By Paul Silverfarb
Sentinel Editor
The Greenwich High School boys’ swimming and diving team have black swim caps with a Cardinal logo on both sides. However, during this year’s championship season, they might as well as a huge “D” printed on there instead.
After surprising many at the FCIAC championship and taking gold and upsetting Fairfield Prep at the CIAC class LL meet to win another championship, Big Red came up with a storybook come-from-behind finish at the CIAC state open championships to win top honors in grand fashion.
Indeed, the Cardinals were a team of “Destiny” this postseason.
“This is the greatest feeling any swimmer could ever have,” senior Patrick Clisham said. “It’s such a great meet, with so many talented swimmers. Coming out on top is such a great feeling.”
Greenwich, which was in a constant battle with New Canaan and Pomperaug high schools throughout the meet, stunned the Panthers in the waning moments of the meet and won the championship with 465.5 points.
“This is one of the greatest meets I have ever experienced,” GHS senior Tyler Jester said. “We’ve never had an Opens this close in my four years. To lose two regular season meets to New Canaan and Prep and then really show everybody in the state that we really are the best team is a great feeling.”
Pomperaug took a very close second with 459.5 points and the Rams finished with the bronze with 415 points.
“It’s the closest meet we’ve ever had, and to come out on top was great,” Greenwich High School head coach Terry Lowe said. “This is the most exhilarating meet that we’ve had in a long time. For the past three or four years, you just said that okay, how many are we going to win by. Did we have great performances? Yes. We’ve had great All-American performances, but this was a blue-collar team that had to dig very deep to even be in this thing. We didn’t have any first places, but we fought big time.”
Fairfield Prep took home fourth place on the day, posting 330.5 points and Weston rounded out the top five with 296 points. Two more FCIAC teams finished top 10, as Ridgefield placed sixth with 291 points and Staples netted eighth overall with 248 points.
“We sat down the practice before today and coach said that it wasn’t looking good, but it was going to be the closest meet in history that he’s ever seen,” senior Conrad Moss said. “I think today lived up to those words. He’s been in a lot of meets and knows exactly how close those things could be.”
With the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, deciding the state open championship between Greenwich and Pomperaug, Big Red already stunned Lowe by overtaking the Panthers late in the meet. However, the Cards needed just one more breakout swim.
That’s when the foursome of juniors Patrick King and Mackenzie Baxter, sophomore Stephan Todorovic and freshman Andres Rug stepped up and swam lifetime bests. Greenwich, competing in the third of four heats, touched the wall first and netted a time of 3:14.84.
“We knew we had to beat Wilton in the heat ahead and win our heat,” Clisham said. “We were just going crazy for our teammates. We knew that they knew what they had to do. We trained all season for it and they swam great. They got the time that they needed to go.”
In the championship heat of the 400-yard relay, Pomperaug took the lead midway through the event. However, Ridgefield’s standout swimmer Kieran Smith anchored the Tigers’ relay. Not only did he erase the deficit, but he built a lead during the final 50 yards and helped Ridgefield touch the wall first with a time of 3:09.47. Pomperaug took second with a time of 3:10.27.
“We knew that if we could finish sixth, that they would have to win to tie us,” Lowe said. “They all had lifetime best in there, so I knew we would probably finish in sixth place. We felt pretty certain that Ridgefield, with Kieran Smith anchoring, could take care of business for us. We were cheering pretty hard for Ridgefield to win the thing. It was nice to have Kieran and [Liam] Riebling join us in the group hug because they all liked the fact that down in Fairfield County we still have this thing.”
To say it was emotional was an understatement for Moss.
“We were all going nuts,” Moss said. “We were cheering like crazy for our guys and then we were cheering for other teams because they were helping us out. Kieran Smith had a split of like 43 [seconds] and that’s simply incredible.”
While the 400-yard freestyle relay was surely exciting, it never would have gotten to that intensity in the final event without help from two key races.
After the 200-yard individual medley, Lowe was gearing up for a disappointment. Greenwich just gave up 23 points in just one event and were already 15 points down prior to that individual medley.
“I turned around and said that there’s no way,” Lowe said. “We kept on fighting and doing some good things. We did a nice job in the 200-free relay. But the backstrokers really turned the meet around. Those three did a phenomenal job.”
Needing almost everything to go right, Greenwich entered the 10th of 12 events, the 100-yard backstroke looking for some key points. And that’s exactly what they got from senior Tyler Jester, freshman Thomas Lewis and junior Matthew Li.
All three Cardinals stepped up to the plate and turned in stellar times. Jester led the way by finishing eighth overall. His time of 54.10 seconds gave Big Red 21 points.
“We knew we were a few points down and knew we had a battle coming,” Jester said. “Starting with the backstroke, we had a turning point and had a lot of good swimmers move up spots, including myself. That’s what we needed to do to set up the 400-free relay.”
Teammate Lewis got 16 points for Greenwich with a 11th place time of 54.47. Li cracked the top 20, as his time of 55.08 was good enough for 19th place and six additional points.
“We knew Tommy Lewis was going to jump up big time, after having an injury virtually stop him at the LLs,” Lowe said. “We knew he would jump up. We had Tyler Jester. To be pretty honest, he had a pretty mediocre dual meet season. But to cap this season off with three great swims at the LL trials, finals and a greater swim here today was amazing. To put us in a position where we had a chance to win.
In addition to the backstroke, Big Red got some big points in the diving portion of Opens. During the diving championships Greenwich picked up a silver and bronze medal and finished with three of its divers in the top 15.
Taking second place at the diving finals was senior Justin Sodokoff, who grabbed a career-best 585.25 points. The only reason he didn’t get the top spot was Daniel Hand senior Tianyi Zeng shattered the state open record with 619.25 points.
In addition to Sodokoff, Greenwich junior Devon Satir wasn’t to be denied and finished third overall with 514.60 points. Rounding out the GHS divers was fellow junior Sergei Shaw, who took home 12th overall and 406.15 points.
“It was a treat to go up and watch them because Justin really capped off a great season with a phenomenal performance,” Lowe said. “When you finish second with a 585-point performance, which is 50 points better than his best, that’s really solid. Devon Satir has become such a polished diver and came in third. To have 68 points on the books was great. Our hat’s off to Sergey [Meshecherskiy] to coaching that group, bringing them together and having them perform so well at both the LL and Open finals.”
There were also several individual performances that helped set the table for Big Red’s success.
Senior Clisham was lights out in everything that he swam during the Saturday meet.
Competing in the 50-yard freestyle event, the senior took home third place overall with a time of 21.20. Keeping with the third-place theme, Clisham came back strong in the 100-yard butterfly event, posting a time of 50.90 that gave him the bronze.
“I felt great today,” Clisham said. “I had personal bests in all four of my races and podiumed in all four. I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t be It’s been an emotional season. We had our ups and downs. Leaving the regular season with two losses, we didn’t know what was ahead of us. But we did what we had to do to win. It’s the greatest feeling ever.
Like Clisham, Moss found success in the 50-yard freestyle. His time of 22.16 was good enough for 11th place on the day. Moss also competed in the 100-yard freestyle and ended Opens tied for 15th overall with a time of 49.30. Moss probably didn’t mind sharing the spot, as he tied teammate Patrick King in the event.
“We had rough start at the beginning of the year, but coach really kicked us into it and we started rolling,” Moss said. “Once we did that, we kept the momentum and kept on going. It was exhilarating and I couldn’t have asked for a better senior year.
Todorovic netted a top 15 performance in the 100-yard butterfly, as he touched the wall 13th overall with a time of 53.06. The sophomore did one better in the 200-yard individual medley, as he finished 12th overall, posting a time of 1:57.34.
In addition to Todorovic, Greenwich scored three more places in the 200-yard individual medley. Aedan Lewis, a senior, led the way for the Cards with a 10th place time of 1:56.47. Not to be outdone was junior Ryan Lynch, as he was 19th overall with a time of 2:00.94. Two spots down was Thomas Lewis, who grabbed a time of 2:01.50.
Greenwich’s best relay was the 200-yard freestyle event, as the team of Aedan Lewis, Moss, Clisham and junior Brian O’Leary just edged out New Canaan and took the silver with a time of 1:26.03. The Rams were third with a time of 1:26.29.
In the 200-yard medley relay, Big Red started Opens with a fourth-place finish, as the team of Thomas Lewis, Aedan Lewis, Clisham and Moss took home a time of 1:35.07 and just missed out on the bronze by mere inches, as Pomperaug touched the wall with a time of 1:35.03.
It goes without saying that this was certainly a team of destiny this postseason.
