Larissa Lamarca breaks school swimming record

Harry Vella, Staff Writer

Westwood’s own Larissa Lamarca of the Riverdell/Westwood Girls Swim Team broke the 100 yard girls butterfly record. She broke the record on January 30, 2016 at the Bergen County Championship Meet. Lamarca got a time of 1:01:76, breaking the previous record by over a second. Larissa said, “During the race I knew that I would break the record, there were faster opponents pushing me and giving me more competition, also my team and friends were cheering me on. My friend’s high school coach promised me gummy bears if I broke the record so that helped.”

This was Larissa’s first individual record, which she said made it more special for her. This was also the first Westwood record for boys and girls on the Riverdell/Westwood swim team. After the race Larissa hugged all her teammates who had cheered for her. After the meet she got chinese food to celebrate breaking the record. Larissa said, “When I got out of the water I thought to myself ‘Finally!’ I was extremely happy and when I got out of the water I hugged everyone. It was a big accomplishment for me, and I look forward to hopefully breaking my record next year.” Larissa had wanted this record the whole season and was happy to finally achieve this goal.