Madison Girls Swim Ends Incredible Playoff Run With A Win, 3 Team Records, and Meet Of Champions Cut

Yanyan Li, Staff Writer|February 28, 2022

The #3 seeded  Madison Girls Swim Team opened their first playoffs in two years with a sectional quarterfinals win against Belvidere. However, they were then were eliminated in the semifinals to #2 seeded Caldwell, which ended their season. Regardless of the final outcome, the girls still had their two fastest meets of the season during this playoff run.

Belvidere

Two team records were set during this 109-61 quarterfinal win against Belvidere: the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Junior Karen Wu, junior Bella Guarino, senior Lily Barisonek, and sophomore Erin Barisonek took the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:55.44 that smashed the team record of 1:59.32 from 2020 set by Wu, Lily Barisonek, and alumni Anne Bolt and Gwen Lukasavage. The relay’s time was also half a second off of the Meet of Champions qualifying team. The Meet of Champions is the biggest meet and hardest meet to qualify for in New Jersey high school swimming, and Madison had not sent a girls’ relay there since the 2017-18 season. 

In the 400 free relay, the same group of girls set their second team record of the meet in a time of 3:53.13, surpassing Emma Danzo, Gwen Lukasavage, Lily Barisonek, and Allie O’Keefe’s old record time of 3:53.65.

Some other highlights of this meet: 

  • The Dodger girls went 1-2-3 in the 100 breast, with Lily Barisonek finishing first with a time of 1:10.47, Bella Guarino coming in second with a time of 1:12.84, and junior Louise Nielsen in third with a time of 1:29.76. Nielsen set a personal best time by 2 seconds in the event, surpassing the mark of 1:31.75 that she set earlier this season.
  • Lily Barisonek was the second girl under 59 seconds this season in the 100 free when she split a 57.68 to anchor the record-breaking 400 free relay. She also won the 200 individual medley in a time of 2:15.17.
  • Karen Wu swept her two individual events, winning the 100 and 200 free with times of 55.16 and 2:03.33 respectively.
  • Bella Guarino won the 100 butterfly in a time of 1:08.49.

Rutherford

Although the Dodger girls lost the semifinal meet to Caldwell 96-74, this meet was most definitely their faster meet out of the two playoff meets.

The competition opened up with Wu, Guarino, Lily Barisonek, and Erin Barisonek breaking their old team record from the last meet in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:54.44, which finally got them under the qualifying time for the Meet of Champions. 

When the girls just missed the qualifying time against Belvidere, Karen Wu was swimming the backstroke leg of the relay and Erin Barisonek was swimming freestyle. Swapping their order at the Rutherford meet to have Barisonek swim backstroke, her stronger stroke, and Wu swim freestyle seemed to be what caused the team to go faster this time around. In addition, Lily Barisonek also went a second faster than she had in the butterfly leg of the relay at the Belvidere meet, splitting 27.27 compared to 28.27 at Belvidere.

Some other highlights of this meet:

  • Lily Barisonek won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2:12.36, which is the fastest time on the team this season. She beat her old season-best time of 2:15.37 by nearly three seconds. Barisonek also won the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:11.05.
  • Another achievement was made in the 200 medley relay when junior Nina Kornchankul broke 30 seconds for the first time in her 50 free anchor leg on the “B” relay, splitting 29.54 seconds.
  • Karen Wu became the first girl under 26 AND 25 seconds in the 50 free this season (both flat starts and relay starts included) when she first split 25.22 in the freestyle leg of the 200 medley relay, and then went a 24.95 in the individual 50 free event. Wu lost that race by a hair to Caldwell’s Charlotte Lepis, who touched the wall just 0.02 seconds before her. Wu won the 100 freestyle in a time of 54.99.
  • Layla Knoll was the highest placer for Madison in the 500 free, finishing third with a time of 6:09.76. Knoll has seen a massive time drop during playoffs, as her best time in the event before the state tournament (high school meets only) was a 6:34.91.