Conard Won Last Crosstown Contest, But Swimmers and Divers Will Meet Again

Conard and Hall faced off at Cornerstone Aquatics Center last week for West Hartford's 2013 Boys Swim and Dive bragging rights. 

The meet started off with an epic medley relay race as each team dropped a couple of seconds from their previous seasonal best times. The backstroke leg was closely contested as Chris Warren beat Jacob DiBella to the wall by 0.16 seconds giving Conard a narrow lead. 

The breaststroke leg went in favor of Hall as Ethan Swain outraced John Rinald to provide Hall with a 0.64 second lead heading into the butterfly.  Conard’s Ty Seymour chased down Hall’s Brendan McClure to close the deficit to 0.25. 

Ryan Josiah (Conard) then caught Logan Flynn (Hall) coming out of the turn and led Conard to a 1:41.46 to 1:41.70 victory. DiBella cruised to a victory in the 200 free and McClure to a victory in the 200 IM, as Hall narrowed Conard’s lead to 4 at 25-21. 

The 50 freestyle saw the Conard combination of Warren and Seymour go 1-2, opening the lead to 36-26. That was the closest Hall would be as the evening rolled on. 

Conard won the next 3 events as  senior captain Colin Wilkinson won the diving competition over Charlie Blaschinski, Seymour won the 100 butterfly over Swain, and Josiah won the 100 free over McClure, opening up the lead to 74-51. 

Dibella put Hall back in the win column as he again cruised to victory in the 500 free over Christian Bouzyk. Hall followed that win with a victory in the 200 freestyle relay as the team of Ethan Freund, Aaron Meyers-Weinerman, Flynn and McClure turned in a time of 1:37.84, closing the Conard lead to 78-61. 

Conard used another 1-2 combination of Warren and David Walsh in the backstroke and a 2-3-4 finish in the breaststroke to put the meet away, 99-84.

Warren’s 54.32 in the backstroke was a personal best time and Swain posted a season best 1:03.57 in the 100 breaststroke for Hall. 

The teams will have another opportunity to race each other at the CCC West Divisional meet on Feb. 28 at Cornerstone, then again on March 9 in the Class L state trials, also at Cornerstone. 

Their season will culminate with Class L finals on March 12 at Wesleyan and the State Open on March 16 at Yale.

Submitted by Conard Coach John Smachetti