Frank Speziale Photo

NORWICH – With the whole team battling sickness and one of Norwich’s top scoring swimmers still sidelined with an injury, the Purple Tornado pulled off their third meet win of the season over non-conference opponent Holland Patent, 97-70.

Right out of the gate, Norwich’s head coach Saundra Gantt had to mix up the lineup as Melissa Stroh was unable to swim due to illness. Stroh is the first Tornado swimmer in the pool as the backstroke leg of the 200 medley relay.

Gantt moved Kaitlyn Blaisure to the backstroke and place Ashton Wenzel in the freestyle portion of the race. Joined by Margie Winter and Maya Blaisure, the Norwich team finished the race in 2:00.31 for first.

In the 200 yard freestyle, the Purple Tornado captured 11 of the 15 points handed out with Maya Blaisure capturing first, Riley Revoir coming in third and Abigail Natoli following in right behind at fourth.

Holland Patent’s first win of the meet came in the 200 yard individual medley relay as Arianna Lange came in at a time of 2:38.14. Wenzel took second for the event, aiding in more points for the home team.

Winter sprinted the next race, the 50 yard freestyle, in 26.58 seconds. Her time was nearly two seconds faster than the second place swimmer from Holland Patent.

The Golden Knights had one diver compete, giving six points to the visiting team as Norwich has no divers on the roster. Erin Shivas of Holland Patent scored 164.80 on her dives from the 3-meter diving board.