LAST MEET OF THE REGULAR SEASON!

Please come support the Wreckers in their last swim meet of the regular season.

Wednesday Feb 24th we face the Westhill-Stamford Coop in Stamford at 3 pm.

Currently our record is 5-5 and this will be a tough meet.

Thanks to everyone for all of their support throughout our regular season.  Good luck to all the swimmers and divers tomorrow and during FCIACs!

Cam, Mac & Trevor

Staples Trounces Fairfield on Senior Day

By Stephen Schmidt

Feb. 19 – The five students who make up the senior class on Staples boys swimming team may not be the largest head coach Jeffrey Schare has had during his seven-year tenure — but certainly one of the most accomplished.

“Even though they’re smaller they seem to contribute as much as any other class does, just because of the quality of athlete that they are,” Schare said of the group that features multiple conference and state qualifiers and finalists.

On Feb. 11, the quintet added to its collective résumé with a 110-74 victory against the Fairfied co-op team, a squad composed of swimmers from both Warde and Ludlowe. In the final home dual meet of the season, the Wreckers, who leveled their dual meet record to 5-5, had four more team members qualify for the state tournament in March — two of whom were seniors.

Senior captain Mac Mombello punched his ticket with a first-place finish time of 27.10 in the 50-meter freestyle, followed by juniors Scott Feder (27.59) and Steven Siencienski (29.22).

In diving, senior Matthew Mirkine earned his first spot at the state meet by registering a 158.65 to place third. Freshman Tanner Blank also qualified for state with second-place finish of 159.95 while junior Zachary Slater lead all divers with a 220.80. Mirkine’s qualification meant that all five seniors (Larry Abel, Cameron Bruce, Trevor Lally, Mombello and Mirkine) have at least all qualified for the state tournament during their four years at Staples.

“Seeing Mac make his state cut at that meet and Matt Mirkine also qualifying for the state meet for the first time at this senior meet… That just speaks, I guess, to the pride that they take in their achievements with the program,” Schare said. “It was getting that point of the season where the guys know that it’s time to make the state qualifying time if they want to go that meet.”

Staples’ margin of victory was largely aided by the efforts of junior Cory Bacon and freshman Nathaniel Boley. Bacon began the day be serving as the butterfly specialist on the winning 200-meter medley relay team (2:02.50). He went on to win the 200-meter individual medley (2:27.24) and the 100-meter freestyle (1:00.25) before helping lead the winning foursome in the 200 freestyle relay with its time of 1:49.08. Boley won the 200-meter freestyle (2:03.76) and 100-meter backstroke (1:05.36) while being a part of the winning 400-meter freestyle relay team (4:05.47).

In addition, freshman Marcus Russi qualified for state with a third-place outing in the 100-meter butterfly.

Boley, who plans on competing in both the 200-free and 100-back in both the FCIAC and state meets, said that the seniors have been doing a good time stressing to the younger members the significance of having their best performances in the pool at this juncture in the season.

“It’s great to come in as a freshman and have good role models and just something to look up into,” Boley said. “They explained the whole process, how dual meets are important, but the time to swim fast is at the end of the year when championships come around. It’s a much different mentality. Everyone is a lot more focused and working towards a goal, which is just getting the team to place. That’s the main goal for the team right now.”

The meet watched two squads that were fairly familiar with each other given the fact that many of the members of both teams compete and train year-round with swimmers from Fairfield as part of the Water Rats swim club based at the Westport YMCA.

“That in itself I think made this a fun meet, almost like an inter-squad type of Water Rat meet,” Schare said.

The team will close out its dual schedule with a meet Wednesday against the Westhill-Stamford co-op at 3 p.m. at Westhill. The Wreckers will then focus their attention on the FCIAC swim trials March 2 at Greenwich and the diving competition March 3 at Westhill.

The swimmers that advance will take part in the conference finals March 4 in Greenwich.

Reprinted from the Westport News

Vote Now For Zach!

Jeffrey Schare

Winter Recess Practice Schedule

Monday 2/15 – Thursday 2/18 Swim & Dive practice is 9:00-11:30 am.

* NO Friday 2/19 practice.

Practice on Monday 2/22 is 9-11:30 am

Senior Day Win for Staples Boys Swimming

By Todd Kalif

Feb. 12 – Five senior members of the Staples swim team passed a milestone Thursday: the final meet in their home pool.

At the traditional mid-meet break in the action, an appreciative Senior Day crowd of parents, friends, and sweethearts cheered as the seniors received keepsakes and commendations from head coach Jeff Schare.

Then the Wreckers (5-5) returned to the pool and finished trouncing the 2-7 Fairfield Coop swim team, recording 10 of 12 first places on their way to a 110-74 victory.

“It was really great,” said senior diver and sprinter Matt Mirkine. “It was huge, having all these people and all the decorations up, knowing that a part of it was for me.”

Staples started fast, with Matthew Wisher, Joss Abel, Cory Bacon and Kyle Bacon teaming up to win the medley relay by almost three full seconds. Nate Boley, Larry Abel, and Matthew Wetmore followed by finishing first, third, and fifth in the 200 freestyle.

Cory Bacon touched out teammate Wisher in the 200 individual medley, with Kyle Bacon adding a point for fifth place, and Mac Mombello qualified for the state LL meet as he won the 50 freestyle, .49 seconds ahead of teammate Scott Feder, with Steven Sieciensky taking third.

The Wreckers swept the diving, led by all-state candidate Zach Slater, whose 220.8 beat his 2009 qualifying mark for the state LL meet by 30 points. His diving teammates Mirkine and Tanner Blank both scored over 150 points, the LL qualifying mark, and have a trip to the state meet in their futures.

“Both our second and third divers qualified, so now we have three going to states,” said Schare. “I don’t ever remember having three divers going to states. It’s nice to go with a bigger team. It makes everyone more confident when we get there.”

Mirkine, who has been swimming and diving competitively for only two years, was ecstatic.

“It was very exciting, very fitting that today on Senior Day I actually qualified for states for the first time,” said Mirkine. “I had a new dive in there, a back somersault with 1 1/2 twists.

“Coach Dan [Long] was basically, OK, you can twist pretty well so let’s see how you can do,” Mirkine continued. “I basically just twisted as much as I could on a back somersault and there it was. I’m really proud now that I’ve got it and it was definitely the dive that accelerated me to the state level.”

Fairfield won a rare first place in the 100 butterfly, with Larry Abel taking second and Marcus Russi scoring in third place with a time that will send him to the states. Cory Bacon swam off with the 100 freestyle, with Mombello in third and Benjamin Freeman taking fifth.

The longest race of the day featured the closest finish, as Wisher beat Coop swimmer Derek Chu with a great closing sprint for a .13 second victory.

Mirkine, in an unusual diving/swimming double-up, led off the 200 sprint relay, and joined by Abel and the two Bacons, earned a first place. The Wreckers’ 93-47 lead assured them of their fifth win of the season.

Boley, Michael Goodgame, and Robert Deluca took first, second, and fourth in the backstroke before another Fairfield swimmer took a first, this time in the 100 breaststroke. Larry Abel swam his way to third, Siecienski to fourth, and tri-captain Cameron Bruce scored with a fifth-place finish.

“I used to be more of a breaststroker freshman, sophomore, and junior year,” said Bruce, “but I’ve turned into more of a backstroker now, so it was kind of a fun blast from the past to do breaststroke again.

“We love Fairfield and know so many people on Fairfield because of the Water Rats and we swim together and we dive with the Fairfield divers,” Bruce continued. “It was a really fun meet.”

The fun was not over for the Wreckers. The 400 freestyle relay was even after Wisher and Goodgame’s legs. Then Boley took to the water and opened up a third-of-a-pool length advantage. Joss Abel finished off the relay.

After the traditional cheers for the opponents, the Wrecker seniors had time to reflect on their careers in the Staples water.

“I’ve been with the team for four years, with coach Jeff four years,” said Larry Abel, “and it’s about the team feeling. If you have a bad race all they guys will say it’s OK and they motivate you when you do well.

“The team is more important than the swim,” Abel continued. “I can have a bad swim but leave feeling good cause on the bus ride home from away meets, we always have a good time shouting at each other or whatever teenage boys do.”

Reprinted from Westport Patch

Senior Day Now Thursday, 2/11

Swim for Haiti: $45,000 to Save the Children

Thank you swimmers, families, coaches, teachers, and the entire Staples community for your incredible and generous support.  I am still receiving checks which brings the Staples Swimming contributions to more than $9,000!  Together with the Westport Family Y,  the Westport (Masters) Swim Club and the Kiwanis, the total will exceed the $45k that was given to Save the Children last Friday.  Pledges continue to come in. We will be visiting Save the Children later this week with the recent donations.

Thank you again. I am extremely grateful to you all.

Sincerely,

Linda Bruce

If you haven’t done so, you should read about Swim for Haiti on WestportNow.

Swimmers Dive in for Haitian Relief Effort

By Monica Mula ’10

Feb. 7 – Twenty-one days after the earthquake in Haiti, Staples Swimming and the Westport-Weston Family Y have teamed up to support the suffering children under 21 years of age— which equates to half of Haiti’s overall population.

The Wimer family, involved with both Staples and YMCA swim teams, has a special connection to the crisis in Haiti. As they have family there, they decided contributions from the swimmers would be an effective way to raise money for support.

“My wife, Peggy, was born in Port-au-Prince and has first cousins and extended family living there,” said Ronald Wimer, co-president of the Water Rats Parents’ Club.

After the other successful swimming fundraisers that sophomore Gabrielle Wimer and her brother, Max Wimer took part in, the family decided this would be the best approach.

“We asked Linda Bruce if the Staples teams wanted to be involved,” said Wimer, “and although they had three upcoming meets, we appreciated that they took time out of their schedules to help.”

Swimmers sought out Westport residents to aid the cause, many of whom donated a set amount of money per lap.

“Since the earthquake directly affected members of the team, this cause is especially meaningful to us,” said Cameron Bruce ’10, tri-captain of the Boys Swim Team.

Bruce expressed that he and other swimmers were delighted that churches, companies, and other private organizations were willing to pitch in, despite this being one of many Haitian relief efforts. A similar process was carried out for the Asian Tsunami relief not long ago, and $19,000 was raised by the swim teams at that event.

“We hope to raise even more this time,” said Linda Bruce on the day of the event. Bruce was an integral part of the coordination of the Swim for Haiti effort.

Bruce explained that they knew they would donate to a large, well-established agency. It was the shocking statistic of the number of children in Haiti that encouraged them to donate to Save the Children.

“Children are always the most vulnerable during emergencies,” wrote Save the Children in response to the earthquake. “Children have experienced a tremendous shock and face uncertainty in the coming weeks and months.”

Thus, the student swimmers of Westport are working hard to help the children of Haiti.

The Staples swim teams were goaled to swim 150 laps, or 3,750 meters and were optimistic about accomplishing more.

YMCA’s own Water Rats team had goals by level, with seniors swimming 5,000 yards.

Even the younger swimmers were enthusiastic about the cause,  swimming relays in order to contribute.

Wimer expressed his pride in the swimmers for working so hard to raise money and support from the community.

“There were 250 swimmers involved, ranging in age from six to 66 years old,” said Wimer. ”Coach Jeffrey Schare agreed to open it to all swimmers and we were pleased to have so many people participating.”

The Swim for Haiti effort raised a total of $45,000 between the Staples teams and the YMCA.

The check was presented to Save the Children on Friday, February 5th.

Reprinted from Inklings

Wreckers Toss Wilton Overboard

By Kate McNee

Feb. 5 – The Staples boys swimming team raised its record to 3-5 with a 99-86 home victory over Wilton on Wednesday. Despite having seven straight wins over Wilton, Staples did not expect the meet to be an easy win. Knowing this, the Wreckers came in determined and with goals set.

“Today, the whole day, and especially before the meet started we were all in high spirits and ready for the meet. We knew what had to be done in order to win, so we took the meet very seriously starting with warm up,” senior captain Trevor Lally said.

Lally’s teammates were also fueled by their hunger to rebound from Monday’s home loss to Weston.

“We were hoping to win, but by a much tighter margin, so the win was a pleasant surprise. We were disappointed after Monday’s loss, so we really wanted to fight back and win this one,” senior captain Cameron Bruce stated.

A highpoint of the meet for Staples was its relays. According to Wreckers Coach Jeffrey Schare, Staples was able to “seal the deal” by winning the 200meter freestyle relay and taking second place in it to turn a 63-62 deficit into a 74-65 lead. irst and second place in the 200 freestyle relay. Staples’ A team of sophomore Kyle Bacon, junior Scott Feder, senior Mathew Mirkine and freshman Nathaniel Boley won and the B team of freshmen Mathew Wetmore and Marucs Russi, sophomore Kyle Mikesh and senior Larry Abel placed second.

Junior Corey Bacon said, “The most outstanding performance of the day was the first and second place of the 200 freestyle relay, that really helped us gain a lot of points and it really amped up everyone on the team to really finish strong at the end of the day.”

Boley won the 200-meter individual medley (2:18:66) and 400-meter freestyle (4:20:47). Among many other wins, Staples boys placed second, third and fourth in the 100 fly, giving Staples several more points. Boyer, Wisher, Corey Bacon, and Kyle Bacon also swam to place second in the 200-meter medley relay.

In general, Schare believes that Staples was able to come up on top because “In the end the only events that we did not out point them in was the 200 free and 100 free. They won more first places (8) than we did (4). We won this meet because we were a deeper team.”

Reprinted from The Westport News

Pasta Dinner Reminder

The Mombellos are hosting the pasta dinner at 5:00 PM this Tuesday,  Februaury 9th. Their address is 50 Turkey Hill Road North.

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