Oxford Finishes Eighth in SWC Swimming Tournament

Masuk High School played host to the 2011 Boys SWC Swimming Championships on Friday night, and the final results reflected a familiar pattern over the last five years: Pomperaug took home the gold after fending off a spirited Brookfield assault.  The win is Pomperaug’s fifth-straight conference title (with Brookfield also the runner-up in those contests); the previous five seasons (2001/02-2005/06) had the exact opposite result. Masuk came in a respectable 7^th overall, an accomplishment not without meaning to head coach Tom Harkins.

“It was a tremendous swim by everybody on our team. We improved on almost every one of our best times,” he said. “We originally had one, but now we’ll probably have four or five individuals going to states. Tremendous improvement. Couldn’t have asked for a better meet than this.”

Top-ranked Pomperaug (597 total points) topped the competition, including a young but hungry Brookfield squad (552 total points), despite the fact that they did not have a single individual winner. Their depth proved to be their most valuable asset.

Joel Barlow/Immaculate came in third overall with 313 points, and boasted possibly the two best swimmers of the night. BMAC junior Michael Pilyugin placed first in both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle. Senior Robby Harder had a career night, winning the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle, where he posted an SWC-record time of 4:33.94.

Weston High (5^th place, 246 points) also had a double-winner, as sophomore Jordan Berger won both the 100-yard butterfly as well as the 100-yard breaststroke.

With the capacity crowd filling the stands (and hallway, aisles and staircases), and the Brookfield and Pomperaug cheering sections shouting their chants to a deafening level, Masuk had many fine individual performances. Senior Ian Barbarula posted times of 1:59.65 in the 200-yard and 5:25.28 in the 500-yard freestyles to win his heats. Chris Massar swam the 50 in 26.22, and senior Jimmy Guo put up a time of 24.43 in the same event. All of these performances were a source of pride to coach Harkins.

“Chris Massar, tremendous 50 and 100. Ian Barbarula, his best times in the 200 and 500, like a 13-second improvement in the 500,” he said. “Jeff Morgan in the 500 improved his time. George (Zarafian), he’s brand-new, improved 12 seconds on his 500. Jimmy Guo, two super swims.”

Masuk’s neighbor, Oxford High School, also had a respectable showing. They finished in 8^th place, with 123 total points. The upstart continues to show signs of improvement.

While the meet belonged to the strong swimmers of Brookfield, the depth and consistency of Pomperaug and the big two of Joel Barlow/Immaculate, Coach Harkins is very satisfied with the performance of his squad. Before the meet, he predicted that these SWC Finals would be the most exciting since he took over at Masuk High seven years ago. He noted that the Panthers were only predicted to have two wins this season and ended up with seven.

“They really worked hard for this meet, and I’m very proud of them. Just a super, super bunch of kids.”

Here are the final scores for the 2011 SWC Boys Swimming Championships:

1. Pomperaug  597
2. Brookfield  552 
3. Joel Barlow/Immaculate  311
4. Newtown  293
5. Weston  246
6. New Fairfield  188
7. Masuk  137
8. Oxford  123
9. Bunnell/Stratford  98
10.  Bethel  84
11. New Milford  67