OWEGO – After sending 11 of their swimmers into the finals in the preliminary meet Wednesday night, Norwich was able to capture fourth place as a team in the Section IV Class B Championships, held at Owego High School Saturday.

After breaking the school record on Wednesday, the Purple Tornado’s Kaitlyn Blaisure started the 200 yard freestyle event out by touching the wall in fifth but the a close race as the top six teams were within tenths of a second. The team moved into first with Maya Blaisure’s split of 25.81 and stayed in first after Carlson kept pace.

Despite swimming a great split of 25.20, Winter was caught by Maria Pignatelli of Maine-Endwell – who swam a brisk 23.80 seconds in 50 yards – the Norwich foursome placed second in the event by .15 of a second.

In the first event of the day, the Norwich team took on the field in the 200 yard medley relay. Melissa Stroh swam the first leg, the backstroke, of the event and set her team into fifth place. Maya Blaisure moved her team up to fourth and that is where the team stayed for the remainder of the race with Margie Winter maintaining the pace and Angela Carlson slightly closing the gap.