Tough Break Sets Bobcats Back in State Final

Through eight events at the Class M Swimming and Diving State Championship, the defending champion Brookfield team was locked up in a three team dead heat.  The Bobcats were wedged between powerhouses Darien and New Canaan, who were separated by only two points.

The teams all took the pool for event nine, the 200 Freestyle Relay, where the Bobcats basically were eliminated from contention when the poolside official disqualified Brookfield for an apparent early entry into the pool from the anchor position. The decision cost Brookfield 46 total team points that led them to a third place finish as they relinquished their title to New Canaan.

“Do I think it was a bad call at a bad time?” Brookfield head coach Brian Reiff pondered after the meet, stating that the team would have been down five points with a chance at a title.  “With the meet tied and three teams vying for a state title, I thought it was a rough call.”

Following the deflating relay result, Jeff Magin took second place with a time of 52.76 in the 100 Backstroke and Janco Cornelius took third place in the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:00.15. Both swimmers placed ahead of swimmers from New Canaan and Darien but the damage in the standings was already done.

“Our backstroker then goes second and our breaststroker then goes third,” Reiff said of the strong performances that could have set up a chance for a repeat title.  “You know that’s sports. For us it’s a rough break at a time when we put ourselves in a position to contend for this thing. For us to get to the 200 Free relay and make it a meet like that is a tribute to our kids and how hard they worked.”

The feeling on the pool deck from other coaches was that in such a crucial juncture of a championship meet, they would prefer the official make such a ruling only when their was a blatant advantage gained by a swimmer. In this case, no one but the official saw the Bobcat swimmer enter early.

Brookfield opened the meet by taking first place in the 200 Yard Medley Relay.  Sophomore Louciano De Souza, senior captain Cornelius and juniors Magin and Jack Dunn took home the medals with a time 1:36.77.

Darien took the early advantage in the meet with strong showings in the 200 Freestyle, 200 IM and 50 Freestyle.  The Bobcats fell 43 points off the pace and 30 points behind second place New Canaan through the first four events.  Solid performances by junior Drew Krentsa (10th – 200 Free), sophomore Matt Moen (fifth – 200 IM) and De Souza (sixth – 50 Free) kept Brookfield within striking distance.

helped Brookfield close the gap.  Senior captain Kevin Farrell placed seventh, senior Trevor Sniffin placed eighth and junior David Russo placed 15th to give the Bobcats the most points in the event.

New Canaan scored well in diving and then used its depth in the 100 Butterfly to pull ahead of Darien and Brookfield through six events. Junior Jeff Magin took home a medal with his second place time of 52.70 in the event.

De Souza, Dunn, Cornelius and Krentsa helped Brookfield keep pace in the 100 Freestyle before the Bobcats 500 Freestyle swimmers pushed them ahead of New Canaan, who fell briefly into third place, and 1.5 points behind Darien to set up what should have been a dramatic finish to the Bobcats' title defense.  Moen took third in the 500 with a time of 4:34.64, while sophomore Seamus Deakin (eighth), senior captain Blake Holton (11th) and freshman Nick Miller (13th) all swam well to boost the Bobcats score.

Darien won the final event, a dramatic 400 Freestyle Relay, but New Canaan’s second place finish was enough for them to reclaim the Class M trophy that Brookfield had taken away from them last year. The team of Magin, Moen, Krentsa and De Souza finished third with a time of 3:18.87.

“We took them by surprise last year,” Reiff said of the New Canaan squad that returned its entire runner-up squad from a season ago. “They had a lot of kids with top spots and they swam great and they have a lot to be proud of. We’re licking our wounds but they are a great team.”

Brookfield girls swimming coach Brandt Nigro, who took over as boys coach for Joel Barlow/Immaculate, led his B-Mac squad to a sixth place finish.  All world senior Robby Harder set two Class M records, besting the time in the 200 Freestyle by more than a second and shattering the time by seven seconds in the 500 Freestlye.

Brookfield will have numerous swimmers compete in the state open on Saturday to be held at Yale. The prideful group qualified swimmers in every event and they will look to shake off the disappointment of losing their title.

“They got hungry after last year,” Reiff said of his team that embraced the challenge of being the defending champ.  “We never thought we’d be in a position to get a title out of the M, we are the smallest team in the M and here we won last year and we will be back, I promise you, we will be back.”

Team scores

1. New Canaan 567.5 - 2. Darien 517.5 - 3. Brookfield 481 - 4. Wilton 336 - 5. Branford 322.5 - 6. (tie) Wethersfield and Barlow/Immaculate 309.5 - 8. Torrington 220 - 9. East Lyme 217 - 10. Fitch 202 - 11. ND-West Haven 197 - 12. Avon 185 - 13. Sheehan 181 - 14. Berlin 167.5 - 15. New Fairfield 123 - 16. Waterford 111 - 17. Lyman Hall 96 - 18. Hand 78 - 19. Masuk 60 - 20. Watertown 55 - 21. Ledyard/Stonington 34 - 22. (tie) Cheney Tech and New London 22.