Life's Certainties: Death, Taxes and Avon Wins the Splash Classic

That the Splash Classic falls right around the height of tax season is appropriate.

Indeed, just like taxes are one of life’s inevitabitities (along with death and cupcakes are freakin’ delicious), so too is Avon High’s perennial victory at the de facto state meet for girls who participate on winter co-ed swim teams.

The Falcons won their sixth consecutive Splash Classic at Plainville High Saturday, destroying the field of 17 teams by scoring 310 points; the next closest competitor was Simsbury, which came in second with 160 points, followed by third-place 157.

“Every year we graduate kids, but freshmen step up - it’s been good,” Avon High head coach Diana Cesaro said. “I hope we can keep going. We have a lot of young swimmers, 11 freshmen swam today, so very strong.”

While youth will eventually be served, leading the way Saturday for Avon was senior Kelly Culkin, who set a meet record in the 100 fly with a time of 1:01.42, slightly ahead of former Avon High swimmer Cassie Cesaro’s 1:01.95, which was set in 2009.

And there were no hard feelings that Culkin broke her coach’s daughter’s record.

“I told [Culkin] to go for it,” Diana Cesaro said. “She’s had a great four years. She wanted a record … and she’s happy she did that.”

The Falcons jumped out to an early lead when the 200 medley relay team (Kathryn Emery, Alexandra Johnson, Tiana Glover and Tara Toppazzini) placed first in 2:00.07, over two seconds faster than Lewis S. Mills High (2:02.61).

Toppazzini won the only other title for Avon, - the 100 back (1:02.61); the rest of Avon’s points came from a slew of second through 12th place finishes.

Culkin placed second in the 200 free (1:59.42), while Kristen Wall, Lauren Cooper and Rachael Rosow touched out third, fourth and sixth in the 200 individual medley. Toppazzini finished second in the 100 free (55.88), while Cooper came in third in the 500 free (5:42.12).

The Falcons’ 200 free relay team (Monica Veldman, Tiana Glover, Sophie Greenbaum and Culkin) and 400 free relay team (Toppazzini, Veldman, Greenbaum and Culkin) both placed second as well.

“We’ve got a lot of depth,” Diana Cesaro said in an understatement.

Simsbury Runner Up

Trojans head coach Denise Raymond was all smiles at her team’s second-place finish, which was a marked improvement over last year, when Simsbury finished eighth.

“About 85 to 90 percent of my swimmers had personal best times,” Raymond said.

Kelly Savino placed third in the 100 butterfly (1:09.05), the 200 free relay team of Meredith Willis, Nicole Kowalski, Sophia Sloan and Samantha Dowd placed third (1:49.46), the 400 free relay team of Brenna Welsh, Kowalski, Sloan and Dowd placed third (4:05.56), Welsh was fourth in the 100 back (1:06.96), Shelby Downes was sixth in the 100 breaststroke (1:19.66) and freshman Nicole Kowalski touched out seventh in the 100 free (1:01.22).

In addition, diver Katie Amarell finished second with 276.20, good enough to qualify for the state diving competition.

“She had the meet of her life,” Raymond said.

Northwest Catholic Sets Meet Record

Northwest Catholic did more with less on Saturday, finishing third at the Splash Classic with the assistance of just four swimmers and one diver.

Junior Gracie Kunkel, and freshmen Zoe Garvey, Olivia Karanian and Gabby Hoefer set a meet record in 200 free relay, finishing in 1:44.47, ahead of the 1:45.38 set by Avon in 2009.

“I’m so excited we got the record,” Kunkel said. “I can’t wait to come back next year so we can try to break it again.”

The fantastic four also combined to win the 400 free relay in 3:52.27, just two seconds off another record performance that was set by Avon in 2009.

Kunkel also won the 100 and 200 free (53.49 and 1:58.68, respectively);

“She’s an extra hard worker,” head coach Spencer Hartmann said of Kunkel. “She gets on the blocks and just elevates to the next level. She practices with the boys and races with the boys, which takes her to the next level. She’s just very, very talented.”

Hoefer, meanwhile, won the 500 free (5:36.37), while Garvey placed second in the 50 free (26.59) and fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:16.48).

Diver Kelsey Baker was the only other team member to contribute points, placing sixth in the competition with 249.50 points.

Granby on Learning Curve

The Granby Memorial High girls swimmers placed 10th this year with 48 points after finishing second at the Splash Classic a year ago.

Head coach Rich Gadoury said that he was hoping for a top-10 finish from his inexperienced swimmers (just one senior swam Saturday), which is exactly what he got.

“What I really wanted from this young group was really to get them some experience swimming at this championship-style meet,” Gadoury said. “This is just going to help the freshmen and sophomores, who now know what to expect. The girls from last year, they swam in this for three years. Now with our freshmen, they know what to expect.”

Junior Erin Walsh placed fourth in the diving competition (262.65), while the 200 medley relay team (Jamie Moffa, Jill Petriatis, Haley Fede and Sarah Wutka) placed seventh, Fede placed eighth in the 100 fly, the 200 free relay team (Petriatis, Wutka, Kaylee Jerman and Fede) touched out eighth, and JErman finished ninth in the 100 back.