Norwich’s Angela Carlson (center) gets a good start off the block in the 100 yard freestyle event against Greene on Tuesday, October 8. Carlson had a good performance at the Elmira Invitational Saturday, helping her team secure a podium finish in the 400 yard relay. The Lady Purple Tornado had several other swimmers top their best times this season at the large meet that featured 19 of the top compettive teams in New York State.

Tornado swimmers improve times throughout team

ELMIRA – Saturday’s Elmira Invitational saw 19 of the top high school swim teams from Section IV and Section V meet in the pool for an exciting day of races.

The Lady Purple Tornado swimmers were one of those 19 teams, giving the Norwich squad a large meet to participate in before sectionals early next month. The Tornado had many swimmers finish in the top of the Class B events despite the races being swam across Class A, Class B and Class C.

Overall, Norwich swimmers stood on the podium at the end of two events with several of the girls finish with some of their best personal times.

The Purple Tornado’s Katie Blaisure place fourth out of all swimmers in the 50 yard freestyle as she kicked her way to a time of 25.61 seconds. Teammate Angela Carlson just missed the podium, placing seventh with a 26.23, falling to the sixth place swimmer by .09 of a second.

Norwich’s 400 yard freestyle relay team finished sixth in the event out of all teams in the three classes, racing to a time of 4:05.09 – nearly seven seconds better than their seed time. Carlson started off the race with Abby Hansen and Margie Winter taking the middle stretches and Blaisure was the Tornado’s anchor.