Berlin Swim Team Opens With A Win

The Berlin High men's swim and dive team defeated Rocky Hill, 98-84 Tuesday afternoon at Maloney High School.

"It was an excellent start to our dual meet season," Berlin coach Dan Thurston said. "The team achieved best times for the season in 83 out of 104 swims."

Berlin got wins from the 200 Medley Relay team of Wojciech Kajzer, Luke Switzer, Dan Klotz, and Brian Kennure, Ryan Marquis in the 200 freestyle, Dan Klotz in the 50 and 100 freestyle, Nathan Giaccone in Diving, Brian Kennure in the 100 butterfly, Adrian Wojtun in the 500 freestyle, and Wojciech Kajzer in the 100 backstroke. 

Dan Klotz was a double state qualifier in the 50 and 100 freestyle and Nathan Giaccone was a state qualifier in diving. 

"Overall, it was a great start for the season for our team," Thurston said "We had strong showings from swimmers throughout the roster. We have a large group of new swimmers this year, some new to the team, and some brand new to the sport. Our returning swimmers have been an excellent influence on the new swimmers, providing support, encouragement, and showing them by example the work ethic and approach that we need to get the gains we are looking for.

"Although it has only been three weeks, this group is already very close-knit and invested in each others' results.  It was very exciting to see their hard work over this first stretch come out in this meet."

Other standout performances included sophomore James Sanders comfortably breaking 100 in his first meet as a diver and Tom Drozdzowski and Jey Soucy both dropping huge chunks of time off of their best times from last year.