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Published: February 27, 2010 11:30 pm

BOYS SWIMMING: GI’s Carey 12th in 200 free at states

Staff Reports
Niagara Gazette

Grand Island senior Evan Carey closed out his career with a pair of top 15 finishes at the 50th annual New York State Swimming & Diving Championships at Erie Community College’s Flickinger Center Saturday. Carey touched the wall 12th in the 200 freestyle in one minute, 45.24 seconds and came in 14th in the 100 freestyle in 47.87 seconds.

“He was a warrior through it all,” GI coach Rob Collard said, while noting that Carey was battling a sinus infection. “He didn’t have anything left in the tank.”

Niagara Falls sophomore Austin Devlin came home with a 13th-place finish in the one-meter diving. His final score was 415.15 points, which was 35 points more than last season when he placed 15th.

“He was pleased,” NFHS coach Ed Maynard said. “He bobbled a bit on one of his dives, but he recovered nicely and finished strong.”

Lockport senior Mark Wallace made the consolation heat in the 100 backstroke after taking 15th in the preliminaries.

The four locals in the 50 freestyle failed to reach the second day. In the preliminaries, Sam Cale (Niagara Falls) finished 44th, Braden Kozlowski (North Tonawanda) was 48th, Nick Sereday (Kenmore East) took 47th and Scott Farrell (North Tonawanda) came in 52nd. Farrell was 23rd and Kozlowski was 30th in the 100 freestyle preliminaries.

Starpoint’s two state qualifiers Zac Toth and Matt Schutt failed to make the final heats in their events. Toth was 33rd in the 200 individual medley preliminaries and Schutt took 37th in the 100 breaststroke.

Lewiston-Porter’s 400 free relay quartet of Eric Ebert, Paul Campbell, Adam Swift and Nik Curry was disqualified during preliminaries.