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North Haven Girls’ Swimming Rewrites School Record Book at SCC Championship

The North Haven girls’ swimming team put together a historic performance at last week’s Southern Connecticut Conference Championship. The Indians’ recorded three individual first-place finishes, broke six school records, and came in fifth place overall as a squad at the SCC meet.

Sophomore Angela Gambardella took first place in both the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke, while breaking school records in both events, for the Indians. Freshman Maddie Bergin set a school record in her victory in the 100 freestyle and also with her third-place finish in the 50 freestyle. North Haven also saw its 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays break school records. On top of all that, Head Coach Martha Phelan received a big-time honor when she was named the SCC Division I Coach of the Year prior to the meet. All totaled, the Indians scored 630 points to finish fifth out of 17 teams at the Conference Championship.

The swimming portion of the SCC Championship was held at Southern Connecticut State University on Nov. 11. Gambardella recorded a time of 2:06.70 to grab first place in the 200 IM, defeating Cheshire’s Samantha Grenon (2:07.66) by just under a second. Later in the meet, Gambardella won the 100 breaststroke by clocking in at 1:04.33 to handily defeat runner-up Emma Glover of Cheshire (1:09.92) by more than five seconds. Gambardella’s time came close to breaking the SCC breaststroke record of 1:03.73 that was set by Cheshire’s Kim Jerome in 2009. Both of Gambardella’s times broke North Haven school records that had stood since 1993. She earned All-SCC honors with her two victories and received the Most Outstanding Performance Award for the SCC Championship meet.

In between Gambardella’s record-breaking performances, Bergin broke a school record from 2006 by swimming a of 53.27 in the 100 freestyle to edge out Shelton’s Louise Kim (53.28) by the slimmest of margins, winning by just one one-hundredth of a second. Bergin took third place in the 50 freestyle and broke her own school record in the event with a time of 24.32. She made All-SCC in both freestyle events.

Bergin and Gambardella also swam with seniors Jasmine Nguy and Laura Borrelli on North Haven’s All-SCC second-place 200 medley relay that finished with a time of 1:51.90, breaking a school record set in 2003. The Indians’ 200 freestyle relay of Gambardella, Borrelli, freshman Riley Jooss, and Bergin broke a school record from 2000 by timing in at 1:40.88 for a third-place finish.

A few days earlier, sophomore Ava Santacroce and junior Isabella Alogna competed for North Haven at the Diving Championship portion of the SCC Championship at Hamden High School on Oct. 30. Santacroce finished in fourth place with a lifetime-best 11-dive total of 342.65 points, while Alogna came in fifth place by scoring 331.45 points, which also marked a lifetime best for an 11-dive set. There were 32 divers who competed at this meet.

Moving back to the swimming, the Indians’ 400 freestyle relay featuring Nguy, Jooss, sophomore Mackenzie Montesi, and sophomore Kiersten Winter came in 10th place with a time of 3:55.76. Winter took 10th place in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.26) and also finished 15th in the 200 IM (2:20.47), both which marked lifetime bests. Nguy finished 14th in the 100 backstroke (lifetime best of 1:05.59) and placed 15th in the 100 butterfly (1:03.20). Borrelli swam to 14th place in the 50 free (25.96), and Montesi finished 15th in the 500 free with a lifetime-best 5:38.69. Borrelli also placed 25th in the 100 freestyle behind a time of 57.40.

In the 200 IM, Jooss finished 17th (2:21.87), and freshman Molly Coyle came in 29th place (2:32.95) with both athletes posting lifetime-best marks. Senior Avery Hill posted a 21st-place performance in the 100 breaststroke with a lifetime-best mark of 1:16.62. Sophomore Abby Kirtland was 22nd in the 100 backstroke with a lifetime best of 1:07.74, while Montesi finished 26th with a time of 1:08.75.

North Haven will compete at the Class M State Championship this week. The Diving Championship was at Bulkeley High School on Nov. 8 (after press time); the Swimming Qualifying takes place at Masuk High School at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11; and the Swimming Championship will be held at Southern Connecticut State University at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 15. The State Open Championship follows the class meets. The Open Diving Championship is at Middletown High School at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 16, and the Swimming Championship takes place at Yale University at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18.