Leif Hanisch and Nolan Silbernagel look on to see if their relay time made the cut for Meet of Champions.

While it may have been a brisk day outside, things certainly heated up at Kittatinny High School when the Falcons faced off against the Cougars. The Jefferson girls battled it out until the final relay, where they lost the lead, and sight of their victory with a final score of 86-84. The Jefferson boys, however, started off with a bang, qualifying for the Meet of Champions in the first event; and took first place in all the following events. The boys wound up winning 124-46.

It was a day for many firsts for the girl’s team, particularly girls swimming certain events for the first time. Rita Jackson and Isha Kachwala both swam the 500 Freestyle for the first time and finished with outstanding times. The girl’s also had their first meet lead of the season, following the Medley Relay, where Jefferson came in first with a time of 2:02.05. The relay consisted of Courtney Good, Jackie Ubhaus, Nikki Buglino, and Lindsey Buglino. As the meet progressed towards the 200 Freestyle Relay, the tension grew as Jefferson was again able to pull out a first place with a time of 1:52.88.

From then on, a chain reaction was ignited; as one Lady Falcon had an extraordinary race, it paved the path for another, because everyone wanted to contribute. Many could feel the trepidation as looks of worry, panic, and fear came across the faces of many swimmers as the score fluctuated between the two teams.

Sophomore Kristina Freeman was an integral part of the meet, placing in both the 1  ...Read More

Senior Matt McQuire looks to make a big splash this year for the boys swim team.

With the first meet underway for both the Girls and Boys Jefferson Swim Teams, the old SCIL got a look at what the opponents were in for. Although the girls lost against the dominant Pope John team on Thursday, they still have high hopes for the rest of the season. The boys team had a gratifying victory against Pope John, which furthers their view that the Jefferson Boys are a team to be reckoned with.

In previous years, the girls’ team has been lacking people to fill all the lanes for each event. This made them weak in events, because even though they had talented swimmers, the lack of bodies in certain events hurt their team scores.

This year is different though. By having almost half of the team consist of freshman, it presents a lot of possibilities for Coach Karen Gaba.

Freshmen Katie Machere and Allie McGuire are looking very good in the freestyle events while Darianne Mastricola looks to be promising in the breaststroke. A key swimmer that just came up as well is Nikki Buglino, who is extremely versatile, along with her sister, Junior, Lindsey Buglino. The team is anchored with experience from Seniors Courtney Good (backstroke), Rita Jackson (freestyle), Carly Nagy (freestyle), and Jackie Ubhaus (breaststroke).

The boys team seems to follow the teams motto “We have no goals, only expectations” by setting the bar high for this 2009-2010 swim season. The boys hope to go 8-0 this season, and they were off to a great start by beating rival tea  ...Read More