Berlin High School Swimming Roundup

Berlin lost to Plainville  85-97 recently.

"It was a tough loss, we had many out sick including two-thirds of our diving team," coach Eileen Thurston nsaid. "However we had some fantastic swims."

Kyle Nelson had a great night for Berlin, winning the 500 free in 5:52.59 and taking an important third in the 200 free.  Vinny Fischer was a double winner in the 200 free and the 100 back.  Dan Klotz and Kevin Kozoikowski were each double winners in the 50 and 100 free for Dan and the 200 IM and the 100 fly for Kevin.

With the loss, Berlin fell to 1-6 and 0-2 in the league.

The Redcoats responded by beating Enfield, 90-68. 

Both Vinny Fischer in the 500 free  with a 5:39.32 and Chris Cefaratti in the 100 free with a 58.33 won their events.

Other winners included Chris Domurat in the 50 free, Kevin Kozikowski in the 200 IM and the 100 fly, Fischer in the 200 free, all three rlays were also first place finishers including Igor Turetskyy, Taylor Bosse, Fischer, Kevin Kozikowski, Chris Cefaratti, Chris Domurat, Kyle Nelson, Ryan Newport who are all seniors.

"It was a great meet for the seniors to shine," Thurston said.

Berlin honored 17 seniors against the Meriden Co-op last week.

They are Ben Bonola, Taylor Bosse, Tim Boualapha,Captain Chris Cefaratti, Chris Domurat, Vinny Fischer, Captain Kevin Kozikowski, Chris Napierkowski, Kyle Nelson, Captain Ryan Newport, Huy Nguyen, Josh Paradis, Bhavik Patel, Marcin Purzych, Nick Tropea, Igor Turetskyy and German foreign exchange student Alex Studt.

The evening was highlighted with Vinny Fischer breaking an 11-year old record in the 100 backstoke record with a new time of 58.96, which also qualifies him for states. 

"We had many great swims and won the meet 95-83," Thurston said.

First place finishes were achieved by The 200 medley relay teamof Vinny Fischer, Taylor Bosse, Kevin Kozikowski and Chris Cefaratti, 200 free by Kevin Kozikowski, the 200 IM by Dan Klotz, the 50 free by Chris Cefarrati, the diving by Josh Paradis, the 100 fly by Kevin Kozikowski, the 500 free by Dan Klotz, the 100 breast by Taylor Bosse, the 100 Back by Vinny Fischer, the 200 free relay which included Chris Domurat, Chris Cefaratti, Luke Switzer, and Dan Klotz and the 400 free relay which included Kevin Kozikowski, Dan Klotz, Kyle Nelson and Vinny Fischer.

Proud Alumni: At the NEWC Championships, Taylor Friedmann  was first and set a new record in the 500 free (4:50.87), second in the 200 free (1:50.47), and second in the 100 free (51.1.) She  qualified for ECAC meet in all three.
Allison Thurston  was ninth in the 400 IM (4:44.91-life time best by 2 seconds) and 11th in the 200 butterfly (2:13.56 lifetime best by 7 seconds) and qualified for ECAC in both.
Sam Smolicz was second in both the 1 meter and 3 meter diving (personal best scores on each level.)
Kellyn Goldberger was third in both the 1 and 3 meter diving (personal best scores on each level.)

Allison, Sam and Taylor will be competing at the University of Pittsburgh this upcoming weekend at ECAC's.

"I just returned from a very exciting ECAC swimming and diving championship in Pittsburgh, Feb 25-27th," Thurston said. "This meet included 30 teams from the east coast that had satisfied the qualifying times in their conference meets. Our alumni did very well."

Taylor Friedmann finished first in the 200 free with a new ECAC record of 1:49.44. She also finished second in the 500 free and 12th  in the 100 free.
Samantha Smolicz finished sixth in the 3 meter diving while Allison Thurston finished 19th in the 400 IM and 23rd in the 200 Butterfly

All three of these ladies accomplished these finishes with best times and best scores. Allison and Taylor were also named all-academic for the conference for maintaining above a 3.5 GPA.