The East Haven girls' swim team is much different than most high school squads. The Yellowjackets lost their feeder team in the early 2000's, leaving the program busy in recruiting and rebuilding a team full of new, inexperienced swimmers. Returning for his second year, Head Coach Jeremy Landa led East Haven into this season, backed by his Assistant coach Taylor Miessau. Last year, the team was learning a lot of the basics of swimming, but with that experience under its belt, the Yellowjackets have taken the steps necessary towards understanding what it takes to be competitive.

"The learning curve has been very steep," said Landa. "However, this year we have seen some excellent growth as many of the girls have already posted personal-best times. The team has learned important lessons about dedication, teamwork, and commitment both at practice and meets."

Although the team was unable to win a meet win this season, it has individually surpassed all expectations and Landa is proud of how far his team has come. Landa pushed the envelope, having the senior swimmers embrace new traditions like the iron woman in practice and the hard work paid off as soon as the season began. In one of the biggest highlights of the season, East Haven posted more wins in individual events in its first five meets than it had all of last year. As a team, the swimmers gained great experience and the number of athletes competing in multiple new events greatly increased throughout the season.

Senior captains Kayla Poirier, Lauren Francois, and Kia Pirro were among the leaders of the squad this season.

"They brought a combination of humor, enthusiasm, dedication, and commitment to this team," said Landa. "As a group, we are a very small team, but the captains have been very influential towards creating a tight-knit community that we put forth to have a fun season."

Despite its record, East Haven did pull away with some close match-ups, especially early in the season when the Yellowjackets hosted Mercy on Sept. 21. Regardless of having the home-team advantage, Mercy took the edge in a very close 67-59 score over East Haven. In another close match-up, the team hosted Foran, and although it fell 87-61, East Haven won the 200 free relay with a time of 2:20.02 with swimmers including Karissa Ferraro, Ali Garmizo, Brianna Grippo, and Natalia Perez. Poirier triumphed in the 100 backstroke (1:25.12), while Garmizo was back on top with the 100 breaststroke (1:47.99). Grippo, Poirer, Debbie Anyzewski and Pirro teamed up the 400 free relay, defeating their opponent at 5:22.48.

Anyzewski, a very impressive first-year swimmer, dropped eight seconds in her 200 free from 3:07 to 2:59.03 and also dropped two seconds in the 100 free to go 1:17.39. Christina Buckmiller had a best time in the 50 free of 38.01 and dropped two seconds from her best 100 backstroke to go 1:43.25. Most striking, Perez dropped an incredible 16 seconds in the 500 free (6:41.47).

As for the future, Landa is hopeful to have another successful, exciting season by the pool in 2012.

"We are hoping that the strong culture of the group will help us continue having the types of improvements we did last year with the help of the underclassmen girls. Natalia Perez and Briana Grippo, who are both sophomores, are each rising to be leaders of the team in the pool and outside of the pool," said Landa. "This was our second year of rebuilding, and the team, while small, has shown some major improvements from a year ago. We are hoping to be more competitive than last year and continue creating excitement among the girls on the team. Overall, we are looking to continue building a strong community of swimmers."