Jaremko sweeps two events, Richard wins 50 free for third time at CCC North meet

The Avon High boys swimming team finished in the top 10 at the Class M championship meet for the sixth straight season. (Photo courtesy Diana Cesaro)

WETHERSFIELD, March 2 – Avon’s Maksymilian Jaremko won two events to help lead the Avon High boys swimming team to a second place finish at the recent CCC North championship meet at Wethersfield High.

CCC North champion Wethersfield won the meet for the second consecutive year with a 347-296 win over Avon. The E.O. Smith/Tolland co-op was third with 231 points.

Jaremko swept the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle races. In the 200 free, Jaremko won the event for the second time in three years with a time of 1:49.20, which was 0.37 seconds better than his time when he won this race in 2017.

In the 500 free, Jaremko won the race by nearly 33 seconds with a time of 4:49.98, which shattered the old meet record set by Avon’s Adam Zaptka (4:54.35) in 2017. This was the second time that Jaremko won this race at the CCC North championship race. He also won the race as a freshman in 2016.

Avon’s Andre Richard won the 50 yard freestyle for the third straight year with a winning time of 22.97 seconds. Richard beat E.O. Smith/Tolland’s Franklin Kuhn by a whopping 0.28 of a second. Richard was second in this race as a freshman.

Avon’s 400 freestyle relay team (Richard, Rahul Kumar, Justin Arroyo, Jaremko) easily won with a time of 3:27.49, more than 17 seconds ahead of E.O. Smith/Tolland.

It’s been a strong second half of the season for the Falcons (5-6-1, 4-1 CCC North), who were 5-2-1 in their final eight meets.

Avon lost their first four meets of the year. Meets against the Suffield co-op and Southington each came down to the final relay and the Falcons fell short. But a win over Middletown got the Falcons moving forward on the right track.

This was the final season for long-time coach Diana Cesaro, who is resigning at the end of the season after eight years as the head coach and 13 years in the program. Cesaro spent five years as an assistant coach with the Clayton Northgraves.

Cesaro took over as head coach in November 2011 and the Falcons swam four years as an independent team before joining the Central Connecticut Conference. Avon won the CCC North championship in 2017 and grabbed two CCC North championship meet titles in 2016 and 2017.

In each of the past six years, Avon has finished in the top 10 in Class M, including a fourth place finish in 2017 when the Falcons went 13-2 overall.

“I think I have brought the team to a more competitive level,” she said. “I would like to say that we become a family every year. The traveling to train in Florida (one week each year) brings the kids closer and makes them encourage each other.”

Under Cesaro’s tenure, Avon swimmers won three individual state championships. Riley Strassner became the first Avon swimmer to win a state title by capturing the 200-yard freestyle at the Class M meet in 2014 and 2015 and Jaremko added a 200 free title this year.

The 200 freestyle relay (Arroyo, Chute, Rahul Kumar, Richard) was the first Avon relay team to win a state title this year at the Class M championship meet.

At Avon, girls also swim on the boys swimming team. Avon won the Splash Classic, the girls-only meet for girls that swim on boys swimming teams during the winter, seven times in the last eight years.

Finding a home pool remained a consistent challenge for the program throughout the years. In Cesaro’s tenure with the team, the Falcons trained at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, the New England Athletic Club in Cromwell, Central Connecticut State University in New Britain and now Cornerstone Aquatics Center in West Hartford.

This year, Avon trained in the evening from 7:30 to 9 p.m. and hosted their home meets on Saturdays.

Cesaro (56-49-2) has enjoyed teaching the sport. “I coach to give back to the sport which made me who I am,” she said. “I love to share the sport with as many as possible. Not every team member will swim in college or maybe even next year but they have learned and grown on our team.”

2019 CCC North championships
At Wethersfield
Team results – 1. Wethersfield 347, 2. Avon 296, 3. E.O. Smith/Tolland 231, 4. Newington 217, 5. Rocky Hill 118, 6. Hartford Public 36
200 medley relay: 1. Wethersfield (Rory Stickley, Caleb Skowronek, Holden Hoon, Brendon Mansaku) 1:45.79, 2. E.O. Smith/Tolland 1:45.96, 3. Avon (Rahul Kumar, Lance Morgan, Maksymilian Jaremko, Chris Chute) 1:46.68, 4. Newington 1:49.32, 5. E.O. Smith/Tolland B 1:55.28, 6. Wethersfield B 1:56.85

200 freestyle: 1. Maksymilian Jaremko, Avon, 1:49.20; 2. Tanner Bradbury, Wethersfield 1:57.74, 3. Luke Zonghetti, EOS/Tolland 1:58.58, 4. Jacob Castonguary, EOS/Tolland 2:00.38, 5. Nathan Gerace-Hicks, Rocky Hill 2:01.30, 6. Luke Fote, Newington 2:01.46

200 IM: 1. Caleb Skowronek, Wethersfield 2:08.66, 2. Justin Arroyo, Avon 2:09.33, 3. Matthew Iallonardo, Wethersfield, 2:10.04, 4. Patrick Juvencio, Newington, 2:17.44, 5. Siddharth Kumar 2:19.50, 6. Paul Issac, EOS/Tolland 2:19.89

50 free: 1. Andre Richard, Avon, 22.97, 2. Franklin Kuhn, EOS/Tolland 23.25, 3. Holden Hoon, Wethersfield 23.47, 4. Anthony Scigliano, EOS/Tolland 24.05, 5. Brendon Mansaku, Wethersfield 24.27, 6. Chris Chute, Avon 24.53

100 butterfly: 1. Holden Hoon, Wethersfield, 56.65, 2. Rahul Kumar, Avon 57.08, 3. Matthew Iallonardo, Wethersfield 58.07, 4. Matthew Pasini, EOS/Tolland 58.63, 5. Maksym Ugrak, Newington, 58.89, 6. Logan Prentiss, Rocky Hill, 1:01.24

100 free: 1. Franklin Kuhn, EOS/Tolland 49.94, 2. Andre Richard, Avon, 51.48, 3. Rory Stickley, Wethersfield, 52.37, 4. Brendon Mansaku, Wethersfield 52.44, 5. Chris Chute, Avon, 53.36, 6. Luke Fote, 53.41

500 free: 1. Maksymilian Jaremko, Avon, 4:49.98, new meet record. (Old record Adam Zapatka, Avon, 4:54.35, 2017), 2. Jack Kulpa, Wethersfield, 5:22.77, 3. Jack Blaisdell, Wethersfield, 5:24.87, 4. Tanner Bradbury, Wethersfield, 5:28.80, 5. Nathan Gerace-Hicks, Rocky Hill 5:30.24, 6. Nicholas Jirku, Newington, 5:37.49

200 freestyle relay: 1. Wethersfield (Jack Blaisdell, Brendon Mansaku, Caleb Skowronek, Holden Hoon) 1:32.51, 2. Avon (Justin Arroyo, Lance Morgan, Chris Chute, Andre Richard) 1:34.42, 3. EOS/Tolland 1:35.93, 4. Newington 1:37.52, 5. Wethersfield B 1:39.49, 6. Rocky Hill 1:42.30

100 backstroke: 1. Rory Stickley, Wethersfield, 58.54, 2. Rahul Kumar, Avon, 58.74, 3. Jacob Castonguary, EOS/Tolland 1:00.93, 4. Nicholas Goegel, Newington, 1:04.18, 5. Zachary Crevier 1:04.25, 6. Tre Bucci, Newington 1:04.31

100 breast stroke: 1. Caleb Skowronek, Wethersfield, 1:03.72, 2. Anthony Scigliano, EOS/Tolland 1:04.94, 3. Justin Arroyo, Avon, 1:05.98, 4. Lance Morgan, Avon, 1:06.48, 5. Maksym Ugrak, Newington, 1:07.60, 6. Dejvid Valishti, Avon, 1:09.41

400 freestyle relay: 1. Avon (Andre Richard, Rahul Kumar, Justin Arroyo, Maksymilian Jaremko) 3:27.49, 2. EOS/Tolland 3:44.41, 3. Wetherfield 3:44.58, 4. Wethersfield B 4:46.26, 5. Newington 3:47.25, 6. Avon B (Karen Zhou, Sara Chute, Mike Ford, Kelly Zhou) 3:54.31

2019 CCC North championship meet results

Avon 2018-19 results

CCC North standings 2018-19

x-won league championship