Brittany Coughlin leads Ward Melville to another Suffolk swimming title
Ward Melville's Brittany Coughlin swims to second place in the girls 100--yard breaststroke at the Suffolk girls swimming individual championships/state qualifier meet on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Brittany Coughlin has been in first place dozens of times in her varsity swimming career.
Saturday morning at the Suffolk championship meet, she came in third. Still in the pool and out of breath, she craned her neck to the scoreboard and began to cry.
Then she laughed.
Because though Coughlin has made a habit of winning, she always has been just short of the ultimate goal: making a state-qualifying time. Saturday, she did it twice -- first in her third-place, 200-yard individual-medley finish, then again in the 100 breaststroke.
Coughlin was basically the only one treading new water for Ward Melville. After all, the last time the Patriots weren't champions, the first Bush was president. Saturday was no different, as Ward Melville claimed its 23rd straight Suffolk girls championship with 301 points. Harborfields was second with 250.50.
"I'm so happy, and to see my mom and how proud she is, it made my day," said Coughlin, who finished the IM in 2 minutes, 12.60 seconds and was second in the breaststroke in 1:07.53. "Two years ago, I missed it and last year, I missed it. Making it this year and not missing it by that little bit meant so much for me. I knew I had to work hard for it and I did and it paid off."
Joining Coughlin upstate will be the Patriots' 200 medley relay team, the 200 freestyle-relay team, Cassandra Willie in the 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle, and Casey Gavigan in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Sarah Schoenfeld and Katie Wang join Gavigan and Willie on the relays.
Other standouts included the Harborfields medley relay team of Nina Lesser, Rachel Kuenzler, Alexa Overeem and Kate Burns, who won in 1:49.93, and the state-qualifying Connetquot 200 and 400 freestyle relays of Michelle Wootton, Katherine Green, Leah Russell and Emma Kopp. Wootton and Green also made state times in the 100 free, and Lesser and Wootton took first and second with state times of 24.65 and 24.82 in the 50 free.
Shoreham-Wading River's Emily Anderson won the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.08 and Smithtown's Jacqueline Dominger won the 200 IM in 2:08.10.
Unsurprisingly, though, some of the biggest accolades came to the team that always gets the biggest accolades.
Willie, who learned only last week that she'd be swimming the 500, earned MVP honors. And though momentarily mystified as to why she was chosen, "I guess it had to do with the fact that I swam an event that I never swim," she said. And, oh yeah: "And I ended up winning it. And making states."
Meanwhile, the best time of the day belonged to Gavigan, whose 56.51 in the backstroke earned her All-American consideration.
"I'm so proud of everyone," Gavigan said. "It was a lot of stress and in the beginning we were iffy . . . We started the meet coming in second place in the 200 IM and that never happens. That's just not what happens. We had to regroup and we stepped it up."
The result was another string of successes. And that's what (always) happens.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
