Wellsville closes out regular season perfect in the water, docking seven wins in their 93-68 win over Letchworth

Wellsville’s Hayden Waldon comes up for air, as she competes in the 200 yard freestyle event in Tuesday’s regular season home finale against Letchworth. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville’s Isabelle Hart competes in the 200 yard individual medley relay event during Tuesday night’s regular season home finale against Letchworth. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville’s Sarah McCormick prepares to surface for a fresh breath of air, as she races the first leg of the 200 medley relay event in Tuesday night’s regular season home finale against Letchworth. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville’s Reegan Perkins swims the backstroke during the 200 yard individual medley relay event in Tuesday night’s regular season home finale against Letchworth. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville’s Talia O’Connor comes up for a fresh breath of air during the 50 yard freestyle event in Tuesday night’s regular season home finale against Letchworth. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville’s Megan Vanetten competes in the 200 yard individual medley relay event during Tuesday night’s regular season home finale against Letchworth. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville’s Kennedy Ewing grabs a fresh breath of air, as she competes in the 200 yard freestyle event during Tuesday night’s regular season home finale against Letchworth. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

WELLSVILLE — As Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra once touted in his famous song My Way: “The end is near, and so I face the final curtain”, the Lady Sea Lions of Wellsville faced the final curtain in hopes of capping off another tremendous season with a perfect record in the water.

Ever since their monumental season opening victory over Livonia back at the beginning of the month, the Lady Sea Lions have surfed wave after wave toward victory. It was no different when the curtain came down on what ended up being a perfect 6-0 season, as they gathered seven wins altogether to put the finishing touches on a 93-68 season finale win over Letchworth.

“It was the last meet of the year, and it was kind of bittersweet. It was never really a team goal to go undefeated this year, but it happened.” Lady Sea Lions coach Steve Hand said. “Our first goal was to win the LCAA’s, but with COVID, we didn’t have that meet this year so we went up to Sectionals. We beat Livonia in our first meet here at home, and we carried that moment for the rest of the season. This meet tonight helped both teams get faster and better.”

In all, Wellsville (6-0) gathered five individual wins to go with their two relay victories in the meet, starting out strong with the team of Tiernee Brandes, Grace Kinnicutt, Isabelle Hart and Morgan Mattison collaborating on a 2:14.10 time in the 200 medley relay event to give them the beginning they aimed for.

The Lady Sea Lions would go on to collect three straight individual victories out of the next four events in the opening half of the meet, with Hart leading the charge on her lone individual win in the 200 individual medley relay event, finishing with a time of 2:44.88. In between her finish, Hayden Waldon and Emily Budinger added wins of their own in the 200 freestyle (2:08.65), and 50 freestyle (30.57) respectively.

In the back half of the meet, Wellsville added two more individual wins from Mattison in the 100 butterfly (1:21.10), and two events later in the 500 freestyle from Ellie LaBenne (6:21.87) before posting their final relay victory from the team of Mattison, Hart, Waldon and Leah McCormick in the 200 freestyle relay, medaling with a time of 2:00.94.

Behind the victories, the Lady Sea Lions were able to get multiple second and third place finishes, mostly from their youth, as Hand and his team continue to grab as many Sectional points as possible for his young swimmers to compete in the Sectional meet, which will begin in just over two weeks time on November 21.

But beforehand, they will travel to Livonia for a tri-meet exhibition Friday night to prepare, as they battle both the host Lady Bulldogs and Palmyra-Macedon - a foe Hand says will be tough to handle when the Sectional meet arrives.

“The team will need everything we have to beat Pal-Mac,” he said. “Now it’s time to buckle down and push hard for Sectionals. We have the Diving meet coming up before we get to Sectionals itself. There won’t be any fans in attendance, so it will be a different feeling for sure. We have some pretty dedicated fans, and some awesome parents that really love supporting this program in every way possible.”

Results: Wellsville 93, Letchworth 68

200 Medley – 1. Wellsville (Brandes, Kinnicutt, Hart, Mattison) 2:14.10, 2. Letchworth, 3. Wellsville.

200 Free – 1. Hayden Waldon (WLSV) 2:08.65, 2. Emily Greene (LET), 3. Kennedy Ewing (WLSV).

200 IMR – 1. Isabelle Hart (WLSV) 2:44.88, 2. Reegan Perkins (WLSV), 3. Megan Vanetten (WLSV).

50 Free – 1. Emily Budinger (WLSV) 30.57, 2. Sarah McCormick (WLSV), 3. Lila Bailey (LET).

Diving – 1. Sidney Simmons (LET) 219.90, 2. Ashley Oswald (WLSV), 3. Kaylee Oswald (WLSV).

100 Fly – 1. Morgan Mattison (WLSV) 1:21.10, 2. Cameron Gordon (WLSV).

100 Free – 1. Emily Greene (LET) 57.91, 2. Hayden Waldon (WLSV), 3. Emily Budinger (WLSV).

500 Free – 1. Ellie LaBenne (WLSV) 6:21.87, 2. Kennedy Ewing (WLSV), 3. Megan Vanetten (WLSV).

200 Relay – 1. Wellsville (Mattison, L. McCormick, Hart, Waldon) 2:00.94, 2. Letchworth, 3. Wellsville.

100 Back – 1. Mylah McCormick (LET) 1:42.78, 2. Brooklyn Hastreiter (LET), 3. Hunter Schoeder (LET).

100 Breaststroke – 1. Sidney Simmons (LET) 1:35.66, 2. Lila Bailey (LET).

400 Free – 1. Letchworth (McMurtry, Mackenzie, McCormick, Wilber) 5:47.66.