The Pine Bush Bushmen’s contingent at the NYS girls’ swimming championships is smaller, but success is still expected.

A year after the Bushmen sent what coach John Barth then described as the best overall team the Bushmen had taken to state meet, the Bushmen will take their top individual swimmer – Sadie DeGeorge – and their 200-yard medley relay team to the New York State Federation championship meet on Friday and Saturday at the Webster Aquatic Center.

“That’s a little bit less than normal, but you have to rebuilding eventually, right? So now we’ll just rebuild.”

That didn’t stop the Bushmen from winning their seventh straight

Section 9 championship and DeGeorge will lead the Bushmen into the state meet, competing in all three of Pine Bush’s events. She will compete individually in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events after winning the Section 9 championship in both, and she also will lead the second-place 200-yard medley relay, which came in under the state qualification time of by fractions of a second.

The relay team also includes Maya Oakes, Ella Humphrey, and Alanah Giannini.

DeGeorge has state meet experience and swam individually at the state meet last year, having gone in the 200-yard individual medley. She finished 36th.

She also teamed with Humphrey, and graduated seniors Ashley Martin and Mackenzie Gula to finish 19th in the 200-yard freestyle relay and seniors Katie Webster, Martin and Gula to take 15th in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Oakes and Humphrey teamed with Ashley Martin and Katie Webster last year in the 200-yard medley relay and finished seventh.

DeGeorge didn’t hit the state qualifying time in her individual events but qualified by winning the Section 9 championship. Her 200 time of 1:57.79 was a was a personal best and her 500 time of 5:17.32 was a season-best.

Paige Gandolfini also met the qualifying diving score by about six points in the 1-meter diving event.

“We’re looking forward to going more best times,” DeGeorge said. “We’re also hoping we get a better time in the medley. For me, I want to go faster in my two events.”

Barth has more specific goals in mind for his athletes.

“I’m hoping they get top 20 with their times, and I hope Sadie does the same,” Barth said.

Valley Central will to send two divers to states: Eleanor O’Neill and Rilee Kinsley.

O’Neill qualified with an 11-dive score of 442.55 at the Orange County Interscholastic Championships and Kinsley qualified with a score of 446.90 at the Valley Central 11-dive meet on Oct. 11.

The diving event will take place in its entirety on Friday.