BHS Swimming & Diving earned their first win of the year with an exciting comeback 96-90 win over Platt/Maloney. A long bus ride to Meriden that included getting lost made this "away" win even sweeter. It was the first away victory for Bethel High since January 2008, when this team's seniors were still in middle school.
BHS was ahead 32-30 after the 50 Free, but the Meriden Co-op team took a large 12 point lead with a pair of state finalist divers and a near sweep in the butterfly. This left it 41-53 at the half-way point of the meet. Bethel was ready for their comeback and took the next 6 events by a 55-37 score.
The comeback was lead by a 1-2 in the 100 Free with Captain Kevin Gallagher, senior, coming up his season best 55.96 and James Canfield with his personal best 59.50. Next came the 500 Free with Bethel trio of Sarah Whalen, Katie Bozzuti and Molly Nichols taking 2-3-4 against their male counterparts from Meriden. Now the score stood 60-66 and the BHS coaches started to think the first win was possible.
The strong 200 Free Relay team took first with Chris Wong, Tucker Bjornson, James Canfield and Kevin Gallagher posting a 1:45.25 and the score was now 68-72. The 100 Backstroke is the strongest for Bethel and they posted a near sweep with state qualifier Tucker Bjornson winning with a 1:05.76, freshman star Olivia Wootton took second at 1:09.34 and the all-stroke talented Aiden Ford collected fourth. BHS was now in the driver's seat, ahead 80-76.
Meriden wasn't done fighting though and BHS split points 8-8 in the 100 breast, making the last event, the 400 Free Relay, the true test of each team's depth: the Meriden three teams of 12 boys versus Bethel's 4 boys and 8 girls. Meriden would need a first and third place to win, but Bethel took first place with a long lead with Wootton, Gallagher, Canfield and Bjornson posting a season best 3.54.01.
Coach Katie McGowan could almost forget the 2+ hour bus ride and smile with her first career away victory and a chance to be the first multiple win BHS team since 2006. The next meet is Tuesday at the WCSU pool versus Pomperaug at 4pm.
BHS Scoring Results:
200 Medley Relay: 2nd (Sarah Whalen, Johnny Esposito, Chris Wong, Olivia Wootton)
200 Free: 1st Tucker Bjornson; 3rd Katie Bozzuti; 5th Aiden Ford
200 IM: 1st Olivia Wootton; 2nd Sarah Whalen; 5th Juliana Bell
50 Free: 2nd Kevin Gallagher; 3rd James Canfield
Diving: 3rd Alex Nackid; 4th Julia Morton
100 Fly: 3rd Chris Wong; 5th Cara Bernardo
100 Free: 1st Kevin Gallagher; 2nd James Canfield
500 Free: 2nd Sarah Whalen; 3rd Katie Bozzuti; 4th Molly Nichols
200 Free Relay: 1st (Wong,Bjornson,Canfield,Gallagher)
100 Back: 1st Tucker Bjornson; 2nd Olivia Wootton; 4th Aiden Ford
100 Breast: 2nd Molly Nichols; 3rd Johnny Esposito; 5th Davidson Abiali
400 Free Relay: 1st (Wootton,Gallagher,Canfield,Bjornson)
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