Vikings were more than ready to secure 24th straight ECC swimming championship

East Lyme — East Lyme brought its positive attitude, competitive spirit and confidence from winning the previous 23 Eastern Connecticut Conference swimming championships to the pool on Saturday.The meet ended with the Vikings taking yet another victory plunge.They left the rest of the field in their wake, finishing with 582 points while the Fitch cooperative team, the regular-season champ, placed second with 482. Ledyard/St. Bernard co-op (277), Waterford (259), Norwich Free Academy (168) and Montville (26) rounded out the field.East Lyme's 24th ECC championship came just over a week since head coach Rob Bouchey unexpectedly resigned from his job.Cecilia Emblidge, the assistant coach-turned interim head coach, had no doubt that the Vikings would be ready on Saturday."It's been quite a couple of weeks, but I know we're a strong team and we rise to the occasion," Emblidge said. "I was very confident coming into today. They got the news and they took it in. But we very immediately said that we're going to finish strong. We have strong coaches."I knew we could do it. I tell these girls they're Vikings, 'We are going to row the boat to victory.' And every single one of them picked up a paddle and they all scored points. And that's what it is all about here — teamwork."The Vikings relied on their superior depth and junior Ella Pape, who was named the Swimmer of the Meet.Pape repeated as 100-yard freestyle champion (54.19 seconds) and won the 50 freestyle in a school-record 24.86 seconds. She also joined Julia Morcos, Elsie Jacobitz and Jennifer Park on the winning 200 medley relay team (1:57.95)."I'm very proud of myself, but I'm also very proud of my whole team," Pape said. "Everything is just so amazing how it turned out."East Lyme's only other individual winner was diver Sylvi Otter, who led a Viking sweep by scoring 385.20 points. Samantha Caldwell (diving), Morcos (100 breaststroke) and Jacobitz (100 butterfly) earned runner-up finishes in their respective events.Emblidge, who also is a middle school swim coach, talked about the work that it takes to keep the ECC championship streak alive."The last three have been really tough," Emblidge said. "Just getting the number of swimmers in the area just to fill our squad. We had 17 in the pool, 16 swam in the individuals and one of our divers, Sylvi, pulled double-duty. She won the diving and was in the top nine in the breaststroke."Everybody does what they're asked to do. I just couldn't ask for a better team."There were a number of standout individual performances from other ECC teams.Start with NFA senior Natalie Bezanson, who repeated as 200 individual medley champion in 2:14.87 and won the 100 breaststroke (1:10.27) while competing in that event in the championship meet for the first time.After the meet, Bezanson received the league's Swimmer of the Year award."I'm shocked," Bezanson said. "I think there's a lot of good swimmers in this league that deserve it just as much as I do. But I'm happy. I worked hard the past four years and my hard work has finally paid off."Fitch had several individual winners, including Addison Fulling (100 backstroke, 1:02.90), Anna Orphanides (100 butterfly, 1:01.91) and Jai-Lynn Wheeler (200 freestyle, 2:01.29). The Falcons captured the 400 freestyle relay (Fulling, Gabby Donnarummo, Orphanides, Wheeler, 3:48.91) and 200 freestyle relay (Olivia Nowak, Orphanides, Fulling, Wheeler)."I was pleased with my (100 butterfly) time," Orphanides said. "We haven't tapered yet so I feel that's a pretty good time going into states. It's just been a really fun meet and seeing all my teammates do really great. I think our team has really come together and that has really made me happy."Waterford's Julia Gathy placed first in the 500 freestyle (5:28.13) after placing third last season.Ledyard's Katey Kokomoor was named the ECC Coach of the Year.g.keefe@theday.com