Naugy getting ready for final stretch

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Naugatuck’s Abby Shugdinis competes in the 500 freestyle during a meet against Seymour Oct. 11 at Naugatuck High School. -JIM SHANNON/REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

NAUGATUCK — The Greyhounds got to see where they stack up when defending Naugatuck Valley League champion Seymour came to the borough Oct. 11.

The Wildcats took first in nine of the 11 events to pull away with an 88-77 win over Naugatuck.

“We did end up with three scorers in every event, but we ended up with a lot of the middle places,” Naugatuck head coach Jim McKee said.

The 200 medley relay team of Molly Kennelly, Ayana Williams, Katelyn Fortney and Jacqueline Uva took second in 2 minutes, 6.71 seconds for Naugatuck (5-3).

Abby Shugdinis finished second in the 200 freestyle, followed by Kelly Brodeur and Davinity Smallwood. Haley Deller placed second in the 200 IM and Alena Rotatori was fourth.

Uva took third in the 50 freestyle, followed by Williams and Kayla Bartlett. Fortney and Kennelly placed third and fourth, respectively, in the 100 butterfly and were seconds off their season-best times.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Meghan Korowotny, Fortney, Williams and Shugdinis finished second (2:00.05). Deller took second in the 100 backstroke (1:07.54) — matching her season-best time — and Kennelly finished third (1:10.32).

The Greyhounds finished out the meet with Williams taking first in the 100 breaststroke (1:25.15), and the 400 freestyle relay squad of Deller, Fortney, Kennelly and Uva taking first (4:23.40).

The Greyhounds have competed in two meets each of the first four weeks of the season. Naugatuck got a week off from meets before facing Watertown on Friday.

Naugatuck’s Kelly Brodeur competes in the 200 freestyle during a meet against Seymour Oct. 11 at Naugatuck High School. -JIM SHANNON/REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

“I haven’t seen the numbers yet from our top swimmers,” McKee said, “but swimming two meets a week, that’s hard to do. We are still a relatively young team, so to have a week like this with only one meet it gives us an opportunity to work on some things.”

“Eventually we will catch up to the times we are looking for,” McKee added. “Our meet with Watertown this week will be a good indication as to where we are after having the whole week to just train.”

Naugatuck will get back to two meets next week. The Greyhounds will take on Wilby-Kaynor Tech-Waterbury Career Tuesday and wrap up the regular season on Oct. 25 at home against Masuk.

Naugatuck will then focus on preparing for the NVL championship. The NVL swim trials are set for Nov. 4, with diving finals set for Nov. 6 and swim finals set for Nov. 8.

“The league is so thin this year,” McKee said. “It’s far from over at this point. You have to have depth and we are getting there.”