By Dan Murphy
The winter season of sports in Yonkers Public Schools is underway. One team that had a great 2017 and is ready for this season is the Yonkers combined girls’varsity swim team, with Coach Julie Schoenlank.
The team is made up of 30 members from eight Yonkers high schools. This year the team is 8-2, led by Captains Ofelia Valadez, a junior, and Danielle Escamilla, asenior – both from Yonkers High School.
The two losses were close and both came down to the last event of the meet (the 400-meter free relay): Nyack, 87 – Yonkers, 83; and Harrison, 86 – Yonkers, 84.
Yonkers was only 4 points away from winning the Divisional Championships, and was tied with Nyack going into the last event. Divisional Championships were held at Beacon H.S. on Oct. 20, where the boys swim team won the title back in January.
This is the second year the team has existed, as there was a seven-year hiatus dueto budget cuts.
“I knew from day one that the team had a lot of potential when we had 18 new girls at tryouts this past August,” said Schoenlank. “It’s amazing what the girls have accomplished in only two years as a team. We definitely had high expectations going into championships, and it was tough to lose by only 4 points. However, we are a young team, and I expect great things from them next year.”
Team highlights include Jaden Bascon, and eighth-grader at PEARLS winning the 200-meter free event with a time of 2:07.38, and the 500-meter free event with a time of 5:41.25. Bascon also qualified for Section I Championships in the two events,as well as two relays.
The final scores for the 2018 Divisional Championships were:
1. Nyack 279
2. Yonkers 275
3. RC Ketchum 257
4. Harrison 254
5. Putnam Valley 252
6. Beacon 242
7. Albertus Magnus 163
8. Woodlands 158
9. Keio 139
10. East Ramapo 42
11. Port Chester 39
Top Scorers for Yonkers at Divisionals were:
Saunders Junior Diana Martinez placed 13th in the 50 free and 11th in the 100 free.
Yonkers H.S. eighth-grader Arianna May placed sixth in the 200 free and 100 butterfly.
PEARLS seventh-grader Emily Salazar placed ninth in the 200 free and sixth in the 500 free.
Yonkers Montessori Academy seventh-grader Maura Daly placed 12th in the 200 free and 13th in the 500 free.
Gorton H.S. junior Kenia DePaz placed ninth in the 200 IM and 10th in the 100 backstroke.
YHS senior Katya Raskin placed 10th the 200 IM and 16th in the 100 backstroke.
YHS junior Ofelia Valadez Jr. placed seventh in the 100 butterfly and fifth in the 100 breaststroke.
Palisade Prep freshman Carolina Juarez placed ninth in the 100 butterfly and 12th in the 100 backstroke.
YHS freshman Sneha Sarkar placed 13th in the 100 breaststroke.
YMA ninth-grader Elena Pruthi placed 11th in the 500 free and 12th in the 100 free.
Bascon, Valadez, Juarez and Martinez placed fourth in the 200-meter relay with a time of 2:08.42.
Sarkar, Juarez, May and Valadez placed fifth in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:58.01.
Martinez, May, Daly and Bascon placed fourth in the 400 free relay with a time of 4:13.07.
