NAUGATUCK — The Naugatuck girls swim team used a mixture of experience and youth to swim past Holy Cross Tuesday night and get back in the win column.
Led by senior Addison Best and freshman Molly Kennelly, both double winners, the Greyhounds earned a 90-74 win over the Crusaders at Kennedy High School.
Best won the 200 freestyle in 2:10.37 and the 500 freestyle in 6:00.26. Kennelly was victorious in the 100 freestyle in 1:02.67 and took first in the 100 backstroke in 1:07.38.
“We continue to improve and again we had a lot of season best times,” Naugatuck head coach Jim McKee said. “We have swam a lot of meets in the past couple of weeks. A lot more than I would like to have had.
“I’m a one-meet-a-week person. That way you can spend a better part of the week training. When you swim twice a week against some tough teams you need to swim your top kids four times.”
The Greyhounds (4-6) just went through a rough spell where they faced the best in the NVL, dropping tough meets to Seymour and Sacred Heart. On Oct. 14, the Greyhounds traveled to Monroe to take on a very good Masuk (7-2) team out of the SWC and came up just short in an 89-86 loss.
Best won the 200 freestyle in 2:11.14, and Kennelly took first in the 100 backstroke in 1:08.03 versus Masuk. Brin Battisti won the 100 breaststroke in 1:25.71. The 400 freestyle relay team of Julianna Scully, Olivia Filanowski, Kennelly and Best took first in 4:32.37.
Despite the tough stretch, the Greyhounds continue to shave their times.
“That’s the name of the game, to drop times and get better with each meet,” McKee said. “We have one more meet coming up on Friday. That will be another chance to improve our times and then get ready for the NVLs.”
Naugatuck will be battle-tested by that time and it showed against the Crusaders. Holy Cross swam to victory in the 200 medley relay before the strength of the Greyhounds began to churn up the water in the pool.
The foursome of Kennelly, Battisti, Jaimee Trumbley and Katie Brown finished second, followed by the team of Vanessa Soares, Maria Guimares, Meghan Messier and Stephanie Almeida in third.
Holy Cross clung to an 8-6 lead after the first event before Naugy forged ahead to stay.
Best took first in the 200 freestyle with Abrianna Hasipi third and Elizabeth Tuscano fourth as Naugy outscored the Crusaders 11-5 to open up a 17-13 lead.
Holy Cross won the 200 IM but had trouble pulling away as Naugy continued to pile up the points. Scully swam to second, Francesca Spino fourth and Sarah Rawding fifth.
Right before the diving portion of the meet Filanowski won the 50 freestyle with Emily Sarmiento taking third to give Naugatuck a 34-28 advantage. Brown won the diving event with a 192.10 score and Battisti took second to up the lead to 44-28.
The Crusaders made one final push, taking first and second in the 100 butterfly, to close the gap to 48-40. But, Naugatuck slammed the door shut, outscoring Holy Cross 25-7 over the next two events.
Kennelly and Filanowski took first and second, respectively, in the 100 freestyle. Best, Hasipi and Meghan Korowotny finished first, second and third, respectively, in the 500 freestyle to extend the lead to 73-47.
The Greyhounds will host Wilby/Kaynor on Friday at 4 p.m. for their regular season finale. The NVL meet is set for Nov. 4 at Kennedy.
