SHELTON, Conn. — The highly-anticipated boys swim meet between Masuk High and Shelton/Trumbull at the Shelton Community Center Pool took place on Friday, with the Panthers recording some impressive swims in a hard-fought 87-83 setback.
Several of the Masuk competitors swam with their high school counterparts on the Rapids club team for years, some since they were seven-years-old.
The connection extends out of the water and onto the pool deck. Masuk Head Coach Jenna Manion and Assistant Coach Michael Shortell also currently coach with two of the Shelton/Trumbull coaches through the same Rapids club team.
“The meet lived up to the hype. It was a very exciting, back and forth meet,” Shortell said.
In the first event, the 200 medley relay, one of Masuk’s relay teams took first place with a time of 1:45:23. This relay team consisted of Will Hardy, Carter Adragna, Jack McHugh and Matt Buzinaro.
A few events later, in the 100 fly, the Panthers earned second and third place. Second went to Mason Eannotti with a time of 57:76 and third went to Akkie Yerragudi with a time of 1:02:53. Masuk cut a team score deficit to four points after this event.
In the 200 freestyle relay the team of Eannotti, Yerragudi, Adragna and Buzinaro placed first in 1:40:79.
In the next event, the 100 backstroke, Masuk earned the top two placements. McHugh got first with a time of 58:76. Second place went to Hardy with a time of 1:01:29. Masuk pulled to within two points.
The 100 breaststroke was one of the most exciting events of the meet. Adragna won the race in 1:04:89, just a little over one second ahead of the second-place finisher, giving Masuk a 79-77 lead.
In the last event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay, Masuk put up a good fight but settled for second place and came up just short in the overall scoring.
“Jenna and I are extremely proud of our boys for their efforts and performance in tonight’s meet,” Shortell said. “We are now 4-2 on the season, but this was a nonconference loss. Next week we are back at it and will host a home meet on Friday, Feb. 6, against Pomperaug High School (at 4 p.m.),” Shortell said.
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