This year's Splash results were the highest in the team's history, led with the highest place ever, senior captain Laura Steinmetz fifth place, and a Bethel High School record, Rebecca Jones in Diving with 232.7 breaking Luigi Romano's 220 from 2007.
Splash offers female swimmers a chance to compete head-to-head against the state's best swimmers. Results by events with notes:
200 Medley Relay:
Bethel A finished seventh with 2:13.60 (Aiden Ford backstroke, Laura Steinmetz breast, Sarah Whalen in butterfly and anchored by senior freestyle Alexa Witcofsky)
Bethel B finished with 2:23.16 (qualified with 2:30.78) improved over seven seconds. (Senior Allie DeBruyn in back, Christine Neville in breast, followed by two promising freshman Cara Bernardo in fly and Amy Gallagher in freestyle)
Bethel C had a DQ but swam well.
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200 Freestyle:
Junior Katie Bozzuti suffered a DQ when her goggles failed her. She was ranked ninth in the race and was looking forward to a tough race from rival Oxford swimmer.
200 Individual Medley:
Sophomore Sarah Whalen has been one of the strongest BHS swimmers in the past weeks, her performance against Danbury was crucial to the Wildcats first win of the year. She finished tenth in the 200IMN with 2:35.58, just off her personal best by a half second.
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50 Freestyle:
Seniors Alexa Witcofsky and Kayla Lance finished 24th and 36th respectfully, with Lance trimming .1 seconds off her personal best.
Diving:
Sophomore Rebecca Jones had her first post-season diving meet of the season which involves making 11 dives instead of the dual meet six dives. Jones finished ninth and set a new BHS record with 232.70 points, breaking the previous record of 220 by Luigi Romano in 2007.
100 Freestyle:
Senior captain Laura Steinmetz stepped up and swam a 1:05.81, her previous best was 1:08.39. Kayla Lance also knocked two seconds off her previous best with a 1:07.96. Also swimming were Alexa Witcofsky (1:09.25); freshmen Helen Belato knocking off two seconds with a 1:09.51 and Cara Bernardo with 1:10.64
500 Freestyle:
Sarah Whalen swam her best time by far, 6:06.88, knocking off almost seven seconds to finish seventh in the state meet. Junior Katie Bozzuti had an awesome time of 6:35.90, knocking off seven seconds as well.
200 Free Relay:
Bethel A finished just a touch away from the points at thirteenth, finishing 2:02.26 topping their previous best of 2:04.04. Bozzuti, Lance, Neville and Witcofsky showed their experience from last year's State Trials team and swam great.
Bethel B finished at 2:14.20, besting their previous by almost five seconds. Freshman Amy Gallagher, senior Allie DeBruyn who swam a very fast 31 split and freshman Lindsay Guercio and sophomore Yvonne Palacios looked great.
Bethel C had the biggest improvement of the day, finishing at 2:23.10, improving their time by over 12 seconds. Sophomore's Serena Coons and Katie Book teamed with juniors Jocelyn Wilsey and Caitlin Pirro for the great teamwork.
100 Backstroke:
Sophomore Aiden Ford, who has consistently been a point scorer for the Wildcats swam a 1:18.48, finishing seventeenth in the state.
100 Breaststroke:
Senior Laura Steinmetz capped off her four year career with BHS with a fifth place finish in the state with a 1:20.87, just missing out by inches against a chief rival Oxford swimmer. Molly Nichols (1:24.38), Christine Neville (1:25.43) and Allison Leavey (1:33.47) also swam for Bethel in the team's strongest event.
400 Free Relay:
The final event showed the determination of the Wildcats, the Bethel A team was ranked eleventh but knocked off six seconds off their time to finish eighth overall. Bozzuti, Whalen, Lance and Steinmetz all topped previous bests.
Bethel B finished at 4:44.48 (almost eight seconds faster too) with Molly Nichols, Aiden Ford, Cara Bernardo and Helen Belato swimming.
Bethel C finished at 5:18.75 with freshman Lindsay Guercio, sophomore Serena Coons and juniors Jocelyn Wilsey and Caitlin Pirro.
Overall, Bethel finished eleventh place with 48 points, topping local rival Danbury with 44 points but still chasing Oxford, who placed seventh. BHS Swimming competes this Wednesday in the SWC Championships in Diving and Friday Night at Masuk.
Eleven swimmers and divers have qaulified for the SWC Championships this week, including three of the girls competing at Splash: Steinmetz in the breaststroke, Jones in the diving and Whalen who has qualified in three events (200 IM, 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke).
