WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Lasto sisters Mollee, Megan and Maggie (Orange) combined for three individual firsts, three seconds and a third and two of them also contributed to a winning relay as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's swim team opened its home season with a pair of wins Saturday at the Sports Center pool.
In her home debut, Megan won the 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley and swam the anchor on the winning 200 medley relay. Mollee swam the opening leg of the 200 medley relay and placed second in the 50 and 100 backstroke, while Maggie took second in the 1000 freestyle and third in the 100 freestyle. Mollee is a junior and Megan and Maggie are freshman twin sisters.
Eastern defeated Bridgewater State University, 140-120 and Regis College, 150-110, while Bridgewater trimmed Regis, 132-128.
Eastern swimmers finished second or first in 11 of the 12 individual events.
In addition to swimming the second leg of the winning 200 medley relay, junior Amber Albe (Wallingford) – who achieved All-NEISDA honors in all three breaststroke events last year -- took home firsts in the 50 and 100 breaststroke.
In addition to Mollee and Maggie Lasto, Eastern swimmers collecting second-place finishes were junior Hayley Mangan (Manchester) in the 50 butterfly and freshmen Saige Grace (East Hampton) in the 50 freestyle and Kerry-Rose Buchanan (Southington) in the 500 freestyle. Junior Carly Mangan (Manchester) swim the third leg of the winning 200 medley relay.
For Bridgewater, junior Haley Nolan captured the 1,000 freestyle and was second in the 100 freestyle and sophomore Mackenzie Coogan claimed the 500 freestyle. For Regis, sophomore Jessica Zernitsky was a double winner in the 50 butterfly and 50 freestyle, while senior Jessica Higgins won the 100 backstroke and took second in the 200 IM and 200 freestyle. Additional Regis winners were sophomores Sarah Leonard in the 50 backstroke and Kasey Gagnon in the 100 freestyle. Zernitsky and Higgins also contributed to the winning 200 freestyle relay.
Eastern competes in the Massachusetts Dartmouth Invitational Saturday at noon.
