Lady Bobcats Win Fifth Straight SWC Meet

The Lady Bobcats (7-3, 5-1) swimming and diving team ran its South-West Conference win streak to five with its impressive 102-81 win over the Lady Rebels (3-2) on Tuesday. Brookfield had targeted the meet in New Fairfield as one of its toughest of the year and they stepped up to the challenge

"We were focused all season on Weston, then when we heard that New Fairfield beat Weston by 16 points and we had only beat them by 18, we turned our focus off celebrating our win over Weston and refocused on getting ready for New Fairfield," Brookfield head coach Brandt Nigro said of facing last season's second place team in the SWC. "The team swam awesome today."

The team was coming off a week when they had competed in three events, including two this weekend, but they showed no wear and tear as they got stronger as the meet went on, slowly pulling away from a tough New Fairfield squad in their home pool.

"There was definitely fatigue," Nigro said of his team swimming for the fourth time in seven days.  "I told them that just because we are tired doesn't mean New Fairfield is going to go easy on us."

The girls took second and third place in the opening event, the 200 Medley Relay, then ran off five straight victories to pull out in front for good.  New Fairfield won three of the final six events but Brookfield had too much depth as they placed multiple swimmers in the top three in eight of 12 events overall.

Senior twins Megan and Kalli Melville were strong again as they have been all season. Megan took first place in the 200 Freestyle and 500 Freestyle, while Kalli placed first in the 100 Fly.  

The sisters teamed up with freshman Anna Brown and sophomore Maddy Smart to win the final event of the day, the 400 Free Relay. Megan was also on the winning 200 Freestyle Relay team with Smart, freshman Sam Palicz and senior Taylor Errichiello, while Kalli helped the Lady Bobcats take second place swimming with two freshmen, Katie Dixon and Steph Ferrarie, and sophomore Andrea Jelaska.

Smart and Palicz also had top finishes on the day, with Smart placing first in the 200 IM and the 100 Breaststroke and Palicz taking first place in the 50 Freestyle and third in the 100 Freestyle.

The lone diver on the team, senior Sean McMullin, carried the weight of needing to score high on her dive, as she has done all season, placing first against three New Fairfield divers.  McMullin has secured the maximum amount of points the team can earn against all SWC opponents this season so far.

The team was given a boost by Ferrarie and Brown, who had strong individual performances to go along with their contributions in the relay teams.  Ferrarie placed second in the 5oo Freestyle and third in the 200 Freestyle while Brown placed second in the 100 Freestyle and the 100 Backstroke.