NHS Girls’ Swimming—

No Home Facility, No Official Meet — No Problem

By Andy Hutchison

NEW FAIRFIELD — Newtown High School’s girls’ swimming and diving team may not have a home pool this season, but the girls continue to work hard to improve thanks the availability of Oxford High’s pool as a “home” venue while construction continues at NHS.

As if this season hasn’t been unusual enough with the bus rides down Route 34 to Oxford every day after school, the Nighthawks had yet another change to overcome when they visited New Fairfield for a meet on October 15. The meet turned into an unofficial scrimmage since the judges and scorers were not on hand.

The Nighthawks, unofficially, lost by four points to their tough South-West Conference rivals in what NHS Coach Zach Gauvin hopes ends up being just a tune-up for the real deal.

“We swam pretty well today — put up a good fight against New Fairfield. Unfortunately, it was an unofficial meet, but we’re going to try to get it rescheduled — get back into the water,” Gauvin said.

The coach added that he believes his team has a good shot at beating New Fairfield and hopes the girls get that chance.

“We had a lot of encouraging signs. We had a couple of good swimmers who weren’t swimming that, maybe, next time will be. I expect good things if we can get another meet again … next week, or in the future.”

Gauvin said a scheduling change in venues for the meet caused the mix-up that resulted in no officials. So, the teams ran a mock meet and treated it, for all intents and purposes, as a regular competition. It lacked a little of the true meet excitement since there was really nothing at stake.

New Fairfield is regularly one of the top SWC teams and, now a Class M state school, is coming off four straight top-five Class S championship meet finishes. Gauvin was encouraged to see the Nighthawks swim competitively against their foes — even if it really wasn’t a competition.

In their competitions, the Nighthawks have proven themselves to be formidable swimmers and divers thus far. Newtown won its fourth straight meet, and improved to 5-2 in a 97-84 win over Lauralton Hall of Milford on October 13. Gauvin called it by far the biggest win of the campaign for the Nighthawks.

In that meet, Newtown placed second in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:03.25. Swimmers were Kelsey McEvoy, Zoe Eggleston, Maggie Hoolehan, and Caroline Lawrence. Abigail Fagerholm was first in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:11.59. Maggie Atkinson was second in the 200 individual medley in 2:28.50. Kelsey McEvoy was first in the 50 free in 26.36. Liz Poeltl captured top honors in the diving event. Lawrence was tops in the 100 butterfly in 1:10.07. McEvoy won the 100 free in a time of 56.87. Carolyn Fagerholm won the 500 free in 5:58.05. The 200 free relay team of Abigail Fagerholm, Bianca Solano, Natalie Dunn, and Hoolehan won in a time of 1:52.66. Atkinson was third in the 100 backstroke in 1:10.21. Eggleston placed second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:16.75. The 400 free relay contingent of Lawrence, Abigail Fagerholm, Alex Scarpa, and McEvoy won in a time of 4:03.48.

On October 19, the Nighthawks topped Bunnell of Stratford 95-78 to improve to 6-2. Newtown was first in the 200 medley relay. Atkinson, Eggleston, Hoolehan, and Dunn finished in 2:07.11.

Atkinson won the 200 free with a time of 2:12.33, Eggleston won the 200 IM in 2:30.04, and McEvoy was second in the 50 free in 26.07. After Emily Silveira won the diving competition, Newtown reeled off seven more first-place finishes as follows: Lawrence in the 100 fly in 1:09.34, McEvoy in the 100 free in 56.26, Evelyn Fahey in the 500 free in a time of 5:56.40, Atkinson in e 100 back in 1:08.24, and Eggleston in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:17.37.

The 200 free relay team of  Lawrence, Fagerholm, Hoolehan, and McEvoy took first in 1:49.60, and the 400 free relay of Dunn, Fagerholm, Lawrence, and McEvoy won in 4:01.84.

In addition to the potential New Fairfield makeup meet, the Hawks still have meets with powerhouse and defending Class L champ Pomperaug of Southbury (Friday, October 22) and Masuk of Monroe.

“I think we can win the rest of our meets,” Scarpa said during the New Fairfield scrimmage. “We’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got for pool space.”

Scarpa added that the intensity level of practices matches the level of competition at meets, which has prepared the team well for race days. The Hawks pride themselves on having a balanced lineup of swimmers and an ability to score points in every event.

“We have a lot of depth, which is good,” senior captain Krysta Gates said.

“It’s been fun. We’ve spending a ton of time together,” added Gates, referring to the bright side of those daily bus rides to practice in Oxford.