West Hartford’s Conard High School girls swimming and diving team is now 3-2 for the season following Tuesday’s win.

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The Conard High School girls swimming and diving team earned a hard-fought 92-88 victory over Bristol on Tuesday, Sept. 29, overcoming an early deficit to secure the four-point win.

Bristol held the advantage through the opening events, but Conard battled back with strong individual performances, a pivotal showing in diving and key relay victories to pull ahead late in the meet.

Conard’s Emilie O’Sullivan, Ciara Frewen, Ellie Harhay, and Laura Haverly opened the meet with a second-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay, clocking 2:05.66, just behind Bristol’s Ava Czarnecki, Vanessa Leszczyk. Gianna Lacapra, and Lily Sherrick’s winning time of 2:05.09. Bristol maintained its lead through the early individual events, including the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard individual medley.

Conard began to close the gap in the 50-yard freestyle, where Haverly led the way with a winning time of 25.70 seconds. O’Sullivan added a second-place finish in 28.53, while Josie Pia placed fifth in 33.79. The performances helped Bristol hold a narrow 32-30 lead heading into diving.

The diving competition proved to be a significant turning point. Conard swept the top three places, led by Hannah McCarthy, who scored 229.20 points. Elise Harhay finished second with 136.80, and Jane Beach took third with 119.20. The sweep gave Conard a commanding advantage in the event and shifted the momentum of the meet.

Conard continued to build its lead in second half of the meet. Celia Filotto won the 100-yard butterfly in 1:09.34, while Harhay held off Bristol’s Layla Annino to take second. Haverly notched her second win of the day in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 56.58, while Frewen rounded out the top three with a time of 59.03, pushing the score to 62-42 in Conard’s favor. Bristol’s Sherrick won the 500 while Edie Kitzman placed second and Pia Burnett-Herkes outlasted a challenge from Megan Astle to take the third place spot.

Bristol battled back in the 200-yard freestyle relay with Leszczyk, Annino, Lacapra, and Sherrick racing to first ahead of Haverly, Filotto, Harhay, and Kitzman, but O’Sullivan and Lucy Archambault eliminated the two point gain in the 100-yard backstroke where they combined for first and third place respectively, pushing the score to 84-68. With Conard now needing only 8 points in their remaining two events to secure the win for their team, Frewen, Hannah Krusinski, and Sophie Liu stepped up for the 100-yard breaststroke. While Bristol’s Leszczyk took first, Conard’s trio secured second, third, and fifth, giving them the 8 points they needed to lock up the win.

Despite the win being locked up, Conard’s 400-yard team team of Filotto, Archambault, O’Sullivan, and Frewen finished in 4:15.67, ahead of Bristol’s 4:34.77 – taking first.

Conard is now 3-2 for the season after suffering early losses to Wethersfield and Glastonbury and victories against Mercy, Plainville, and Bristol. They compete at home versus Middletown on Friday, Oct. 2, hoping to improve to 4-2 before they start their CCC West schedule.

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