Meghan Hammarlund swims the butterfly during a loss to Conard.
By BRIAN JENNINGS
STAFF WRITER
The Chieftains held six point lead following the 100 breaststroke, and the Knights needed first and second-place finishes in the 400 freestyle relay to win the meet. As the anchor of Southington’s top 400 freestyle relay, Olivia Fournier trailed two lengths behind Conard’s Natalie Turner before she hit the water off the block.
Fournier eventually caught up to Turner on the final turn into the wall and passed her out on the last lap to give Southington a first-place finish by six tenths of a second.
“There was absolutely no doubt in my mind,” said Southington coach Evan Tuttle. “If Meghan (Hammarlund), Andie (Nadeau), and Maddie (Symecko) gave Liv a chance, she would bring it home, and she absolutely did.”
Although the Lady Knight swimming and diving team exceeded their season average with over 20 best times, the Chieftains clinched the win with a third-place finish 15.25 seconds after Turner touched the final wall, snapping Southington’s three-meet winning streak. The Knights fell by four points, 87-83, to divisional Conard at home on Wednesday, Oct. 18 in their lone meet of the week, as Southington’s only two losses of the past two seasons have come at the hands of Hall and Conard.
The final score might have read in Conard’s favor, but in Tuttle’s humble opinion, the meet was still a win for the Knights.
“The deafening sound in here during that last relay and the energy that was on the pool deck the entire time was truly something special,” the coach said. “I told the girls after the meet that I would rather lose, in terms of score, every single meet if it meant we swam like that. None of our wins so far this year have matched the performance that the girls put into the pool today.”
The Knights held a two-point advantage through the first four events of the meet, with the exception of a tie score in the 200 individual medley. The Chieftains knotted the score again after the 100 fly, but jumped out in front by two with second and third-place finishes in the 100 freestyle and wouldn’t look back the rest of the way, finishing all but one of the remaining events with either first-place finishes or second and third-place finishes.
The following finished first in the meet: Meghan Hammarlund, Julie Duszak, Maddie Symecko, and Gianna Perugini in the 200 medley relay; Duszak, Perugini, Andie Nadeau, and Fournier in the 200 freestyle relay; Hammarlund, Nadeau, Symecko, and Fournier in the 400 freestyle relay; Fournier in the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle; Duszak in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke; and Hammarlund in the 100 fly.
All three relays were two seconds off their school records. Fournier was 0.3 seconds off her own school record in the 200 freestyle and 0.8 seconds off her own school record in the 100 freestyle.
The following improved their Class LL times: Fournier in the 200 freestyle (1:59.86) and 100 freestyle (54.94), Hammarlund in the 200 individual medley (2:24.16), Duszak in the 50 freestyle (25.27), and Patrycja Zajac in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.71).
The following seniors we honored at the meet for senior day: Gina Calo, Isabella DiFusco, Olivia Fournier, Jess Monte, Cheyanne Young, Patrycja Zajac, Kara Zazzaro.
The Knights will be back in the pool this week when they travel to divisional Berlin on Tuesday, Oct. 24 for their regular season finale. Meet time is 6 p.m. Southington is currently 7-2.
For this week’s box scores, click here: (southingtonobserver.com/2017/10/24/weekly-scoreboard-for-the-oct-27-edition). To contact sports writer Brian Jennings, email him at BJennings@SouthingtonObserver.com.