NHS Girls Swim Past Oxford For First Win

By Andy Hutchison

OXFORD — Newtown High School’s girls’ swimming and diving team easily swam to its first win of the season, in the second meet of the campaign, knocking off Oxford 147-37 on the road on September 24. Newtown fell to Brookfield 101-84 on the road on September 28 to carry a 1-2 record into the end of the week.

The Oxford meet enabled the Nighthawks to experiment with the lineup and enjoy a successful afternoon across the board.

“We had a lot of fast swims,” first-year NHS Coach Zach Gauvin said. “The girls swam a couple off events and they took it in stride and swam really well.”

Gauvin explained that some of the team members swam in different events than they normally swim so he could see the depth of the lineup. The coach added that when he is confident the Nighthawks will win the meet, he has team members swim different events to enable some girls to rest rather than swim consecutive events, and allow up-and-coming girls who normally don’t see much competition the chance to swim an event. For instance, Bianco Solano got a chance to swim the butterfly event even though that is not her best stroke, Caroline Lawrence swam the 500-yard freestyle even though she is most experienced as a sprint freestyler, and Caire Bassett got a chance to compete in the 50 free.

First-Place Finishers Versus Oxford

200-yard medley relay, 2:05.54, Maggie Atkinson, Zoe Eggleston, Maggie Hoolehan, and Kelsey McEvoy

200 free, 2:13.80, Abby Fagerholm

200 individual medley, 2:29.26, Maggie Atkinson

50 free, 27.08, Kelsey McEvoy

Diving, Liz Poeltl

100 butterfly, 1:12.17, Sally Martinelli

100 free, 1:01.37, Abby Fagerholm

500 free, 6:00.63, Caroline Fagerholm

200 free relay, 1:54.74, Maggie Hoolehan, Charlotte Gray, Zoe Eggleston, and Kelsey McEvoy

100 backstroke, 1:07.32, Kelsey McEvoy

100 breaststroke, 1:18.04,  Zoe Eggleston

First- And Second-Place Finishers Versus Brookfield

200 medley relay, second, 2:03.72, Kelsey McEvoy, Zoe Eggleston, Maggie Hoolehan, and Caroline Lawrence

200 free, second, 2:12.68, Abigail Fagerholm

200 individual medley, second, 2:28.73,  Maggie Atkinson

50 free, second, 26.70, Kelsey McEvoy

Diving, second, 146.88 points, Liz Poeltl

100 fly, second, 1:12.21, Sally Martinelli

100 free, first, 57.62, Kelsey McEvoy

200 free relay, second, 1:53.13, Maggie Hoolehan, Zoe Eggleston, Abby Fagerholm, and Charlotte Gray

100 back, second, 1:08.49, Maggie Atkinson

100 breast, first, 1:17.36, Zoe Eggleston

400 free relay, second, 4:02.17, Caroline Lawrence, Abby Fagerholm, Alex Scarpa, and Kelsey McEvoy.