Swimmers show talent at JV Invitational

   The JV Invitational championship meet held this past Saturday at Pomperaug High gives swimmers one more chance to break their personal best, qualify for states or try out a new event for next year's depth chart. The Bethel swim team, one of the largest teams in the state, brought twenty five swimmers to this meet and came away with 43 personal best times, including four new post-season qualifiers.

   First year senior Patrick McCourt, who returned to the pool since his glory days as a star under-10 year old Mako star, cemented a great year with his 7th championship qualifying time with a 6:14.99 in the 500 yard Freestyle. McCourt showed his versatility by joining teammates Gavin Lee and Liam Kuroski as the only swimmers to swim in each event during the year.

   Also posting qualifying times for the post-season were BHS swimmer of the meet, freshman Ian Folan, who swam three personal bests including breaking the sub-minute mark in the 100 Free with a 59.14. Freshman David Hayes, who is strongly cemented as a future star in the freestyle, swam an impressive 1:07.69 in the 100 Fly.

   JV swimmers who swam impressive personal best times were sophomores Alexis Broadhurst, Briana Paiva and Anthony Bravo, freshmen Peter Gallagher, Gwen Gallagher, Liam Kuroski , Jennifer Palacios and Michael Pena. With depth chart openings wide open in the 500 Free, 100 Back & Breast; these swimmers look to build on these times over the summer for next year's team.

   Kuroski, swam his top season times in the 200 & 500 Free, looks to challenge as a distance swimmer. Gwen Gallagher swam a strong 1:34 in the 100 Breast is an early candidate for Molly Nichols' four year varsity spot. Michael Pena and Peter Gallagher, who topped his state qualifying older brother Kevin's top freshman time, both looked impressive in the speed freestyle.

   Swimmers who earned post-season times during the season were strong in some new events with junior Molly Gallagher shining in the 200 Free, Juliana Bell in both the 200IM and Breast and the talented Svetlana Sjoblom in the 100 & 200 Free. Matt Harkins, who was the one of the team's most improved swimmer over the season along with Patrick Daly swam to solid race times.

   Lindsay Guercio, Anthony Rodriguez, Will Abiali and Kevin Michalka are key performers to the future of BHS Swim and look forward to building on this season's five wins. A strong final week of practice, building of this weekend's Class M trials and participating in a year-round swim program like Bethel Parks & Rec summer swim and senior captain's practice will go a long way of making that a reality and competing against local team's who have pool facilities.