![]() By Ariana Stover @arianastover ORANGE -- In the final meet of the season, the Amity High School girl’s swimming and diving team defeated North Haven by a score of 93-84 at Orange Community Center Pool. Before the meet began, Amity’s seven senior swimmers sat by the pool among their family members and received gifts in honor of their final season with team. Over the past four years, this senior class has helped to earn its team a total record of 42-4. Between 2011 and up until the final meet of the 2014-15 season, Amity (9-3) hadn’t lost a single regular season meet. Tonight, Amity’s swimmers dominated North Haven (6-5) as they placed first in eight of the 12 events. North Haven had its most success in the diving events as Isabella Alogna finished first with a score of 183.75. On senior night, though, it was a pair of junior twins that shined. Megan and Maggie Lasto placed first in four different events between the two of them. The 200-yard medley relay was the first event of the evening and Amity placed first with a time of 2:00.59 with Maggie swimming solid to start off the night. Megan placed first in the third event, the 200-yard individual medley, with a final time of 2:17.75 and later again in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.88. For the twins, swimming alongside each other has never really been a competitive thing. “It’s so fun,” Megan said. “We always joke with each other and it’s just fun to share it with her.” The Lasto twins continued to log impressive times as the meet went on. In the 500-yard Freestyle event, Maggie swam to first place with a time of 5:33.88, an impressive seven seconds faster than second-place Jasmine Nguy of North Haven. But the girls are always looking to get better. Next year, Megan hopes to progress in all facets of her swimming. “Get better times and try just to improve my stroke in general, my turns,” Megan said. “Just try to do the best I can for the team.” The swimming community is tight-knit. MaryAnn Smith, mother of Amity senior Brittany, said that the team’s head coach Todd Rainey, coached her daughter when she started swimming. The feeling of unity is overwhelming in the environment of a swim meet. Cheers and words of encouragement echo throughout the room as the swimmers push through the pool. And those senior voices will be missed next season, the swimmers said. “They always just say, ‘Do it for the team,’” Megan said. “They’re always just supportive of everybody no matter what.” Losing seven veterans to graduation isn’t going to be easy, but head coach Rainey said the team has been lucky. “Knock on wood, we always seem to have girls coming in,” Rainey said. “We’ve lost some big swimmers in the past and [we] always seemed to step up.” Southern Connecticut Conference Trials begin Monday, Nov. 2, at 4 p.m. against North Haven.
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