Wellsville Lady Sea Lions win Section V, Class C championship for very first time in program history; Hand, Waldon receive top honors

The Lady Sea Lions of Wellsville gather for a team photo in front of the bus shortly arriving back home from Webster, where the program won their first ever Section V, Class C Championship on Saturday to cap off the perfect season. [PHOTO PROVIDED]

WEBSTER — In recent years and even in years past, the Wellsville Lady Sea Lions have absolutely dominated the swimming pool whether it was over the road, or in their own pool. One immaculate season after another. But in between all of them, the Lady Sea Lions have not been able to something they couldn’t do before - capture a Sectional title.

The condensed 2020 season for Wellsville may be their best chance yet to complete that long-traveled adventure to the top of the Class C mountain. All that was left to do to take the water against 11 other teams to find their way to the top. The rest was history.

After setting the tone almost immediately with their first of three total Sectional patches, it helped Wellsville chart a course for the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon, as they compiled multiple finishes inside the top 10 in almost every event at the Class C Championships to total 428 points, ahead of second place Livonia and third place Midlakes/Red Jacket to win the program’s first ever Section V title in Webster.

Wellsville head coach Steve Hand says it’s been a long time coming for not only his girls, but the school itself.

“For some girls, this has been a six-year process for others to walk on a team, and win sectionals was easy,” he said. “Either way, I’m proud of all the girls on the team. They all played a part in an undefeated year that included a Sectional title. To start off, winning the first event was huge and a big tone-setter for the rest of the meet. Tiernee, Grace, Isabelle and Lauren all took home patched with that first place finish. All the girls continued to drop times and continued to get us the points. We had great finishes for big points as the meet went on, and the last relay of the meet were all bonus points.”

The team of Tiernee Brandes, Grace Kinnicutt, Isabelle Hart and Lauren Staba all started it off with a bang for Wellsville, as they collected the team’s first set of Sectional patches with the top finish in the 200 medley relay, racing to a first place finish of 2:04.96. Another win came along a short time later in the very next event, as Hayden Waldon won her first of two Sectional patches in the 200 freestyle (2:04.42). The next would come in the back half of the meet with a winning 1:14.60 time in the 100 breaststroke.

Her efforts led to a Swimmer of the Meet honor at the end of the final meet.

In the relay department, the Lady Lions nearly secured a second Sectional patch with the team of Staba, Waldon, Hart and Morgan Mattison recorded a strong second place finish with a time of 1:50.57 in the 200 freestyle relay. They would finish their Sectional title winning day with a fourth place finish in the 400 relay.

As to where else the Lady Sea Lions got a big amount of Sectional points from? Multiple finishes in the top 10 in almost every event. Some of the highlights across the meet included Wellsville seeing four swimmers record a top-10 finish in an event not once, but twice, starting in the 100 butterfly event, with Lauren Staba very nearly grabbing a Sectional patch herself to close our her career, placing second with a time of 1:08-flat. Hart, Kinnicutt and Kennedy Ewing all placed third (1:10.73), fifth and 10th respectively.

Staba also helped lead the charge for Wellsville to score four more top-10 finishes in the 100 backstroke event later on, with her pacing the leaderboard with a 1:09.02, third-place finish. Brandes, Kinnicutt and Emily Budinger all recorded fourth, fifth and ninth place finishes each in the event to help the cause.

On the diving board, both Kaylee and Ashley Oswald provides fantastic showings for the Lady Sea Lions, as they finished back-to-back with third (288.55) and fourth to continue Wellsville’s efforts into the back half of the meet.

Other individual finishes for the Lady Sea Lions and their very successful and historic day were: Brandes and Hart in the 200 individual medley, scoring third (2:31.40) and seventh place finishes, a sixth place finish for Mattison in the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle, Ellie LaBenne, Ewing and Allie Bidzerkowny finishing third (6:02.23), sixth and seventh in the 500 freestyle, and lastly Bidzerkowny and Kaelyn Crawford placing ninth and 10th in the 100 breaststroke.

Coach Hand was also honored with Class C’s top award as Coach of the Year for the 2020 season.

“It was a crazy year, and Pal-Mac had a few key swimmers out that really opened the door a little wider for us,” the Lady Sea Lions coach said. “Livonia as always gave us a huge fight. The girls all dropped time tonight, and that was all that I could ask for. It got us a huge win, and with no fans in the stands, it was different for sure. I am so proud of all these girls, and we cannot wait to defend this title next year.”

The season may now be over for the Lady Sea Lions, but a new season in the water begins for Wellsville, as the boys swimming team will make their first official dive into Sectional competition when low-risk sports begin practices next Monday, November 30 around New York State.