By Kim J. Harmon

NEW HAVEN – Head coach Brian Reiff was determined that this would be the year that his kids would not be buying a ticket to the CIAC State Open championships – but would be ushered in through the back door like all the other elite swimmers in the state of Connecticut.

With a superb fourth-place performance at the CIAC Class L championships on Tuesday at Southern Connecticut State University, it looks like Newtown High School (with a state diving champion in Alyssa von Oy leading the highlights) could be represented well at the Open.

“To be fourth in L, to me, that’s really incredible,” said coach Reiff. “It’s been a great, great run.”

With other class meets to be decided on Wednesday night (after press time), the ‘Hawks didn’t know until Thursday who had made it to the Opens – but coach Reiff was holding out hope for two relays, his top two divers, and Kane Kunst.

“I already thing Alyssa is in the top three,” he said.

Von Oy added another accolade to her long list of accolades when she bested Kim Grant of Fitch for the diving championship. Von Oy, a two-time South-West Conference champion, was beaten by Grant last year at the Class L meet and was determined this year to return the favor.

Then there was the effort of Kunst, who finished fourth in the 100-yard backstroke two weeks after claiming the SWC championship in that event. Kunst went into the finals seeded third and came in fourth at 56.50, less than a second out of second place. He also added a seventh-place finished in the 200-yard individual medley, coming in at 2:06.10.

Greg Simoneau, who gave von Oy a run in the SWC diving race, finished fifth overall at the Class L meet with 287.15 points. Kyle Neidig contributed points, too, to the ‘Hawk cause when he claimed ninth with 258.95 points.

Tim Lux took sixth in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:04.89 and Ryan Eberts finished seventh in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:55.31.

In the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays, the ‘Hawks took sixth-place finishes with a school-record time of 1:45.44 in the medley and 3:28.31 in the freestyle. The 200 free team of Matt Fries (24.4 split), Jeff Heller (24.14), Joe Blanchard (24.4) and Karlis Griffiths (23.97) finished strong while the 400 free team of Griffiths, Lux, Kunst and Eberts came within about a second of breaking another school record.

“They were wild,” said coach Reiff. “They were racing for the Opens.”

Coach Reiff has his heart set on the relays making the Opens because, he said, “the relays exemplify the team part of swimming. It’s the only thing in a meet where individualism is removed for a minute. The only part where it pulls all together.”

It pulled all together quite nicely for the ‘Hawks in 1999-2000.

“I’m still in a daze,” coach Reiff said. “Fourth – wow, I still can’t believe it.”

CIAC CLASS L

CHAMPIONSHIPS

TEAM SCORES: 1. Cheshire, 544; 2. Notre Dame-West Haven, 269; 3.Branford, 236; 4. (tie) Conard and Newtown, 182; 6. Fitch, 172; 7. Hall, 153; 8. Farmington, 139; 9. Holy Cross, 113; 10. Simsbury, 90; 11. Newington, 63; 12. Ridgefield, 42; 13. Shelton, 39; 14. Hartford Public, 39; 15. New Milford, 20; 16. Windsor, 18; 17. Bulkeley, 3.

200 medley relay – 1. Cheshire, 1:37.67 (Tim Sowecke, Ryan Cassella, Drew DiChiara, Kevin Budris), Class L Record; 2. Branford, 1:42.20; 3. Conard, 1:42.44; 4. Hall, 1:43.83; 5. Fitch, 1:44.96; 6. Newtown, 1:45.44; 7. Notre Dame-West Haven, 1:48.75; 8. Simsbury,1:49.83.

200 freestyle – 1. Alex Flores, Conard, 1:46.59; 2. Matt Erasmus, Cheshire, 1:48.44; 3. Lou Krasenics, Notre Dame-West Haven, 1:48.69;4. Colin Porter, Farmington, 1:49.84; 5. Matt Turman, Branford, 1:52.39; 6. Tommy DeLuca, Cheshire, 1:53.23; 7. Ryan Eberts, Newtown, 1:55.31; 8. Andrew Sparkes, Conard, 1:57.46.

200 individual medley – 1. Ryan Cassella, Cheshire, 1:57.04; 2. Brian Wood, Ridgefield, 2:02.11; 3. Peter Cozzolino, Cheshire, 2:03.57; 4. Paul Caplin, Simsbury, 2:04.32; 5. Dave Delgobbo, Cheshire, 2:04.54; 6. William Reagan, Holy Cross, 2:05.83; 7. Kane Kunst, Newtown, 2:06.10; 8. Sam Burlingame, Fitch, 2:08.58.

50 freestyle – 1. Kevin Budris, Cheshire, 21.66; 2. Matt Czaplicki, Notre Dame-West Haven, 21.84; 3. Tom Cleveland, Branford, 22.09; 4. Chris Yarden, Notre Dame-West Haven, 22.33; 5. Alex Wald, Hall, 22.86; 6. Drew DiChiara, Cheshire, 23.12; 7. Rob Hazard, Farmington, 23.26; 8. Joe Rana, Hall, 23.39.

Diving – 1. Alyssa von Oy, Newtown, 366.85; 2. Kim Grant, Fitch, 349.25; 3. Kevin Shultis, Fitch, 299.15; 4. Mark Jennings, Cheshire, 290.50; 5. Greg Simoneau, Newtown, 287.15; 6. David Maliar, Windsor, 278.05; 7. Meghan Duffy, Cheshire, 275.20; 8. David Correa, Hartford Public, 268.20; 9. Kyle Neidig, Newtown, 258.95; 10. Chris Angelo, Notre Dame-West Haven, 253.90; 11. Andrew Barry, Branford, 251.05; 12. Michael Coulter, Fitch, 242.25; 13. Chris DePonte, Branford, 237.80;14. Alan Bruno, Bulkeley, 235.75; 15. Jen Weisbrich, Simsbury, 198.70.

100 butterfly – 1. Matt Czaplicki, Notre Dame-West Haven, 50.95 (Class L Record); 2. Drew DiChiara, Cheshire, 53.47; 3. Jonathon Calderone, Newington, 54.17; 4. Colin Porter, Farmington, 56.08; 5.Matt DiChiara, Cheshire, 56.18; 6. Ryan Canning, Cheshire, 56.31; 7. John Sanders, Notre Dame-West Haven, 56.89; 8. Joe Rana, Hall, 58.93.

100 freestyle – 1. Kevin Budris, Cheshire, 48.81; 2. Tyler Morrison, Conard, 48.47; 3. Chris Yarden, Notre Dame-West Haven, 48.93; 4. Tom Cleveland, Branford, 49.38; 5. Tim Sowecke, Cheshire, 49.55; 6. Eric Anderson, Branford, 50.14; 7. Alex Wald, Hall, 50.44; 8. Brenden Carroll, Cheshire, 50.84.

500 freestyle – 1. Matt Erasmus, Cheshire, 4:48.91; 2. Lou Krasenics, Notre Dame-West Haven, 4:55.19; 3. Trevor Vernal, Notre Dame-West Haven, 4:57.78; 4. Tom Mazzaferro, Cheshire, 5:00.20; 5.Thomas Jurzynski, Holy Cross, 5:04.73; 6. Tim Lux, Newtown, 5:04.89; 7. Eric Erasmus, Cheshire, 5:05.35; 8. Tommy DeLuca, Cheshire, 5:07.38.

200 freestyle relay – 1. Cheshire (Brendan Carroll, Pete Cozzolino, Tom DeLuca, Matt Erasmus), 1:30.64; 2. Notre Dame-WestHaven, 1:31.38; 3. Farmington, 1:32.47; 4. Hall, 1:34.49; 5. Branford, 1:34.69; 6. Fitch, 1:35.23; 7. Newington, 1:36.49; 8. Holy Cross, 1:37.07.

100 backstroke – 1. Tim Sowecke, Cheshire, 54.17; 2. Tyler Morrison, Conard, 55.67; 3. Paul Caplin, Simsbury, 55.88; 4. Kane Kunst, Newtown, 56.50; 5. Peter Allison, Hall, 57.30; 6. Brendan Carroll, Cheshire, 57.47; 7. Chris Berich, Branford, 58.00; 8. Sam Burlingame, Fitch, 58.01.

100 breaststroke – 1. Ryan Cassella, Cheshire, 59.06; 2. Alex Flores, Conard, 59.81; 3. Brian Wood, Ridgefield, 1:00.51; 4. William Reagan, Holy Cross, 1:01.95; 5. Ian Drullard, Cheshire, 1:03.12; 6. Dave Delgobbo, Cheshire, 1:03.27; 7. Matt Turman, Branford, 1:03.69; 8. Tim Dickson, Branford, 1:04.58.

400 freestyle relay – 1. Notre Dame-West Haven (Louis Krasencis, Kinnon Schwartz, Chris Yarden, Matt Czaplicki), 3:20.74; 2. Cheshire,3:24.17; 3. Conard, 3:25.78; 4. Branford, 3:27.28; 5. Farmington, 3:27.96; 6. Newtown, 3:28.31; 7. Fitch, 3:28.55; 8. Holy Cross, 3:34.27.