BYNICK CAMMUSO TIMES WEST VIRGINIAN

MORGANTOWN — While expectations have been tempered oh so slight­ly, Fairmont Senior’s swim teams realize the state meet still brings the chance for February magic.

Whatever the reason — perhaps one’s last high school meet, maybe facing West Virginia’s best or even something in the West Virginia University Natatorium water — it happened again during Thursday’s Class AAA state preliminaries.

The Polar Bears chopped seconds off their seed times. They made huge jumps in individual events. Even broke a vaunted school record for good measure.

Add it up, and Fairmont Senior coach Steve Sandor was quite pleased with day No. 1.

'I’m very proud of all the kids,” he said. “When you’ve gone down there and won, you expect (a lot). But after it sunk in, I think we had a really good day.”

None had a better one than the Polar Bears’ Andrew Bonasso.

The senior regional champi­on didn’t just improve upon his 100-yard freestyle seed time (50.7), he shattered it with a career-best run of 49.31.

The mark was good for fourth place in a loaded field. More impressively, it broke the school record by four tenths of a second, which before Thursday was jointly held by both Beau Krpicak and Brett Parker.

“He had one of the greatest days in Polar Bear history,” Sandor said.

And he’s now just the sec­ond Fairmont Senior boys’ swimmer to place in each indi­vidual event he’s entered — eight for eight in all over four years — joining Jonathan Turner.

Sandor, for one, had a feel­ing something special was brewing earlier in the day.

“We almost could feel it,” he said. “(Andrew) was relaxed and focused and having a won­derful time. You could see in coming in the first 50 (yards) — he wanted it and he got it. It was a beautiful thing.”

Bonasso added a fourth­place finish in the 50 free (22.69) and stands an outside shot of setting another school mark in the event. He also teamed with Evin Mathai, Logan Demyon and Alex Petry for seventh in the 400 free relay (3:44.44), plus joined the latter two and Andrew McCoy to take eighth in the 200 free relay (1:38.76).

Petry, a sophomore, had a strong individual showing in the 100 backstroke, finishing one spot ahead of his seed in 10th with a time of 1:01.68.

Much like Bonasso, East Fairmont’s Grant Chapman made some big gains at the perfect time.

In the 200 IM, the senior took seven seconds off his Region II time, hitting the wall in 2:19.34. That earned him an eighth-place finish. He took 14th in the 100 fly (1:01.10), just missing a spot in the con­solations, but ended up with the day’s second personal best. “He probably had the two best swims of his high school career,” East coach Brenda Moran said of Chapman. “He deserves to be there. I would have never dreamed what (he did Thursday) ... I’m really happy for him.”

On the girls’ side, Fairmont Senior is in a rare position, with just one individual or relay team competing in today’s finals. The 200 free relay squad of Brionna Minney, Tessa Gardner, Sarah Cover and Chelsea Clark took fourth (1:49.62).

The Polar Bears, though, did manage to put numerous ath­letes in the consolations.

Fairmont Senior’s 200 med­ley relay team of Autumn Hansen, Alexandrea Murray, Brionna Minney and Sarah Cover placed seventh (2:03.50), as did the 400 free relay team made up of Cover, Gardner, Clark and Zela Wyrosdick (4.07.66).

Others in the consolations include Wyrosdick, who took ninth in the 500 free (6:02.33) and 12th in the 200 free (2:15.08). Minney was 11th in the 50 free (27.33) and ninth in the 100 fly (1:07.39), Clark was 11th in the 100 free (1:00.45), Cover was 12th in the 50 free (27.39), and Erica Amos went from a No. 20 seed to 12th in the 100 back­stroke (1:09.99). 'We had some tremendous performances. The day went pretty well; they really cut some times,' Sandor said. 'A lot of it is being young and maybe they had not reached their taper yet. You have to have (a great swimmer) to get some big points.”

East Fairmont's lone girls’ qualifier, freshman Reghan Bailey, took 14th in the 50 free (27.55).

Today's finals consists of the top six times in each event. The next half-dozen, spots seven through 12, make up the consolations.

Swimming resumes will the girls’ event at 8:30 a.m., with the boys to follow at 3:30 p.m.
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