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Secrets revealed: Strong season for Avon High swim team

AVON, March 14 – They may be the best-kept athletic secret in Avon. The students at Avon High know about the boys and girls that make up the Falcon boys swim team but few others do outside of the team’s parents.


The Avon boys swimming team turned in one of their best performances this winter, going 10-1 overall and finishing second in the Nutmeg League to undefeated Middletown.

The Falcons sent 14 swimmers into Saturday’s Class M trials to qualify for a spot in the Class M championship finals on Tuesday at Wesleyan University in Middletown.

There are 54 swimmers on the team, about evenly split between boys and girls. Avon was strong and deep this year, especially in the final five events of meets – the 200 meters freestyle relay, the 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 breast stroke and 400 freestyle relay.

The Falcons (10-1, 7-1 Nutmeg) had little trouble beating most of the teams on their schedule, including a 20-point win over Farmington in February. The only real challenge came in a 102-84 loss to Nutmeg League champion Middletown early in January.

At the recent Nutmeg League championship meet, junior Zack Loughlin was Avon’s only individual champion winning the 100 meter freestyle by 0.20 of a second in 50.88. But Avon had 11 other individuals and three relays finish in the top six.

Senior Mike Culkin finished third in the 500 freestyle and fourth in the 200 free. Senior Vince Savarese was third in the 200 individual medley and fourth in the 500 free. Along with his win in the 100 free, Loughlin was sixth in the 50 free.

Three relay teams set new school records. The 400 freestyle relay (Zac Cesaro, Mike Culkin, Saverese, Loughlin) was second behind Middletown with a school record time of 3:25.99. The 200 freestyle relay (Loughlin, Keegan Johnson, Mike Culkin, Saverese) was third with a time of 1:34.26.

The 200 medley relay (Casey Donahue, Hla, Matt Correnti, Johnson) also finished third with a school record time of 1:47.93.

Sophomore John Hla finished second in the 100 breast stroke with sophomore Nick Sauerbrunn in fifth place and Dillon Ade taking sixth. Freshman Zac Cesaro was fifth in the 200 IM.

In the 100 backstroke, senior Jillian Strassner was third and senior Cassie Cesaro was sixth. While the girls swimming season is in the fall, girls are allowed to swim on boys teams in the winter if the school doesn’t have a girls swim team. But they must meet the same qualifying standards as the boys.

While nearly half of the Avon squad are girls, they must beat out the boys to earn opportunities to swim in varsity meets. Strassner and Cassie Cesaro regularly compete and each qualified to swim in the Class M finals a year ago and the Class S finals in 2007 and 2006, primarily in the backstroke.

However, Simsbury High hosts the Splash Classic, the unofficial state championship meet for girls that compete in the winter with the boys. At the 19th annual Splash Classic in February, Avon won for the third straight year, setting three new meet records.

Cassie Cesaro set a new meet record in the 100 butterfly winning by six seconds with a time of 1:01.95. She also won the 200 IM by six seconds in 2:18.05.

Avon’s 200 freestyle relay team (Cassie Cesaro, Kelly Higgins, Kelly Culkin, Strassner) set a new meet and girls school record with a time of 1:45.38, winning by six seconds. The 400 freestyle relay team (Kelly Culkin, Corrigan, Strassner, Cassie Cesaro) won its race by eight seconds with a new meet and girls school record time of 3:50.44.

Strassner won the 200 freestyle by 0.45 of a second in 2:00.15 over teammate Kelly Culkin. Strassner also won the 100 backstroke in 1:01.76 beating teammate Tierney Corrigan, who took second.

In the 500 freestyle, freshman Kelly Culkin won with a time of 5:26.53. Avon’s 200 medley relay (Corrigan, Victoria Wu, Hilary Hla, Kelly Higgins) finished third.
2009 Nutmeg League championships
At Plainville
Team results – 1. Middletown 295½, 2. Avon 258, 3. Haddam Killingworth 168, 4. Berlin 160, 5. Plainville 153½, 6. Northwest Catholic 143, 7. Suffield 97, 8. Granby 37, 9. Rocky Hill 29, 10. Hartford Classical 25
Individual results
200 medley relay: 1. Middletown (Meskill, McAlear, Cooke, Pharham) 1:42.72, 2. Berlin 147.74, 3. Avon (Casey Donahue, John Hla, Matt Correnti, Keegan Johnson) 1:47.93, 4. Haddam-Killingworth 1:47.99, 5. Plainville 1:50.09, 6. Suffield 1:50.72
200 free: 1. John Hug (NWC) 1:49.09, 2. Kevin Kozikowski (Berlin) 1:50.45, 3. Ryan Buys (HK) 1:52.17, 4. Mike Culkin (Avon) 1:53.45, 5. Clayton Curran (Midd) 1:55.52, 6. Nick Sauerbrunn (Avon) 1:57.44
200 IM: 1. Samuel Nowack (Midd) 2:03.90, 2. Andrew Thurston (Berlin) 2:05.06, 3. Vince Savarese (Avon) 2:07.56, 4. Zachary Morello (HK) 2:10.99, 5. Zac Cesaro (Avon) 2:11.55, 6. Andrew Lee (Plain) 2:12.64
50 free: 1. Robbie Kunkel (NWC) 22.83, 2. Austin Bergeron (Plain) and Peter Horton (Midd) 22.91, 4. Matthew McAlear (Middl) 23.07, 5. Daniel Zuckerman (Plain) 23.24, 6. Zack Loughlin (Avon) 23.29
Diving: 1. Taylor Bartolotta (Midd) 296.75, 2. Reece Gesick (HK) 267.45, 3. Peter Dalena (Plain) 266.75, 4. Josh Paradis (Berlin), 5. Joshua Zaniewski (Berlin) 263.45, 6. Valentine Ekpenyong (Midd) 248.95
100 butterfly: 1. Ryan Buys (HK) 54.15, 2. Samuel Nowack (Midd) 54.61, 3. Robbie Kunkel (NWC) 54.86, 4. Kevin Kozikowski (Berlin) 55.08, 5. Austin Bergeron (Plain) 56.61, 6. Ethan Cooke (Midd) 57.40
100 freestyle:1. Zack Loughlin (Avon) 50.88, 2. Peter Horton (Midd) 51.08, 3. Tim Dufore (Suffield) 51.55, 4. Jeffrey Ludington (HK) 51.86, 5. Daniel Zuckerman (Plain) 52.02, 6. Even Pharham (Midd) 52.83
500 freestyle: 1. Jeff Hug (NWC) 4:49.13, 2. Andrew Thurston (Berlin) 4:51.22, 3. Mike Culkin (Avon) 5:08.26, 4. Vince Savarese (Avon) 5:20.32, 5. Sal Marino (Midd) 5:24.89, 6. Adam James (Plain) 5:28.61
200 free relay: 1. Middletown (McAlear, Nowack, Pharham, Horton) 1:31.50, 2. Plainville 1:33.87, 3. Avon (Zack Loughlin, Keegan Johnson, Mike Culkin, Vince Saverese) 1:34.26, 4. N.W. Catholic 1:34, 5. Haddam Killingworth 1:34.67, 6. Berlin 1:41.58
100 backstroke: 1. Tim Meskill (Midd) 58.16, 2. Tim Dufore (Suffield) 59.21, 3. Jillian Strassner (Avon) 1:00.21, 4. Jeffrey Luddington (HK) 1:00.33, 5. Jon Budlong (Granby) 1:00.67, 6. Cassie Cesaro (Avon) 1:00.69
100 breast stroke: 1. Matthew McAlear (Midd) 1:01.03, 2. John Hla (Avon) 1:05.00, 3. Andrew Lee (Plain) 1:05.54, 4. Chris Sweeney (Suffield) 1:06.57, 5. Nick Sauerbrunn (Avon) 1:07.04, 6. Dillon Ade (Avon) 1:08.65
400 free relay: 1. Middletown (Nowack, Curran, Meskill, Horton), 3:21.84, 2. Avon (Zac Cesaro, Mike Culkin, Vince Savarese, Zack Loughlin) 3:25.99, 3. Haddam-Killingworth 3:27.48, 4. N.W. Catholic 3:27.65, 5. Berlin 3:29.56, 6. Suffield 3:38.86

2009 Splash Classic
At Simsbury
Team results – 1. Avon 260, 2. Simsbury 173, 3. Northwestern Regional 125, 4. Northwest Catholic 118, 5. Lewis Mills 104, 6. Ledyard/Stonington 102, 7. Litchfield 89½, 8. Shepaug 84, 9. Granby 77, 10. Gilbert 38, 11. Danbury 35, 12. E.O. Smith 34½, 13. Torrington and Wamogo 32, 15. Staples 25, 16. Bethel 21, 17. Conard 20, 18. Hartford Classical 12, 19. Middletown 11, 20. Southington 2
200 medley relay: 1. Simsbury (Soja, Lacko, Gardner, Carr) 2:00.26, 2. Northwestern 2:02.73, 3. Avon (Tierney Corrigan, Victoria Wu, Hilary Hla, Kelly Higgins) 2:02.75, 4. Litchfield 2:03.74, 5. Ledyard/Stonington 2:06.60, 6. Shepaug 2:06.77
200 freestyle: 1. Jillian Strassner (Avon ) 2:00.15, 2. Kelly Culkin (Avon) 2:00.60, 3. Hannah Scobee (NWC) 2:06.53, 4. Catie Salter (Lewis Mills) 2:07.33, 5. Dawn Bridgham (Ledyard) 2:08.75, 6. Kaitlyn Donch (Ledyard) 2:11.53
200 IM: 1. Cassie Cesaro (Avon) 2:18.05, 2. Chloe Scobee (NWC) 2:24.35, 3. Morgan Letendre (Granby) 2:24.53, 4. Eva Nelson (Ledyard) 2:25.93, 5. Kelsey Sumple (NWC) 2:27.48, 6. Hailey Martel (Lewis Mills) 2:27.55
50 free: 1. Sarah Kelly (Shepaug) 25.87, 2. Lena Gunzel (Lewis Mills) 26.40, 3. Shannon Dunn (Litchfield) 26.43, 4. Caroline Carr (Simsbury) 26.53, 5. Bridie McCarthy (Gilbert) 27.39, 6. Kelly Higgins (Avon) 27.42
Diving: 1. Katie Sterpka (NWR) 328.50, 2. Chrysta Currier (Torrington) 320.10, 3. Lauren Pollack (Simsbury) 289.65, 4. Taylor Bartolotta (Simsbury) 289.65, 5. Laura Folsom (Simsbury) 281.90, 6. Rachel Stearns (Torrington) 268.55
100 butterfly: 1. Cassie Cesaro (Avon) 1:01.95 (new meet record), 2. Kelsey Sumple (NWC) 1:07.39, 3. Hilary Hla (Avon) 1:09.95, 4. Courtney Gardner (Simsbury) 1:09.98, 5. Colleen King (NWR) 1:10.53, 6. Macaire Jones (Danbury) 1:12.16
100 freestyle: 1. Sarah Kelly (Shepaug) 55.86, 2. Josephine Grevers (Staples) 58.21, 3. Jessica Soja (Simsbury) 58.79, 4. A.J. Rogers (EO Smith) 59.00, 5. Kelly Higgins (Avon) 1:00.26, 6. Caroline Carr (Simsbury) 1:00.34
500 freestyle: 1. Kelly Culkin (Avon) 5:26.53, 2. Chloe Scobee (NWC) 5:32.87, 3. Lena Gunzl (Lewis Mills) 5:33.41, 4. Hannah Scobee (NWC) 5:41.33, 5. Eva Nelson (Ledyard) 5:45.30, 6. Caitie Salter (Lewis Mills) 5:47.32
200 free relay: 1. Avon (Cassie Cesaro, Kelly Higgins, Kelly Culkin, Jillian Strassner) 1:45.38 (new meet and girls school record), 2. NW Catholic 1:51.97, 3. Granby 1:51.99, 4. Shepaug 1:52.50, 5. Northwestern Regional 1:52.71, 6. Simsbury 1:54.60
100 backstroke: 1. Jillian Strassner (Avon) 1:01.76, 2. Tierney Corrigan (Avon) 1:04.16, 3. Josephine Grevers (Staples) 1:04.48, 4. Shannon Dunn (Litchfield) and AJ Rogers (EO Smith) 1:05.57, 6. Jessica Soja (Simsbury) 1:05.60
100 breast stroke: 1. Katie King (Northwestern Regional) 1:12.13, 2. Molly Gustafson (Conard) 1:13.25, 3. Hailey Martel (Lewis Mills) 1:13.27, 4. Melaine Erk (Danbury) 1:14.38, 5. Lauren Rosa (EO Smith) 1:15.14, 6. Kaitlyn Donch (Ledyard) 1:15.93
400 freestyle relay: 1. Avon (Kelly Culkin, Tierney Corrigan, Jillian Strassner, Cassie Cesaro) 3:50.44 (new meet and girls school record), 2. Lewis Mills 3:58.84, 3. Litchfield 4:06.02, 4. Simsbury 4:06.47, 5. Ledyard 4:09.52, 6. Northwestern Regional 4:12.21


2009 results
Avon 96, Rocky Hill 79
Avon 100, Suffield 66
Middletown 102, Avon 84
Avon 100, H-Killingworth 84
Avon 116, NW Catholic 70
Avon 104, Berlin 82
Avon 93, Granby 58
Avon 103, Farmington 83
Avon 108, Plainville 78
Avon 104, Litchfield 82

Avon 103, Shepaug 83


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Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.

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