A meet held Tuesday afternoon at Cornerstone Aquatics Center in West Hartford allowed swimmers and divers from both Hall and Conard high schools to participate in timed and judged events to help determine All-State status.

Hall Senior Kobe Dominguez set an individual team record in the 100-yard breaststroke and anchored the school’s record setting 200-yard freestyle relay entry. Photo credit: Paul Palmer

By Paul Palmer

Competing in their last meet of the season, the Hall High School boys swim and dive team put on a show – breaking school records and coming close to some others.

The meet, which took place in conjunction with Conard High School, was held in lieu of the State Championship meet due to COVID-19 changes in the schedule. There was no scoring in the meet, but the results will be used to help determine All-State status.

Hall senior co-captain Kobe Dominguez will see his name added to the Hall wall at Cornerstone for two different events. He was the anchor of the record-setting 200-yard freestyle relay team that established a new mark of 1:29:40. The previous record was 1:31:79 set in 2004.

Last week, Hall head swim coach John McClure said that his foursome was gunning for the mark – even though they had never swum together in the event.

Senior Andrew Sun led off with a 50-yard split of 22:53. He was followed by senior Chris Liddell who swam the same split time. Sophomore Carson Raisner was third in the pool for the Warriors, and came back in 22:27.

With a crowd of teammates cheering him on at the end of the pool, Dominguez secured the new record with his 22:07 anchor leg as Hall easily won the event.

Two events later, Dominguez would set a new Hall standard in the 100-yard breaststroke. Swimming out of lane 6, with a career best time of 1:09:67, he raced to a blistering 59:94 to break Jack Swain’s record of 59:96 set in 2011.

In between those two records, came the new marks in diving for Hall.

Hall divers Ryan Mendoza (left) and Jonah Genser both broke the school’s 11-dive record. Photo credit: Paul Palmer

In a normal meet, athletes compete in a 6-dive format, but there is also an 11-dive format that can be used. Junior Ryan Mendoza was first to take down Chris Huit’s record (328.15) that had stood since 1990 when he totaled 344.80 points.

Then, it was sophomore Jonah Genser – who currently holds Hall’s 6-dive record (236.30) – smashing Mendoza’s total with a performance that earned him a total score of 390.10.

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