Greenwich High School captured their 16th Connecticut State Open title this past weekend, reversing a trend that had seen Darien High School win the last three years. Darien ended up in third, with New Canaan taking the runner up spot. The meet was held in the legendary Kiphuth Exhibition Pool at Yale University.
Greenwich relied on depth to win the title; they did not take first in a single individual event or relay the entire day. They put enough scoring swims in place to hold off a flashy performance from New Canaan (two relay titles plus an individual win). In all, Greenwich put a swimmer or team top six in seven out of twelve events
Weston High School also had a big day with one relay and one individual title. Claire Kerns, Sophie Angus, Carolyn Morakawa and Charlotte Proceller led off the meet with a 1:44.17 in the 200 Medley Relay, a new state record. Angus later won the 100 breaststroke with a NISCA Automatic All-American cut of 1:03.14.
Ludlow sophomore Sarah Grinalds pulled off a rare double, winning both the shortest (50 free, 23.47) and longest (500 free, 4:56.60) event. Ridgefield junior Marcella Maguire also took two races: the 200 freestyle (1:50.18) and the 100 backstroke (54.13). The backstroke was a dominant performance, winning by over three seconds. It also landed her a state record and an Automatic All-American time.
Amelia Bullock, a senior from Staples High School, hung tough to win two out of the first four individual races. She touched first in the 200 IM (2:02.42) before throttling the competition in the 100 butterfly (54.52). Both swims were under the Automatic All-American standard.
Other individual/relay winners on the day were:
- New Canaan’s Katie Colwell in the 100 freestyle- 51.11
- New Canaan’s 200 freestyle Relay in 1:36.30, consisting of Katie Colwell, Madeleine Smith, Lizzy Colwell and Meghan Egan. Also their 400 freestyle relay at 3:28.30 with Caroline Sweeney, Egan, Libby O’Hare and Katie Colwell.
- Westhill/Stamford’s Rachel Burston in diving 534.75
Team Results (Top 3):
- Greenwich 581
- New Canaan 470
- Darien 455
Link to results, team standings
The Yale pool is historic, that is for sure. But it is a SLOWWWW pool for everyone not swimming free or back. There are no gutters to grab on turns. And it is not good for sprinters as it is a narrow 6 lane pool, with no place for the wake to go (unlike newer pools that have a good foot or more from lanes 1 and 6 to the side walls – see photo above). Most kids did slower than their seed times (which were done in “trials” which were held in different, modern venues). There are several modern facilities in CT that could host a meet that could give these kids a better chance to do best times,… Read more »
Having coached swimmers at Kiphuth, it certainly has its challenged. The biggest advantage I can see is that it is one of the best spectator pools I have come across. How many people come to the Connecticut State Open? I can imagine there is a good crowd and everyone gets a good view of the action.
That said, from a coach/athlete perspective of course it would be better if the meet were somewhere (UConn, Wesleyan) where swimmers could do swimdown/warmup on the same floor and have a little more space.