By Chris Mulhall

The return of the Pomperaug boys’ swim team from sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida marked the beginning of the championship season. This started with the well-known tradition of hair dying. Over the weekend of February 26-28, with the purpose of “psyching out” competitors at league and state championship meets, members who chose to dyed their hair. The end result was not always blonde, but the enthusiasm was obvious.

The first actual competition, the diving portion of the SWC championship, took place on Wednesday, March 2 here at Pomperaug High School. Our divers made a phenomenal showing in the eleven-dive competition. Sophomore Morgan McMinn placed eleventh, senior Trevor Haynes placed sixth, senior Matt Meyer placed second, and senior school record holder Connor Ahearn successfully defended and held his place as SWC diving champion. This great showing by the divers would prove to be very important later.

Next, on Friday, March 4, came the swimming portion of the SWC championship at Masuk High School in Monroe. There, Pomperaug battled rival Brookfield and nine other teams for the league title in front of a standing-room-only crowd. The energy was obvious from arrival to the conclusion of the meet and presentation of awards approximately seven hours later. This was marked by cheers, T-shirts, and waving handkerchiefs, among other things. After a delay due to a problem with the timing system, the meet finally got underway. The races were always close, with the first and last finishers in the fastest heat of each event often being separated by little more than one second. Notable swims were Austin McMahon’s third place finish in the 100 butterfly, and the third, fourth, fifth, and eighth place finishes of Jimmy Davey, Greg Meyer, and Christian Kean in the 100 backstroke. Interestingly, Pomperaug did not win a single swimming event, yet this proved unimportant at the end of the meet, when it was announced that PHS had, for the fifth year in a row, won the SWC swim championship, defeating rival and runner-up Brookfield by a score of 597-552. Upon hearing this announcement, the swimmers celebrated with a traditional jump in the pool. Next up are Class L diving championships, Class L swimming trials and finals, followed by both the swimming and diving open championship meets.

Update: On March 15, the swim team won states, becoming the Class L state champions.