West Hartford’s Conard High School girls swimming and diving team started the 2025 campaign with a continuation of their winning ways from last year.

Submitted

The 2025 fall season of high school sports kicked off this week and the Conard girls swim and dive team picked up right where they left off last season – when they went undefeated and untied for the first time in school history – with an impressive win Friday over a perennial CCC powerhouse, the Wethersfield Lady Eagles.

The meet opened with the Conard relay team of Gracie Lowney, Ella Hall, Celia Filotto, and Claire Haverly holding on for the win giving Conard the early 8-6 lead. The next event saw the combination of Lucy Pincince (first), Kayla Lowney (second) and freshman Ciara Frewen (third) race to a 1-2-3 finish, opening the lead to 21-9.

The Lady Eagles got their first win of the day as Milena Brodowicz touched the wall before Conard’s Rosie Alonzo (second) and Lyla Harhay (third). Filotto was out-touched by Wethersfield swimmer Sophia Klementon by 1/100th of a second. Conard maintained its 12-point lead as the event points were split 8-8.

The 50 free went in favor of Wethersfield as Kristina Klementon and Morgan Tracy raced to a 1-2 finish ahead of freshman Laura Haverly (third), Cecelia Peck (fourth) and Claire Haverly (fifth).  Wethersfield closed the gap to 8 points heading into the diving.

Ellie Harhay completes an inward dive at Wethersfield. Courtesy photo

The diving event was won by Lexi Estrella from Wethersfield with Conard’s Sanai Belabe (second) and Ellie Harhay (third) scoring key points for the Red Wolves. Belabe’s score was her personal best and Harhay was diving for the first time.  When the diving points were added in, Wethersfield had cut the lead to 6 points, 42-36.

After the diving break the meet turned heavily in Conard’s favor. The trio of Alonzo (first), Filotto (second) and E Harhay (third, fresh off the diving board) raced to Conard’s second sweep of the day, pushing the lead back to 16 points at 55-39.  The 100 free and 500 free also saw big finishes for the Red Wolves. In the 100 free, L Haverly was first, L Harhay  was third, and Pincince finished fifth. In the 500 free, G Lowney took first and K Lowney was third.  The Red Wolves had now opened a lead of 22 points, 74-52.

Conard put up a nice time in the 200 free relay (L Haverly, Alonzo, L Harhay, and Pincince), but were beaten by under 1 second.

The backstroke sealed the meet for the Red Wolves as the team of G Lowney (first), two freshman – Emilie O’Sullivan (second) and Lucy Archambault (third) – added another event sweep to the score sheet.

Conard’s Hall (first) took the honors in the breaststroke, followed by teammates, C Haverly (fourth) and Frewen (fifth).  Conard closed out the meet with a 1-2 in the 400 free relay with the teams of L Haverly, Pincince, L Harhay, and G Lowney placing first, ahead of their teammates K Lowney, Alonzo, Filotto, and C Haverly in second.

The Red Wolves racked up 18 state tournament autocuts out of their 24 races:

• Pincince (200 free, 100 free)
• K Lowney (200 free, 500 free)
• Alonzo (200 IM, butterfly)
• L Harhay (200 IM, 100 free)
• Filotto (200 IM,  butterfly)
• L Haverly (50 free, 100 free)
• E Harhay (butterfly)
• G Lowney (500 free, backstroke)
• Hall (breaststroke)
• C Haverly (breaststroke)
• Frewen (breaststroke).

Conard is now 1-0 with two meets coming this week at home against the Meriden Coop and Berlin on Tuesday and Thursday.

Coach Smachetti reveals the final score with his team. Courtesy photo

Like what you see here? Click here to subscribe to We-Ha’s newsletter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s happening in West Hartford! Click the blue button below to become a supporter of We-Ha.com and our efforts to continue producing quality journalism.