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Ridgefield Makes Opening Statement With Win Over Greenwich
Jeff Jacobs
10.09.2024
This was Senior Night for the Ridgefield girls swim team and it came with all the deserved adornment. There were flowers. There were posters. There were cardboard cutouts of the seniors’ faces.
And after the Tigers soundly defeated Greenwich, the girls were introduced individually by coach Paul Marchese. They jumped off the diving board and swam the length of the Barlow Mountain pool to their awaiting families.
Everyone would go over to the Barlow Mountain Elementary School cafeteria for a bite to eat. Juniors would pay tribute to the 11 seniors.
“There’ll be a few tears,” Marchese said.
Yes, there was emotion, but there also was the knowledge that this was the first opportunity to send a message to their FCIAC swim rival.
Ridgefield won 10 of 12 events today and rolled to a 108-78 dual meet victory.
Cold blooded message sent before the championship season concludes in five weeks.
“We were texting on the group chat, ‘Guys this is it,’ ” senior Bridget Kelly said. “As the Class of ‘25 we want to go out with a bang. Senior Night was so important for us to leave this path for everyone. Greenwich has won so many state championships. They are the reigning champs. We won 2022. We won it big. We don’t want to be remembered as one-hit wonders.”
Kelly, who will swim at Georgetown next year, won the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Lily Archibald, two-time State Open champion in the 100 butterfly, easily won her best event and stepped a bit out of her comfort zone to defeat Greenwich’s Sena Bozkurt in the 100 backstroke. Bozkurt finished second in the 2023 State Open.
“I kind of dabble in the backstroke,” said Archibald, who will swim at Rice next year. “It was a lot of fun. This was great being here today with my best friends. To celebrate all our hard work this season and be so excited for the championship season yet to come.”
It is no exaggeration to say about a third of the state’s Top 25 swimmers competed in this dual meet.
Riley McGerald won the 200 individual medley over Bozkurt. Greenwich’s Charette Ellison did finish first ahead of Keira Giles (headed to Bucknell) in the 400 free. Sophomore Dalia Katra won the 100 breaststroke and Ellie Griffin won the 50 freestyle for the Tigers. Greenwich’s Olivia DeVito won the 1-meter dive.
Ridgefield won all three relay races.
“I told them right from the get-go that the 200 medley relay was going to be everything,” Marchese said. “If you can get the momentum from the start it’s going to be a big, big win. Senior Night we just had that extra push from the seniors and the rest of the girls wanted to swim well for those seniors.”
The medley relay of Mairead Luhman, McGerald, Archibald and Griffin beat Greenwich by nearly three seconds. Kelly and junior Ava Ward finished 1-2 in the 200 (It was Ward-Kelly 1-2 in last year’s State Open).
And the Tigers were rolling.
Here’s something else to consider. Maddie Muncy, who will swim at Carnegie-Mellon next year, was out after a recent appendectomy, while the Tigers’ top diver, London Lewis, was out with a concussion. Both will be back soon.
Fueled by the then-sophomore class, Ridgefield swept the FCIAC, Class LL and State Open in 2022 and also won the dual meet with Greenwich, 121-65. The Tigers’ Class LL title marked the first time since 1979 that Greenwich or Cheshire didn’t win the state’s largest division.
With the return of senior Payton Foster to the school swim team, the Cardinals responded with their own sweep last year. That made 21 State Open titles in addition to 30 state class championships. They also beat the Tigers, 97-87, in their dual meet.
Greenwich and Ridgefield scored victories in seven of the 11 first-place finishes at the State Open. The Tigers had four of those, but the Cardinals’ depth prevailed. With Foster and Sydney Gee off to swim in college, Greenwich is not as deep as Ridgefield at the top this season.
“A lot of girls were in different events than usual today,” Marchese said. “I like to spice it up a little bit. See what they can do. I think having a prestigious team like Greenwich to race, there’s no better opportunity to put these girls in something where I can get the max potential from them.”
The teams are in separate classes this year (Greenwich in LL, Ridgefield in L), but they will battle in the FCIAC and State Open.
“We’ve got to take this energy and push it forward,” Kelly said. “We were missing some key players today and we were not rested for the meet. We’re excited to see what we can do when we are rested.”
Marchese said the coaches will sit down with the swimmers and discuss the FCIAC meet. “I think it’s going to be who thinks they can do this here, who thinks they can do that there,” he said. “And let’s go have some fun with that meet. Our focus I think is what’s after that. I think we’re going to train through FCIAC. We’re going to have some different races for sure. We’re going to go fast where we can and then Class L and Open, we’re going to put the best lineup we can and try to take down some records.”
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