Ian Phillips ’10
A&E Editor
In an unfortunate turn of events, the Staples Boys’ Swimming & Diving Team was defeated at home by Weston with a very close score of 97-87. This brings the boys’ record to 2-5 this season.
The team faced a number of illnesses in top competitors and had the added challenge of preparing for two more meets later this week.
Despite the loss, the team did find a number of victories. Some highlights for Staples included a win in the 200 free relay. Participants included Cory Bacon ’11, Kyle Bacon ’12, Larry Abel ’10, and Nathaniel Boley ’13. Boley also placed first in the 400 free with a time of 4:25:64. Matthew Wisher ’12 placed first in the 100 backstroke coming in at 1:05:08.
“We had some solid swimming…most of the guys swam very close to personal bests and the positioning of swimmers in the line-up was our strongest. Weston was simply the best team today,” Coach Jeffrey Schare said.
A few races were as close as the meet itself, with Corey Bacon ’11 coming in second in the 50 free by a difference of just four milliseconds.
“We had an extremely exciting sprint relay, which was so close that the timing system couldn’t handle it,” Tri-Captain Cameron Bruce ’10 said.
Perhaps the Wreckers’ biggest victory came in the diving category. Despite the loss of Zach Slater ’11 to illness and Matt Mirkine ’10 to a college commitment, the Wreckers still managed to pull a win. In their place, divers Tanner Blank ’13 and Jessica Guo ’12 stepped up to the task. Blank placed first with a score of 148.65.
“We had the two most junior members of the team have to step up-they were nervous-but they did very well,” Diving Coach Dan Long said.
Despite this loss, the Wreckers’ swim team has two more chances to score a comeback this week. They have a second border rivalry versus Wilton at home on Wednesday and another home meet versus Danbury on Friday.
“I hope that we’ll try to increase our energy output even more, because Wilton is going to be another very close, exciting meet. We can only hope for he best and that one day off is enough to center ourselves and get back on track,” Bruce said.
