Wreckers head into championship season on a high note

The Staples boys swimming team is heading into the second season on a positive note.

Staples enters the FCIAC championship trials (Feb. 27) with a 7-4 dual meet record after closing out the regular season with a 104-74 win at Newtown (4-6) last Friday.

"It should be an interesting FCIAC meet," Wreckers coach Jeff Schare said. "A lot of teams are within points of each other. Greenwich is by far the best team, and Darien should take second. We have an opportunity to finish as high as third, or as low as sixth. All teams in the third through sixth range are close to each other."

Battling Staples to finish third are New Canaan, Westhill and Ridgefield. One thing that is working in the Wreckers' favor is that they defeated the Nighthawks for the first time in dual meets during Schare's tenure, and they did it without four of their top swimmers.

Junior Nathaniel Boley won most of his events this season, but was at the Missouri Grand Prix with the Wilton Wahoos. Seniors Joss Abel (stomach bug) and Matt Wisher (family obligation) and junior diver Andrew Cohen (honors level test) were also out. All four swimmers are expected to compete at FCIACs.

"We have studs on the team, but this team is about our depth, and we let our depth carry us through the meet," Schare said.

Sophomore Jonathan Blansfield is one of the studs, and is arguably the team's best swimmer after Boley. Blansfield won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:10.48, the 100-yard butterfly (59.37), and swam on two winning relay teams.

His win in the 200-IM was a Wrecker sweep with sophomores Chris Mombello (2:14.82) and Mike DeLuca (2:19.21) taking second and third. Senior David Katter (1:05.72) and sophomore Kevin Xiang (1:05.83) finished behind Blansfield in the 100-fly in second and fourth, respectively.

Blansfield led off for the winning 200-yard medley relay team (1:50.82), and was followed by DeLuca, junior Matt Wetmore, and Katter. Senior Kyle Bacon, freshman Danny Williams, junior Marcus Russi and Blansfield powered the 400-yard freestyle relay team (3:44.85) to victory.

Staples showed its depth, and finished second in both relays. Xiang, Mombello, Russi and junior Trevor Locke led the 200-medley B relay team (1:53.54) to second place. The 400-free B-relay team of Xiang, Wetmore, freshman Max Wimer and Katter took second (3:57.09).

The Wreckers also swept the 200-yard freestyle relay. DeLuca, Williams, Wetmore and Bacon (1:37.86) won, and Mombello, Locke, sophomores Tyler Crowder and Justin Malinow (1:49.41) took second.

Bacon led Staples to two sweeps with victories in the 100-yard freestyle (51.91) and 200-yard freestyle (1:53.61). Mombello (54.60) and Locke (56.83) were two-three in the 100-free, and Williams (1:56.50) and Wimer (2:02.50) were two-three in the 200-free.

Wetmore (24.40) won the 50-yard freestyle and led a sweep. Russi (25.22) and Crowder (26.0) were two-three.

Junior Tanner Blank won diving (202.75), and worked on new dives in the process. Malinow (110.15) took fifth.

Williams (5:09.92) and freshman North Woods (1:09.3) won the 500-yard freestyle, and 100-yard breaststroke, respectively. Katter took third in the 100-breaststroke (1:19.80), and sophomore Tommy Reinhardt was fourth in the 500-free (5:39.03).

Newtown's only win came in the 100-yard backstroke with senior Sean Fahey (1:01.65) prevailing. Wimer (1:02.23), Xiang (1:05.02), and junior Rob DeLuca (1:05.57) took two-three-four, respectively for the Wreckers.

The last time Staples went 7-4 in dual meets was 2005 when current assistant coach Frisk Driscoll was a senior.

"To go 7-4 in dual meets gives us confidence going forward," Schare said. "We now enter championship season, which is a whole, new ballgame."