Swimmers' Senior Night Was One To Remember

Last year, Newington beat Berlin in the pool.

This year, The Redcoats were determined not to let that happen again.

Berlin hosted Newington in its lone home meet of the season and beat the Indians 98-86 to improve to 5-0.

Even though the meet is early in the season, Berlin was forced to have "Senior Night" already because of having all its other meets on the road. So the seniors went out with a bang.

"When we swam against Newington last year the girls were almost silly," Berlin coach Amanda McCarthy said. "They swim with each other in the off-season and they know each other so they were just having fun. This year, the girls were very focused and very competitive. I am ultra competitive so I didn't understand it and I was nervous going into the meet. Newington is a good team and a great program with a great feeder program so it was a great night."

The 200 medley relay team of Amanda Martino, Katherine Burek, Kelsey Kozikowski and Briana Cass came in first.

Kate Piotrowicz won the 200 free. Freshman Kozikowski was second in the 200 IM with a personal best time of 2:22.63. Cass won the 50 free. Taylor Recck was third in the 100 free but qualified for states with a time of :59.

Junior Leah Pawelczyk broke the school record for diving by a large margin. The old record was 176 and Pawelczyk recorded a score of 182.10.

The 200 free relay team of Piotrowicz, Recck, Cass and Kozikowski lso came in first.

Freshman Kayla Cervoni was third in the 100 back but qualified for states with her time of 1:09.88.

"We swam really phenomenal," McCarthy said. "It could have gone either way. It was very competitive. Their coach and I get along really well and it was a great night."

Berlin has 11 seniors and 18 juniors but what is the biggest difference in this team and last year.

"We have gotten great leadership from our captains, Kate, Briana and Taylor," McCarthy said. "I can only lead so much. The girls look up to their peers. so the captains have stepped up. Being a captain is a learning process so the girls are learning on the job but they are doing great and getting better every day. They have made everyone feel like an equal part of the team."

The schedule gets nothing but tougher for the Redcoats.

Berlin is at Holy Cross in Waterbury Friday. The Redcoats then travel to Farmington (meet at Miss Porter's) and have meets against Windsor Loks, Hall and Conard.