By BRIAN JENNINGS
STAFF WRITER
Although you have a good amalgam of talented, returning veterans, a large, promising freshmen class, and a rich tradition of successful seasons over the years, there’s still that uncertainty as to how your team is going to perform in the first meet of the season. You also don’t know what your opponent is going to bring to the table as well.
The Lady Knight swimming and diving team put all doubts to rest though, making a splash in their season opener with a comfortable 92-81 win at Rocky Hill on Tuesday. The team managed to qualify four swimmers in six events for the Class LL meet.
“It was a good, strong start for us,” said Southington coach Evan Tuttle. “I put together a relatively strong lineup. I wanted to see what some of the new kids could do, doubling up their events, and I gave a few of the veterans a lighter set.”
With help from the return of veterans like Julie Duszak and Kara Zazzaro, after they missed last season to other commitments, Tuttle said that he learned his team has a lot of options after seeing them in the first meet of the season.
“We should be able to line up in a pretty diverse set of strategies against any of our opponents because we have a pretty large number of athletes that could swim any of the events,” the coach said. “That was very apparent in the meet.”
The following finished first in the meet: Meghan Hammarlund, Julie Duszak, Kayla Nguyen, and Olivia Fournier in the 200 medley relay (1:58.92); Fournier, Andie Nadeau, Kara Zazzaro, and Duszak in the 200 freestyle relay (1:48.72); Maddie Symecko, Zazzaro, Anny Moquete, and Hammarlund in the 400 freestyle relay (4:19.32); Symecko in the 200 freestyle (2:11.27) and 500 freestyle (5:52.17); Hammarlund in the 200 individual medley (2:27.05) and 100 backstroke (1:05.04); Fournier in the 50 freestyle (25.58); Zazzaro in the 100 freestyle (1:04.07); and Duszak in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.84). Symecko was one second off in the 500 freestyle and two seconds off in the 200 freestyle.
The following qualified for the Class LL meet: Hammarlund in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke, Duszak in the 50 freestyle (26.00) and 100 breaststroke, Fournier in 50 freestyle, and Patrycja Zajac in the 100 breaststroke (1:15.57).
The Knights will be back in the pool this week when they host EO Smith on Wednesday, Sept. 20 for their lone meet of the week.
For this week’s box scores, click here: (southingtonobserver.com/2017/09/19/weekly-scoreboard-for-the-sept-22-edition). To contact sports writer Brian Jennings, email him at BJennings@SouthingtonObserver.com.