PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Purple Valley Aquatics swimmers Cole Kuster of Williamstown and Asa Stone competed in the New England Senior Championship meet at Brown University over the weekend.

 

Kuster earned a pair of bronze medals and a silver on Sunday.

 

Kuster started the meet Thursday evening by competing in the 1500-meter freestyle. In an thrilling race, Cole chased down the competition one by one during his last 500 meters to finish third with an impressive time drop of 10 seconds. Finishing with a time of 16 minutes, 11.93 seconds, Cole set the tone for the weekend.

 

"It was extremely exciting to see Cole attack this event," coach Dave Dow said. "He was racing some top recruits and athletes in the 1500. Watching him go a best time in the midst of tough training is truly amazing."

 

Kuster and Stone each swam multiple best times Friday afternoon.

 

Stone finished with an amazing race in her 100 backstroke, besting her old time by 1.64 seconds. Cole raced his way to the finals in the evening, where he not only placed top 10 in the 200 freestyle, but also beat an old time by more than 2 seconds. Cole also went on to top a previous time in his 400 IM by more than 6 seconds. 

 

Preliminaries on Day 3 Saturday were equally inspiring as Stone smashed her 200 butterfly time by almost 6 seconds with a time of 2:34.46. Next she swam the 100 freestyle, finishing with a personal best by 1.18 seconds.

 

On Sunday, Stone competed in the 200 backstroke. 

 

Kuster celebrated Day 3 with a third-place finish in the 400 freestyle with a best time of 4:04.42.

 

On Sunday, he earned a spot in the C Finals in the 200 IM, placing 24th out of 87 competitors.

 

Kuster also posted his best finish of the weekend on Sunday in the 800 free, where he finished in 8:22.70, shaving more than 7 seconds off his seed time to place second in the event.