EAST SANDWICH – There’s something to be said for an athlete who perseveres without a true place to perfect their craft.
For the past two years, delays in repairs to the Sandwich High School pool prevented the Blue Knights from utilizing it for practices and meets, but not for one moment did that put a damper on the drive, focus and success of this year’s senior captain Brian Cundiff.
2014-15 Capecod.com Coach of the Year Katie McCully and Capecod.com Swimmer of the Year Hannah Johnson and Nauset’s All-Cape & Islands Swimmers and teammates
Photo courtesy of Sue Campbell Linnell
For starters, Cundiff set a new Sandwich High School record in the boys’ 50-yard freestyle with a 22.21 mark and he did it in grand scale at the MIAA swimming and diving South Sectionals at Boston University. The mark was good enough to earn him a fourth place spot and qualified him for states. He also took a 10th place mark in the 100-yard freestyle with his time of 50.15.
Cundiff parlayed those performances into a 51.72 time in the 100-yard butterfly at the MIAA Division 2 Swimming and Diving State Championships at M.I.T., coming in sixth place out of 32 qualifying competitors and was just a hair away from qualifying as a high school All-American.
Earlier in the season, he set a new pool record at the Martha’s Vineyard YMCA when he finished with a mark of 23.43 in the 50-yard freestyle when the Blue Knights ventured to the island for a regular season match-up.
He followed up that regular-season mark with a pair of Bay Colony Conference championship medals when he took first place in the boys’ 50-yard freestyle (23.26) and boys’ 100-yard freestyle (51.74).
To top things off, Cundiff not only earned the respect of opposing swimmers, but just as importantly, he earned the acknowledgement of opposing coaches that indeed, this year’s Capecod.com 2014-15 All-Cape & Islands Swimmer of the Year honor belonged unequivocally on his shelf.
2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands Girls’ Swimmer of the Year
On a team loaded with individual talent, including eight swimmers who qualified for the state championships at M.I.T. last month, one Warrior stood out and then some.
Junior Hannah Johnson, a perennial Bay Colony Conference All-Star, helped pace the Nauset girls to a stellar 5-1 regular season record but at the states last month she truly stepped forward as possibly the premier high school female swimmer on Cape Cod.
Nauset’s Best: Katie Walters, Nika Dadoly, Whitney Knowlton-Wardle, Brooke Linnell, Hannah Walsh, Kara Smith and Hannah Johnson. (Missing: Annie Harris).
Photo Courtesy of Sue Campbell Linnell
Johnson took fifth place at states in the 50-yard freestyle with a mark of 25.24, an amazing feat considering there were 52 other swimmers vying against her. She was first in the pool for her Warrior four-women 200-yard freestyle relay team that came in 11th place overall, finishing with a mark of 1:45.95 (the team included Whitney Knowlton-Wardle, Katie Walters and Kara Smith) and her coupe de grace?
Johnson took second place in the girls’ 100-yard backstroke with her mark of 58.59, finishing just behind state champ Ellie Ronan of Marblehead High.
But Johnson still wasn’t through at States. As part of the Nauset girls’ 400-yard freestyle relay team, Johnson helped the Warriors to a 14th place finish out of 25 qualifiers with a time of 54.74, truly making it a remarkable season for w young lady who has one more to go wearing the black and gold (Smith, Knowlton-Wardle and Hannah Walsh were also part of that relay team).
All totaled, Nauset made its mark at the states, finishing 14th overall with 49 points and Johnson contributed to 100% of those points and undeniable factor in making her the 2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands Girls’ Swimmer of the Year.
2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands Coach of the Year
The daughter of a successful high school coach from Western Massachusetts, this Nauset High longtime teacher and cross country coach is accustomed to running her athletes up the 116 steps and 60 ramps of the all-granite Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown just for a bit of training.
But boy does she know how to build a championship-level swim team.
Nauset Regional High School’s Katie McCully is this year’s first-ever Capecod.com 2014-15 All-Cape & Islands Coach of the Year and for good reason.
The combined 11-1 record of the Nauset boys’ and girls’ swim teams this season was remarkable in and of itself, with McCully’s boys taking the Bay Colony Conference title and the girls just missing the title with a late-season loss to Nantucket.
Even more remarkable are the eight Nauset girls and five boys who qualified for states under her tutelage, training and mentorship.
2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands Boys’ Swim Team
Stephen Yezukevicz (Jr.), Barnstable High School
Liam Russo (Sr.), Barnstable High School
Alex Damiecki (Jr.), Barnstable High School
Connor Rogan (Sr.), Barnstable High School
Jake Avery (Jr.), Nauset Regional High School
Jack Johnson (Fr.), Nauset Regional High School
Kevin Johnson (Jr.), Nauset Regional High School
Coleman Norton (Fr.), Nauset Regional High School
Tyler Wheeler (Soph.), Nantucket
Patrick Best (Soph.), Martha’s Vineyard
Henry Blackwell (Sr.), Nantucket
Elias Loughery (Soph.), Nantucket
Billy Dykas, (Soph.), Sandwich High School
Lars Strudwick (Fr.), Nantucket
Chris Bresnhan (Fr.), St. John Paul II
Ben Carlson (So.), Sandwich High School
Nick Smith (Sr.), Nauset Regional High School
Bryan Gass (Jr.), Nauset Regional High School
Brian Cundiff (Sr.), Sandwich High School
2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands Girls’ Swim Team
Kerry Bresnahan (Fr.), St. John Paul II
Kristen Hayes (Sr.), St. John Paul II
Mackenzie Hagist (Sr.), Sandwich High School
Bailey Maiato (Sr.), Sandwich High School
Megan Forrester (Jr.), Sandwich High School
Kaitlyn Scott (Jr.), Sandwich High School
Whitney Knowlton-Wardle (Sr.), Nauset Regional High School
Kara Smith (Sr.), Nauset Regional High School
Brooke Linnell (So.), Nauset Regional High School
Nika Dadoly (So.), Nauset Regional High School
Hannah Johnson (Jr.), Nauset Regional High School
Hannah Walsh (Sr.), Nauset Regional High School
Katie Walters (Fr.), Nauset Regional High School
Annie Harris (Sr.), Nauset Regional High School
Nicole Gottlieb (Jr.), Nantucket
Katherine Pittman (Fr.) , Nantucket
Sophie Davies (Sr.) , Nantucket
Dakota Dragon (Jr.) , Nantucket
Isabelle Roberts (So.) , Nantucket
Frances Steadman (Jr.) , Nantucket
Claudia Hofford (Fr.) , Nantucket
Lia Potter (Fr.), Martha’s Vineyard
Renee Goodale (So.), Martha’s Vineyard
Hannah Geoffrion (8th), Barnstable High School
Caroline Ells (Jr.), Barnstable High School
Molly Autery (Fr.), Barnstable High School
These selections were compiled by Capecod.com Sports Editor Sean Walsh with the aid of coaches’ recommendations, news reports, statistics and more. To email Capecod.com sports editor Sean Walsh, send to [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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