having such a small squad, we were fortunate to get third. We were also fortunate to have our diver, Jessica Schimek, make a triumphant return from injury. Her third-place finish was significant in our team placing."
