Victoria Zozzaro leads Wantagh to Nassau Conference II dual-meet title
When Chris Rafferty, English teacher, assigned homework on the essence of happiness, Victoria Zozzaro, an honors student, went out, interviewed teachers, put together a multimedia presentation and shared her findings with the class.
"It was just a homework assignment," he said, "but then again, she's the type of student who comes into class and says, 'I want to be inspired!' out loud . . . She always wants to be better."
So it's really no surprise that when Chris Rafferty, swim coach, had Victoria Zozzaro, diver, compete in Wantagh's final meet of the season Tuesday she:
1. Helped the Warriors win the Nassau Conference II dual-meet title; 2. Met a state qualifying score (she had to score at least 409.55); 3. Broke a more than 20-year-old record.
Zozzaro, a senior who finished seventh in the state meet last year, totaled 535.80 points, breaking the 11-dive school record of 505.00, set by Donna Saporito over two decades ago, Rafferty said. He added that she already owned the six-dive record, and her score Tuesday missed the county record by six points.
Her efforts were bolstered by the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Lauren Schroeder, Samantha Scibelli, Nicole Charkowick and Jasmine Chu, who won in 3 minutes, 56.72 seconds.
Zozzaro, Rafferty said, trains tirelessly with diving coach George Taylor and has upped the difficulty level on a number of her dives, raising her scores in the process. "We're hoping she can medal in states," Rafferty said. "She was in the top three after the first round last year but she had a few missteps."
But now: "We think she can keep it going," he said.
A diver (and a student) like Zozzaro wouldn't aspire to anything less.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
