Darien High School’s Boys Varsity Swim and Dive team has proven immense superiority in this year’s Open Swim Championship Finals at Yale University. The team has had an extremely successful season. By hard and determined training, the team built itself a path to receive a winning spot. Swimming eight times every week and showing great accomplishment in dual meets, the boys prepared for the challenges of championship season. The team’s triumphs included tying with Greenwich and winning it’s first first Class L title ever, defeating it’s rival, New Canaan. With all of these encouraging things in mind, team members were ready to give their all, presenting themselves as an intimidating force to be reckoned with when arriving at Yale. The boys grew stronger and more skilled with each day of effort.
Those who qualified to swim at the championship finals were extremely excited to participate and show some true DHS talent. Sophomore Connor Martin and junior Spencer Erickson were spectacular in their events, with Martin placing second in the 100 butterfly with the time of 51.7 and placed 14th in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.07. Alongside, Erickson placed third in the 100 back with a time of 52.10 and also placed fifth in the 200 yard free, timing 1:43.14. Junior Karl Wadleigh, timing 1:46.14 in the 200 yard free, earned 15th place. Senior Chris Zhang placed 16th in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 4:49.94. Placing 15th in in the 100 yard breaststroke, sophomore Nico Clark concluded with a time of 1:00.23. As for the 200 yard IM, sophomore Conway Zhou placed 23rd , timing 2:02.17. For the 100 yard backstroke, senior Connor Henry placed 21st with a time of 55.40.
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| Sophomore Connor Martin racing to the finish of the 100 m butterfly. (Courtesy Dave Stewart) |
The relays in competition also proved to be victorious. Those who participated in the 200 medley relay were Erickson, Martin, Clark, and Zhang. The relay received a time of 1:37.51, placing in fifth place. The team’s 400 freestyle relay was made up by Erickson, Zhang, Martin, and Wadleigh, placing fourth with a time of 3:11.77. As for diving, Owen Stevens and Wiley Schmidt also were congratulated. Stevens placed first and Schmidt places second, proudly receiving sports in the all state first team.
Despite being tired, it was the team’s main goal to stay focused and not give up what they have worked towards to for so achingly long. All of the training and incredible results of the events led the team to place fifth out of nearly fifty other teams that took part in the Open Swim Championship Finals.
“Now that the season is over and we accomplished our goal that does not mean that we are done,” determinedly said sophomore Connor Martin. “This is a very young team and we are coming back next year with most of our top scorers, including three out of the four members of each of the record holding relay teams. We will be back, ready to work, and we will be ready to defend our title.
"Everyone on our team had tried their hardest to get this far. We have achieved our goal of winning Class L, and proved ourselves to be a major threat at Opens. This season, Darien had faced many obstacles, and each and every one of us helped each other to break through these obstacles and rise to the top,” proudly said sophomore Conway Zhou. “We did not win just because of skill, luck, or even the training we did. It was because we were a team - unbreakable, strong, and fighting until the very end."
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