Larkin Finishes Third in State Swimming Championships
Kaitlyn Larkin ascended the victory platform at the New York State Swimming Championships after finishing third in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in East Meadow last Saturday to earn All-State honors.
Larkin, a Huntington High School junior, qualified for the state meet in both the breaststroke and the 200-yard IM. The Blue Devil’s impressive performance has helped raise the profile of Huntington’s swimming program.
Despite feeling less than 100 percent, Larkin was superb in the breaststroke, touching the wall in 1:06.51, behind only three-time state champion Lauren Norberg, an Ithaca junior (1:03.20) and Sewanhaka sophomore Kerrie Kolackovsky (1:06.03). Larkin had been seeded fifth in the event going into the state meet.
“I thought she did great,” Blue Devil coach Lynn Perzeszty said. “She was very strong in the second half of the race. Coming out of the third turn, when her head came up, she was ahead of two other swimmers that she had been trailing and had an excellent finish.”
Larkin also placed 17th of 30 swimmers in the 200 IM in 2:12.74, which was slightly off her preliminary performance of 2:12.00 and well off the pace of state champion Erica Derlath, a Garden City senior who touched in 2:05.13.
“Kaitlyn’s a great kid and a great swimmer,” Perzeszty said. “She swims on a club team and sometimes the top swimmers can be elitist but she’s not like that at all. She is very team oriented.”
Blue Devil Notes: In last year’s state swimming meet, Larkin finished eighth in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:08.27 . . . Her more than 1.5 second improvement in time is considered fantastic . . . The Nassau County Aquatic Center is located on Merrick Avenue, south of Stewart Avenue in Eisenhower Park . . . It was built for the 1998 Goodwill Games and is considered to be one of the finest swimming facilities in the United States.
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