Boley leads Wrecker swimmers to 6th at FCIACs

The Staples boys swimming and diving team earned a sixth-place finish in the FCIAC Championships last Thursday.

Following the diving portion of the finals, at Westhill in Stamford March 1, the swimming competition was held at Greenwich two days later. Staples scored 214 points and Greenwich, with 371.5, won the meet.

"It's an adrenaline rush and everyone feels it -- and it just translates into fast swimming," Staples Coach Jeffrey Schare said. "Everybody is here to set their very best mark at this meet."

In diving, senior captain Zach Slater scored 354.95 points and placed fifth. Sophomore Tanner Blank (258.45) took 12th .

Throughout the meet, swimmers from each of the 11 FCIAC teams surrounded the pool and cheered on their teammates. "I don't think I had one moment when I was sitting down on the bleachers," said Staples senior captain Cory Bacon, among Staples' top-10 finishers.

Nathaniel Boley won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 52.99 and was second in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 47.81, good for 17 points. Bacon earned an eighth-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 22.30, earning 11 points. Matthew Wisher was sixth in the 100-yard backstroke in 55.23 for 13 points and ninth in the 100-yard butterfly in 55.57 for 9 points. Jonathan Blansfield was ninth in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:55.32 for nine points. Joss Abel placed 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke, making his final touch in 1:03.51, good for seven points.

Other individual Staples highlights included Blansfield placing 16th in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:53.17 and Abel placing 13th in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:04.11. Scott Feder came in 16th in the 50-free in 23.09 and 13th in the 100-fly in 57.60. Bacon was 11th in the 100-yard freestyle in 50.02 and his brother Kyle Bacon placed 15th in the 100-free in a time of 50.58.

Michael Goodgame placed 14th in the 100-back, finishing in 59.09. Christopher Mombello was 13th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.80.

The 200-yard medley relay contingent of Wisher, Abel, Feder and Boley was fourth in a time of 1:41.15 for 30 points, and earned All-FCIAC Second Team honors.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Kyle Bacon, Mathew Wetmore, Feder and Cory Bacon came in sixth in a time of 1:32.08 for 26 points. Staples had a second 200-free relay team in the meet, which did an exhibition swim. Avery Watterworth, Kevin Xiang, Blansfield and David Katter had the 13th overall fastest time, finishing in 1:37.3.

In the final event, Staples' 400-yard freestyle relay team of Cory Bacon, Wisher, Kyle Bacon and Boley placed fifth in 3:19.05 for 28 points. In an exhibition swim in the 400 free relay event, the grouping if Blansfield, Marcus Russi, Goodgame and Abel finished in 3:29.6, the eighth overall fastest time.

Cory Bacon said that he and his 400 free relay teammates dedicated the race to Cameron Bruce, a former swimmer and 2010 Staples graduate who passed away this past fall.

Schare said this was the best he's seen the Wreckers swim an an FCIAC final and is looking forward to seeing how the team does at the state championships this coming weekend.

The Wreckers will compete at the Class LL trials Saturday at Hamden High and their top qualifiers will advance to the Class LL championship meet at Wesleyan University next Tuesday. The diving championships take place tomorrow at Handen.