Mar 13, 2008
Proving ground
Greenwich High swimming and diving team captures class LL crown
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The Greenwich High School swimming and diving team wouldn’t be burned again. It simply had too much pride to let it happen again.
Back on Jan. 12, Big Red hosted Fairfield Prep in a key battle between two powerhouse swimming programs. On that day, Greenwich was beaten, losing 102-84. Coming on the heels of winning the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship two weeks ago and avenging last year’s defeat to New Canaan High School at the same time, Greenwich took to the pool Tuesday afternoon looking to repeat history.
During the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference class LL championship at the Wesleyan University pool, the Cardinals made it clear they are still the team to beat in class LL, taking home the class LL crown with 608 points.
Fairfield Prep, which flexed its muscle against GHS in the dual meet season, took second place with 538 points.
“At the beginning it was like we expected the other teams to lay down and die and all we have to do is show up and we’ll win,” GHS head coach Terry Lowe said. “That doesn’t happen and we got off to a very poor start. We showed a lot of grit down the stretch and really sucked it up and took some seconds off our times. We did a great job.”
Before the start of the swimming portion, GHS gained 63 points with its divers. No one was better than Mark O’Connell, who won the class LL crown with 439.60 points. Not far behind was Conor Brisson, as he placed second with 397.25 points. In eighth place was Tyler Oe, who netted 342.65 points and Matt Davis finished 18th overall with 272.70 points.
However, during the early stages of the meet, Greenwich’s lead slowly evaporated, as Big Red was struggling in the 200-yard medley and placed second.
Fairfield Prep dominated the 200-yard freestyle. Although Greenwich’s Mark Minowitz took sixth (1:46.44) and Eric Minowitz finished eighth (1:49.05), Prep scored more points, placing second, fourth and fifth in the event.
In the next event, the 200-yard individual medley, Lowe called upon his senior co-captain to right the ship and that’s exactly what he did. In that event, Mike Caposella shaved three seconds off his preliminary time and finished sixth overall, giving GHS 17 points with a time of 2:01.46.
“I told him that I was looking for some senior leadership in the event and someone to show the others how to cut their times and he did a great job,” Lowe said.
Caposella also competed in the 500-yard freestyle and took 10th overall with a time of 4:51.94.
“Today felt great,” Caposella said. “The upperclassmen swam great and the freshmen that are new came in here and did great as well. I swam exactly where I wanted to swim. I was strong in all my races. This is a great way to end the season.”
While one Greenwich captain showed his leadership in the 200-yard individual medley, it was the other co-captain, senior James Case, who kept the good times going an event later. His performance in the 50-yard freestyle was dominating, as he set a class LL record with a first-place time of 21.15 seconds. Teammate Ross Schofield, a junior, finished a close second with a time of 21.76.
During the 100-yard freestyle, Case got some revenge. During Greenwich’s loss to Prep in the regular season, Case fell to Andrew Grinalds. However, this time around it was Case who took top honors, placing first with a time of 46.33. Grinalds took second with a time of 46.76.
“Case is just so tough,” Lowe said. “I would have been very surprised if Case didn’t win today because he wanted really bad to reverse that outcome.”
Case said that although the Cards lost the dual meet to Prep, he knew that Greenwich would fare well during the postseason.
“We pull out all our stops when it matters,” Case said. “I still knew that we were going to win FCIACs and States. We always have the drops that other teams don’t have. I was really happy with my performances. I won both my events and set a record, so that was awesome.”
In addition to the second place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, Schofield also competed in the 100-yard breaststroke and took fourth place with a time of 1:02.03.
“This feels really great, especially after they murdered us in the dual meet,” Schofield said. “It’s a great feeling. Everybody swam their best and I swam great. I am very happy with my individual medley. In the breaststroke I could have gone faster, but I made it to Opens, so I am happy.”
Another key to Greenwich’s state championship was its depth, which was on display late in the contest.
In the eighth event, the 500-yard freestyle, Caposella was joined by Andrew Dillinger, who took eighth with a time of 4:55.12. Despite Greenwich’s two finishers, Fairfield Prep cut into Greenwich’s lead with second, fourth and fifth place performances.
Despite the late push, Greenwich came back strong.
Going head-to-head with Fairfield Prep in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Greenwich foursome of Mark Minowitz, John Nietzel, Schofield and Case took first with a blistering time of 1:27.02 while Fairfield Prep took second with a time of 1:28.41.
In the 100-yard backstroke, Greenwich was led by Dan Alessandri, who took seventh with a time of 57.34. Not to be outdone was Michael Dustin, who touched the wall 10th with a time of 56.64 and Thom Lautenbach, who finished 13th with a time of 57.33.
During the 100-yard breaststroke, Greenwich swimmers were all over the top 10 finishers. In addition to Schofield’s fourth place finish, teammate Elliott Simon placed fifth with a time of 1:03.56. Tony Martir pitched in with his seventh place time of 1:03.77 and Antonio Sanchez took home 10th with a time of 1:03.45.
Up next for Greenwich High School is the CIAC State Opens, which will take place Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Yale University pool.
“As it looks, the four top teams are New Canaan, Fairfield Prep, Pomperaug and us,” Lowe said. “We’re going to be in a tough battle to stay in the top three, but I think that it’s possible.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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