By Andrew DeCredico
Over the weekend the Ocean City Girls Swim team sent eight of their very best athletes to the New Jersey Meet of Champions. The eight girls consisted of Amanda Nunan, Maggie Wallace, Ryann Styer, Andrea Teofanova, Aleva Parker, Eve Chiarello, Emily Myers, and Claudia Scherbin. They were among the many talented girls surrounding the pool on Sunday, March 5th.
The Meet of Champions is a statewide competition, in which girls from all over New Jersey need to meet qualifying times to be invited. Team captain Amanda Nunan said that she was “very proud of the girls for making it to the Meet of Champions.” Four girls qualified as a relay team, in addition to a few of them qualifying individually.
The relay team made up of Amanda Nunan, Maggie Wallace, Ryann Styer, and Andrea Teofanova, qualified for the 200m freestyle relay, as well as the 400m freestyle relay. Taking home second place in both events, the girls were happy with the outcome. As a group, the four girls have been undefeated this season in their relay team.
As for individual placement, the girls were happy with the solo results as well. “I’m so happy with how everyone swam today,” said Nunan, “Coming [to the meet] after losing last week, obviously we were a little upset, so we kind of wanted to prove ourselves.” Nunan, who qualified in two individual events, took home two first place wins in the 200m freestyle, as well as the 500m freestyle. Her teammate Ryann Styer took home a first place win in the 50m freestyle, and a 6th place finish in the 100m freestyle. Last but not least, teammate Maggie Wallace finished 4th place in the 200m freestyle, and 2nd place in the 500 freestyle, just behind team captain Amanda Nunan.
Looking forward, the girls say they are hopeful that next year will be as amazing as this year. “Losing Amanda will be tough,” Styer said, talking about Nunan. “She’s like the center of the team, so it will be a disappointment without her.”
“Amanda will be a big loss to the team,” repeated Wallace “ but I think we’ll shape up for next year. We have a couple freshman coming in for next year that I think will do us some good.”
Nunan, who just finished her last season with the team, was happy with the finale to her high school career. “I’m so happy to go out with two wins, especially with my teammates,” said Nunan. When talking about the team next year she was hopeful in stating, “I think they’ll do pretty well. Maggie and Ryann are so strong, and plus all of the other younger girls. We have some really good freshman this year.” Nunan will be continuing her swimming career with a partial swimming scholarship to the University of Tennessee.
