Excitement, Atmosphere And Rivalries Cap Swim Campaign

By Andy Hutchison

NEW HAVEN — The Newtown High School boys’ swim team concluded the season at the State Open at Yale University’s historic Kiphuth Pool on March 19.

Newtown, with 60 points, placed 25th among 55 schools (Greenwich, with 486.5, won the event), but it was a successful meet for the Nighthawks.

School records, broken only two nights earlier at the Class L State Championships, were broken again.

Junior Luke Fiore completed the 200-yard freestyle event in 1:46.41, nearly a second faster than his then record-setting Class L time. He was 16th at the Open.

Fiore also broke the 100 freestyle time — again — with a 47.68, good for ninth place at the Open.

Newtown’s 200-yard freestyle relay contingent of Fiore, senior Tony Fragoso, sophomore Abben Hung, and senior Chris Parker fell just short of their own school record-best finish.

The relay team placed 12th in the Open in a time of 1:30.79 after finishing in 1:30.68 two days earlier in the class meet.

Junior Alex Kron was 22nd in the 100 backstroke, finishing in 57.25.

Newtown Coach Matt Childs said the team exceeded his expectations, especially given how the many underclassmen stepped up.

“From the beginning of the season to where we are right now, at the State Open meet, we can’t do anything but be impressed with how they’ve trained and performed throughout the year,” Childs said.

Fiore said also was pleasantly surprised by the growth of the team.

“I was really excited about it. I wasn’t expecting the team to be as good as it was this year,” Fiore said of the late-season and record-breaking performances.

Fiore said the level of competition at the Class L and Open meets was beneficial to his performances.

“It took a lot of pressure off me knowing there were so many other kids swimming faster than me,” Fiore noted.

In addition to taking on some of the best competitors from around the state, the Nighthawks got to absorb the atmosphere of the nearly eight decade-old facility. Kiphuth pool was built as part of Yale’s Payne Whitney Gymnasium back in 1932. The architecture of the building is as unique inside as it is out. The pool sits at the bottom of a 50-foot-high funnel of seats — 2,187 of them — which are at a sharp 45-degree angle, giving the fans a great view.

“It’s one of those amphitheater-type venues that you’re just not going to see be built at all anymore, so it really adds a lot of excitement to the meet and gives it more of a stadium-type atmosphere. The guys really enjoy swimming here,” Childs said. “It’s something that’s really enjoyable because it gives a feeling of a great sporting event as opposed to just another swim meet in a fast pool. This is really one of those exceptionally fun places to come and try to perform.”

The rivalries and level of ability among the opponents makes swimming at the championship meets all the more interesting, especially when one of those friendly rivals happens to be a familiar teacher.

Ridgefield Head Coach Rory Perry, also an English teacher at Newtown High, got to both cheer for and coach against some of his students at the late season meets (Ridgefield was second at the Class L meet and fifth at the Open).

“A lot of the swimmers at Newtown make it a point of coming around to my classroom and talk to me about swimming and how the guys are swimming both at the conference level and state level. It’s really a lot of fun,” Perry said. “I know they have a nice SWC [South-West Conference] rivalry with Pomperaug. They made certain to let me know that they were cheering for us against Pomperaug.”