NHS Swim Team Sticks With Pomperaug—

Sometimes A Loss Is Almost Like A Win

By Andy Hutchison

After the meet there were some screams of joy from the Newtown High School huddle on the locker room side of the pool deck. No, the Nighthawks didn’t win, but the reactions certainly spoke otherwise.

Newtown High School’s girls’ swimming and diving team hung in there and fell 95-91 to visiting Pomperaug of Southbury on October 14. It was the first loss of the season after eight straight wins for the Hawks and, yet, it was also possibly the most rewarding meet of the nearly completed campaign. After all, it shows the Hawks that they can compete with — and push — the best of the best in the conference, and one of the top teams in Connecticut.

“This was probably the best dual meet I’ve ever been a part of — even from my swimming or coaching experience,” said Newtown High Coach Zach Gauvin, who swam at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. “And I think the girls swam out of their minds today — really put up a good fight against one of the best teams in our conference and even the state. I’m hoping that this can give them the confidence they need to maybe show something a little bit more at SWC time.”

SWC time is, of course, the South-West Conference championship meet — scheduled for early November with the diving portion on November 3 in New Fairfield and the swimming events two days later at Masuk High in Monroe.

Pomperaug, Gauvin believes, has the top echelon swimmers in the conference, but feels his team might have the advantage in terms of depth. With every conference team and a different points system used in the conference championship, there’s no telling what it will take to come out on top, Gauvin says.

“In a championship meet sometimes the depth will take it, sometimes the top swimmer will take it. It’s going to be close though,” Gauvin said.

The result of this meet points to a likely battle for first between the two high-level teams. The regular season clash was in doubt all the way until the final event. The meet was tied heading into the diving competition and Pomperaug built a ten-point lead. The lead grew to 14 before Newtown climbed back to within ten, 91-81 heading into the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Newtown needed a one-two finish to earn a tie and got first, but Pomperaug sealed the win with a runner-up result in the last event.

Gauvin said at the beginning of the year that he believed Newtown could contend for a top-three finish. He knew the Nighthawks would be more competitive with a Pomperaug team that has won the conference crown in four of the last five years, but even he was a bit surprised by the outcome.

“I didn’t think we were going to be this close, but they swam well today and made it awfully, awfully interesting at the end,” the coach said.

Top NHS finishes in the Pomperaug meet are as follows: 200-Yard Medley Relay, first, 1:58.24 – Kelley Baylis, Zoe Eggleston, Kelsey McEvoy, Amy Martinelli. 200 Freestyle, second, Abby Fagerholm, 2:09.44. 200 Individual Medley, third, Zoe Eggleston, 2:24.72. 50 Free, second, Amy Martinelli, 26.33; third, Kelsey McEvoy, 26.76. 100 Butterfly, second, Kelsey McEvoy, 1:03.78; third, Eliza Eggleston 1:08.06. 100 Free, first, Amy Martinelli, 56.61; third, Amanda Mele, 59.41. 500 Free, second, Abby Fagerholm, 5:49.59. 200 Free Relay, second, 1:46.69 – Kelley Baylis, Amy Martinelli, Amanda Mele, Kelsey McEvoy. 100 Backstroke, second, Kelley Baylis, 1:09.32. 100 Breaststroke, second, Zoe Eggleston, 1:13.85; third, Annika Fagerholm, 1:15.24. 400 Free Relay, first, 3:57.79 – Amanda Mele, Eliza Eggleston, Abby Fagerholm, Zoe Eggleston.

The Nighthawks will visit Masuk in Monroe on Friday, October 21, and close out the regular campaign October 25 with a 7 pm home meet against New Fairfield.