NHS Swimmers Edged By New Fairfield In Nail-Biter
NHS Swimmers Edged By New Fairfield In Nail-Biter
By Andy Hutchison
It came down not only to the final event, but the final strokes of the meet. In the end, visiting New Fairfield High School was just barely faster than Newtown in a thrilling boysâ swimming and diving meet on January 28.
With Newtown holding an 86-85 lead heading into the 400-yard freestyle relay event, the Rebels prevailed in a time of 3:42.67 to narrowly beat out Newtown, which finished in 3:42.98. In the final leg of the last event, Newtownâs Conor Donnelly and opponent David MacAskill were neck and neck until the final touch and the Nighthawks suffered a disappointing 96-89 defeat.
âI donât think Iâve been a part of a meet thatâs been decided by three-tenths of a second before,â Newtown Coach Zach Gauvin said. âItâs a tough way to lose, but I think weâll learn from it.â
The coach is optimistic that the swimmers will be encouraged to show more tenacity in upcoming meets.
Newtown was scheduled to get back into the water to race Weston on February 1, but that meet was postponed by snow and is scheduled to be made up, in Weston, on February 17. It has been a tough winter for the Nighthawks and their counterparts, with more than a handful of practices canceled and some meets postponed due to weather.
âItâs definitely tough from an endurance and training standpoint but, at the end of the day, it really comes down to racing the guy next to you and today New Fairfield was better at that than us,â Gauvin said after the meet.
The Nighthawks fell behind early, but battled back for the lead thanks to first-place finishes by Nick Lafky in the 200 individual medley (2:14.80), Dan Hufziger in the 50 (23.69) and 100 freestyle (52.86) events, and Abben Hung in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.06). Additionally, the 200 free relay contingent of Hung, Michael Hubbard, Logan Mammen, and Hufziger won the race in a time of 1:37.98.
The second-place 400 free relay team was made up of George Delia, Lafky, Mike Lally, and Donnelly. Newtown had some good news from the diving event as Sam Frietas qualified for the state championships with her efforts.
Newtown, which carries a 3-3 record into Februaryâs action, is slated to host Bethel on Friday, February 4, at 7 pm. The team will host New Milford on February 9, also at 7 pm.