Hawks 3rd, Greyhounds 5th at NVL swim meet

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Woodland senior Jen Tavares won the 100-yard backstroke, finished second in the 100 freestyle, and helped two Hawks relay teams to second-place finishes at Saturday's NVL swimming and diving championships. SPECIAL TO CITIZEN'S NEWS

WATERBURY — Woodland tied a school record with a third-place finish while Naugatuck placed fifth at the Naugatuck Valley League swimming and diving championships Saturday at the John Reardon Pool at Kennedy High.

The Hawks (744 points) placed behind league champion Watertown (833) and Torrington (777). The Greyhounds (507) finished in the top half of the league, behind Holy Cross (509) in fifth place.

Woodland senior Katie-Jean Hinckley was one of the day’s stars, winning two events. She captured the 200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes, 0.39 seconds, beating the competition by more than two seconds. She later won the 500 free in 5:22.04, more than 13 seconds better than the field.

Hinckley was also part of two second-place relay teams. She anchored both the 200 free and the 400 free relay teams, which also consisted of Jen Tavares, Chrissy Leeper, and Sydney Corneau. Both squads finished about three seconds off the winning pace set by Watertown.

Tavares had a strong individual day as well, winning the 100 backstroke in 1:00.45 and finishing second in the 100 free in 54.34 seconds.

The Hawks’ third champion was diver Dayna Chucta, who obliterated the competition. Her score of 391.15 is a new school record for 11 dives and was good enough to win by 83.65 points over second-place finisher Bianca Antrum of Naugatuck.

Both teams begin state competition later this week.