On Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, the White Plains High School girls swim team competed in a dual meet against the Ursuline School at the White Plains High School pool.
Unfortunately, the Tigers were unable to pull off a win, losing 96-85 in a close battle. Although it was a loss, the team saw dominant performances from multiple athletes, placing well in multiple events. Divers Ryleigh Baumann, Isabella Benjamin and Emily Walsh put up great scores in the 1-meter dive, earning 215.35, 214.70 and 146.00, respectively. White Plains swept the podium in that event, adding 13 points to the total score.
In non-relay swimming and diving events, first place gets six points, second gets four and third gets three. These points are added up throughout the meet for a final score.
For the individual events, eighth grader Fiona Blaho won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:16.10, only around three seconds off her personal record. Earlier this season, Blaho set the White Plains school record in the 100 fly, with a speedy time of 57.32. Senior Neve Aikman placed well in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke, coming away with second and third in each event, respectively.
Freshman Kelcie Dominick also had a good meet: she walked away with third in the 100 butterfly, setting a new personal best of 1:12.85. She also received first place in the 100-yard breaststroke. Dominick led the team in total NISCA rankings throughout the meet, racking up 40.5 points and three medals (one of each: gold, silver and bronze), with a final score of nine to place fourth among all athletes at the meet.
NISCA (National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association) points are calculated for each event through the power point table provided by the association. Points awarded for each event are based off a swimmer’s time or diver’s score. They are then averaged out based on how many events were competed in and final placement in said events.
Moving on to the relay teams, the Relay C team placed fourth in the 200-yard medley and first for White Plains in the event, earning the team two points overall. They finished with a time of 2:36.50, only 1.97 seconds ahead of the WP Relay A team.
In the next relay event—the 200-yard freestyle—the White Plains Relay A team placed second, earning four points with a time of 1:46.53. Finally, in the 400-yard freestyle relay, White Plains swept the podium with A, B and C teams earning gold, silver and bronze, respectively. This performance added 12 points to the team’s final score, helping to lessen the gap. The times for this event were 4:06.72, 4:43.78 and 4:52.12 for each relay team. This was the last event of the meet.
As of Oct. 22, the girls are 2-8; they have many strong swimmers and divers leading into championship season.
As fall sports head into championship season, girls swim prepares to take on the best New York has to offer. On Friday, Oct. 24, the team heads to the Section 1 League Championships at Felix Festa Middle School Pool in West Nyack, N.Y. There, they will compete for the title of League 1 champions, a subsection of Section 1. The team will then compete in Section 1 Championships, where they are currently ranked ninth out of 33 teams. Sectionals will take place from Nov. 6-10 at the same location. To close out the season, WPHS will go to the New York State Meet from Nov. 21-22 at the Webster High School Aquatic Center in Webster, N.Y. The aforementioned relay squad will compete there against top teams from across the state, hoping to make a good impression for WPHS girls swim. Depending on results from sectionals, individual swimmers may compete at states as well.
