Big Victory Over Bunnell Continues Swim Team’s Winning Streak

By Eileen Byrnes

Newtown 99, Bunnell 59

Even with switching around the line up, having several seasoned swimmers compete exhibition rather than for points, and putting in more freshmen than in previous meets, Newtown still dominated a younger, smaller Bunnell team last week.

The Nighthawks touched the wall first in nine of the 11 events and captured the top two spots six times during the December 21 competition. 

Still undefeated, Newtown took yet another meet by more than 20 points.

Coach Matt Childs explained that when a team reaches a score in the mid-90s, it is impossible for the opponent to win the meet. So rather than run up the score, Childs said he will put in swimmers in events that may not be their strongest. When Bunnell was not able to put up enough swimmers in certain races, Childs was able to fill those spots with Newtown swimmers who competed in exhibition.

In other meets, Childs kept the score down by having all of the swimmers in later heats competing against the clock for personal times rather than for the score.

Childs also said the advantage of swimming against a team like Bunnell is that it gives him the chance to see how some members of his team react outside their comfort zone. It also gives some swimmers the opportunity to gain confidence with a stroke in a meet setting, he noted, adding that such an opportunity isn’t available in meets against tougher competition.

“We will take advantage of that as much as we can,” he said.

Bunnell did not have anyone swimming in the 100-yard fly, which automatically gave Newtown 13 points. With Bunnell out of the race, Childs put Anthony Fiore in that event even though the team captain did not swim it last year. The coach said since Fiore swims the individual medley, which includes the fly, he wanted to give him more racing time with that stroke.

James O’Conner had the fastest time in the 500-yard freestyle, which is 20 laps, but since he swam exhibition, teammate Chris Fragoso was awarded the points for first place. Tony Fragoso, who swam the 500-yard freestyle for the first time this year, improved his time from last year by double digits. Patrick Stein, who also did not swim this event last year, recorded a respectable swim in this event.

“It gives us a chance to work on different things,” Childs said. “In my opinion it would be silly to have people swim the same thing all the time and pigeon hole them in.”

While Childs did play around with the line up, he didn’t go crazy. He did keep some of his stronger swimmers in their favorite events. But with three swimmers in each event, he was able to experiment a bit while maintaining a sizable lead.

Wesley Hood is a strong swimmer in the 200-yard freestyle and Friday night was no different. He not only breezed to a first place finish, but improved his time from last year by several seconds and qualified for Class LL state championships. Allen Hubbard, who did not swim the 200 free last year, was solid in second place.

Stefan Toi was outstanding in the 100-yard freestyle, getting his best time of the season and shaving his time from last year. He qualified for states in this event in an earlier meet. Chris Parker also had a good event and took a big chunk off last year’s time.

Alex Kron had already qualified for states in the 100-yard backstroke, but managed to improve on that time during the Bunnell meet.

Bunnell posted an impressive time in the 100-yard breaststroke, but Tony Fragoso was strong in his second-place finish, knocking off more than a second from his time last year.

The night started off strong with the 200-yard medley relay. The team of Kron, Fragoso, Toi, and Fiore were blazing in their win. They posted Newtown’s fastest time this year in this event. The Nighthawks swept the event but did not get any points for third place because the foursome of Connor Donnelly, Aben Hung, George Delia, and Dan Hufzinger swam exhibition.

Although the divers were not able to compete because Bunnell does not have any diving boards at its pool, Childs said every swimmer was able to compete. That will probably also be the case in the upcoming meet against Bethel, which Newtown faces on January 2, the day school returns in session, but it won’t be the case when the ’Hawks take on powerhouses Brookfield and Pomperaug next month.

“When it comes down to those few meets [against Brookfield and Pomperaug], that is when I have to put aside my feelings and say this is the lineup we are going to swim,” said Coach Childs. “There are certain times when it is cut and dry.”

Newtown vs Bunnell

200-yard medley relay – 1. Newtown (Kron, T. Fragoso, Toi, A. Fiore) 1:48.04, 2. Newtown (L. Fiore, Parker, Iassogna, Stein) 156.08, 3. Exhibition, Newtown (Donnelly, Hung, Delia, Hufzinger) 2:07.38. 200-yard freestyle – 1. Hood 1:55.32, 2. A. Hubbard 2:07.05, 5. K. O’Connor 2:17.11. 200-yard individual medley – 2. J. O’Connor 2:20.66, 3. C. Fragoso 2:28.73, 5. Delia 2:36.01. 50-yard freestyle – 1. L. Fiore, 3. Herring 24.89, 4. Hung 25.44. 100-yard fly –A. Fiore 57.22, 2. Iassogna 1:00.31, Exhibition, K. O’Connor 1:07.19, 3. O’Dell 1:10.11. 100-yard freestyle – 1. Toi 50.21, 2. Parker 57.36, 5. M. Hubbard 59.85. 500-yard freestyle – Exhibition, J. O’Connor 5:43.71, 1. C. Fragoso 5:57.79, 2. Stein 6:12.15, 4. Crevier 6:27.73. 200-yard freestyle relay – 1. Newtown (A. Hubbard, J. O’Connor, Toi, L. Fiore) 1:37.94, 2. Newtown (A. Fiore, Herring, Hood, K. O’Connor) 1:38.20, 5. Newtown (Waterhouse, Parker, Hoagland, LaMarche) 1:53.01. 100-yard backstroke – 1. Kron 58.51, 4. Hufzinger 1:16.93, 5. Waterhouse, 1:18.31. 100-yard breaststroke – 2. T. Fragoso, 1:11.22, 4. Simonds 1:24.07, 6. Jagoe 1:39.92. 400-yard freestyle relay – 1. Newtown (C. Fragoso, Herring, Morlath, K. O’Connor) 3:53.52, 3. Newtown (Batz, Stein, LaMarche, Donnelly) 4:12.12, 5. Newtown (Hiteshew, Baudish, D. O’Connor, Villamil) 4:43.36.