The Tornado's Abigail Natoli swims freestyle during Wednesday meet against Susquehanna Valley, a meet Norwich won 80-53. Natoli placed third and fifth in her two individual events during the meet. (Keith Lanfear Photo)

NORWICH – With most of the veterans on the Norwich swim team battling sickness, the Lady Tornado’s head coach Saundra Gantt had to shake up the lineup for Wednesday’s meet against Susquehanna Valley. Seeing most of the younger girls on the roster swim different events, Gantt’s moves paid off as Norwich topped the Sabers 80-53.

“We have a number of older girls sick right now,” said Gantt. “We depended heavily on the younger girls this meet and they showed up in a big way for us. I’m vey proud of how each one of them stepped up and filled some big shoes as it is some of the girls’ third meets at the varsity level.”

One of those young swimmers was Julia Llewelyn, coming away from the meet with second place finishes in the 200 yard individual medley, the 100 yard butterfly and as a member of the 200 yard freestyle relay.

Addyson Whaley captured a second place finish in the meet’s longest event, the 500 yard freestyle race. Whaley started off the the event with a first split of 38.70 and continued to swim even splits throughout the race. In the final 50 yards, the Norwich sophomore kicked it up a notch as she finished with a 39.89 split and ended with a final time of 7:25.09. She also took fourth in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 31.89.