The Norwich Purple Tornado Swim team gathered for a photo with Oxford’s Regan Finnegan in between the Class B and Class C Section IV Championship meets Saturday at Watkins Glen High School. Finnegan swam with the Norwich team in meet for exhibition but earned seeding times for the Class C Championships. Norwich finished fourth overall while Finnegan earned an 8th and 13 placed finish in her two events. (Submitted Photo)

Winter earns Class B title in 100 butterfly

WATKINS GLEN – Not only were the Norwich Purple Tornado swimmers battling the championship field Saturday afternoon. Dealing with a shallow pool, which can cause a competitor to swim a slower time, Norwich handled the challenge well as they came away with a fourth place finish in the Section IV Championship meet at Watkins Glen High School.

The Norwich team totaled 295.5 points with their top 16 finishes in each of the finals heats, capturing the place they did behind Chenango Valley, Maine-Endwell, and Owego – three of the toughest programs in the section.

The Tornado’s Margie Winter was crowned a Section IV Champion in the 100 yard butterfly event, swimming to a time of 1:01.66. Just .13 seconds off from breaking the long-standing school record, Winter defeated the top-seeded Jennifer Scott of Owego.

Scott won the top seed a few days earlier as she edged out the Norwich senior by .01 seconds in the preliminary meet. With one of the few times that were faster than her preliminary seeding time, Winter captured the first place medal by beating the Owego swimmer in a an exciting final dash for the wall.