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Shelton High had a fine showing in the Southern Connecticut Conference championships at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven on March 7. Actually, the Gaels made quite a splash. Shelton placed seventh and brought home standout individual performances and a school record-breaking relay team effort.
“I was very happy with the team’s performance at the SCC meet. The seventh-place finish tied our best-ever and everyone swam great,” coach Tom Jurzynski said.
Korey Barber finished second in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.92, earning All-SCC honors in the process. Barber also finished 10th in the 200 freestyle 1:50.05.
“Korey swam a great race in the 100 butterfly,” Jurzynski said. “The third- and fourth-place finishers were swimmers that he had lost to during the dual meet season. It was nice for him to get a second-place finish and all-conference.”
The Gaels’ 200 freestyle relay of Barber, Matt Balcerzak, Matt Richard and Matt Cristiano finished fifth with a time of 1:33.39, breaking the school record. The same foursome finished sixth in the 400-freestyle relay, clocking in at 3:27.57.
"We knew the relay had a chance to break the school record if everyone swam a perfect leg,” Jurzynski said. “The four of them did so and dropped over four seconds off their seed time.”
The 200-medley relay team of Rajan Caccam, Carson Rhodes, Jai Goel and Kenny Walsh finished ninth with a time of 1:49.53.
Cristiano placed 11th in both the 200 IM (2:05.75) and the 100-breaststroke (1:05.76).
“The boys have surpassed all my expectations this season,” Jurzynski said. “We had Carson Rhodes make his first state cut in the 100 breaststroke and senior captain Adam Kryzwosz qualify for SCC finals for the first time.
“They are an easy group to coach and came into each day wanting to succeed. We are losing some good swimmers (seniors Richard, Caccam and Kryzwosz), but the future is bright for this group.”