Cefalo shines at East Field Regional meet

L

ed By Chris Cefalo’s three gold medal performances, the Red Bank Y boys swim team placed second at the Ninth Annual East Field Regional Championships.

Cefalo won the 11-12 boys 50, 100 and 200 yard freestyle events, setting a new Red Bank Y record in the 100 with a time of 53.6 seconds. In addition to his individual wins, Cefalo joined Larkin Mac-Donald, Kelly McCarthy and Bryan Mejia to win the 11-12 boys medley relay in an East Field record time of 1:52.89 and Mejia, MacDonald and Chris Sadecki to win the age group’s 200 yard freestyle relay in a meet record 1:41.28. Both times also were new records for Red Bank.

Cefalo added to his medal collection with a second in the 100 breaststroke and thirds in the 50 breaststroke and 500 freestyle.

Mejia was second in the 500 free and third in the 200 free and MacDonald was third in the 50 backstroke.

In the combined boys-girls competition the Red Bank team finished sixth in the 56-team field as Mary McCue and Ashley Bissett broke the team records for the 15-18 100 freestyle and 1,000, freestyle respectively.

McCue’s 100 record was good for third at the meet and she was third in the 200 individual medley as well.

Bissett garnered silver medals in the 1,650, 500 and 200 freestyle events.

Wes Donnelly swimming in the boys 15-18 age group also medaled, picking up a third in the 100 backstroke.

Also picking up top-six finishes at the meet were Justin Alsobrooks, Tamas Chemez, Jennamarie Devito, Chris Farrell, Veronica LaMura, Matt Titko, Alex List, Vincent Tupper and Paige Bissett.

At the annual New Jersey Junior Olympics Championships held at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Mejia was the top performer for Red Bank, placing second in the 100 and 200 freestyles and third in the 100 backstroke and the 500 freestyle. Mejia, McCarthy and MacDonald were named to the New Jersey All-Star Team.

At the meet MacDonald set a new team age-group record in the 50 backstroke with a time of 28.71, and Katie Tice, swimming in the 11-12 girls age group, set a new team record in the butterfly with a time of 28.62.

The Red Bank Y will be sending a 19-member team to the National YMCA Short Course Championships in Fort Lauder-dale, Fla.

Representing the Red Bank Y will be Ashley Bissett, Chemez, Kevin Connors, Devito, Donnelly, Greg Elzer, Noreen Faughnan, LaMura, Christie LaRusso, Kate Lawes, List, McCue, Mike Meara, Mark Prewitt, Sara Schwartz, Titko, Kyle Williams, Trudy Wojciehowski and Dennis Zilinsky.