Since 2021, the team title at the FCIAC Swimming Championships has gone to either Greenwich or Ridgefield and such a pattern continued when the ultra-competitive conference championship meet was held on Nov. 2 at Greenwich High School.

Winning an eye-opening 10 events, it was the Tigers that took the title this time.

Ridgefield won all but one event at the 2024 FCIAC Swimming Championships, amassing 464.5 team points on its way to capturing the title in impressive fashion. The Tigers claimed the FCIAC championship in 2022, while Greenwich won the team title in 2021 and 2023.

Behind numerous strong performances, Greenwich remained close to Ridgefield even though the Tigers won the majority of the races. Depth resulted in the Cardinals compiling 419 points, good for second place in the team standings at the FCIAC Championships. Darien placed third in the team standings (231), followed by New Canaan (202.5) and Staples (179), which rounded out the top-five teams.

“It was fun, I’m really proud of the way our kids competed,” Greenwich coach Brendan Heller said. “That’s sports, you don’t always come out on top, but we have a lot to look forward to and to work on and improve on. But also, a lot to be proud of. Ridgefield is amazing, they came into the season as the favorite and we’ve been trying to close the gap all season.”

The FCIAC Swimming Championships began with Ridgefield’s Mairead Luhman, Riley McGerald, Lily Archibald and Bridget Kelly combining to win the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:45.41. Greenwich’s Wesley Wales, Emma Stehmann, Sena Bozkurt and Kensington Worden were second in the 200 medley relay (1:46.01) and New Canaan was third (1:51.84).

The 200 medley relay was a prelude of what was to come, as the Tigers collected a lot of first-place medals.

“We always focus on our relays, we want to have the energy,” Ridgefield coach Paul Marchese said. “We know energy in high school swimming is everything. The meet started off with the 200 medley relay and the rest is history.”

Ava Ward, a Ridgefield junior, finished first in the 200-yard freestyle, touching the wall in 1:51.33 and teammate Keira Giles, a senior, took second in 1:53.46. Ella Gussen, a Fairfield Ludlowe junior, was third (1:54.39), while Greenwich junior Melissa Geiger placed fourth (1:55.42).

The 200-yard individual medley saw Kelly of Ridgefield win the FCIAC title with a time of 2:05.41, with her teammate, McGerald finishing second (2:08.19). Bozkurt gave Greenwich a third-place finish in the 200 IM (2:09.53) and Ellison Charette, also of the Cardinals, was fourth (2:09.78). Julia Kozma gave GHS additional team points in the 200 IM, placing sixth (2:12.89).

“I’m very happy for Bridget and Riley, they did amazing,” Bozkurt said of the 200 individual medley final. “Lily is a heck of a competitor, we’ve gone head-to-head so many times since we started high school. I think I speak for everyone when I say she’s able to make you put your best foot and get to times that you didn’t think you could.”

Bozkurt, a captain, was especially pleased with the Cardinals’ performance as a whole in the conference championship meet.

“We came into this meet 70-something points behind and we finished around 40 points behind, so I think that was great on our team’s part,” Bozkurt said. “We were able to keep looking forward and keep cheering for everyone – I think that’s what allowed us to do so great.”

Freshman Charlotte Van Derzee from Darien was the FCIAC freestyle champion, clocking in at 24.00 seconds. Vedha Kongettira of Wilton, a sophomore, was a blink of an eye behind in 24.22, as was Greenwich’s Worden, who finished third in the 50 freestyle (24.26). Ridgefield sophomore Maddie Muncy finished fourth in the 50 freestyle (24.33).

Lily Archibald broke the FCIAC record in winning the 100-butterfly title, posting a time of 53.68 seconds. Hannah Seward (Ridgefield High School) held the previous record (54.50) set in 2020. Bozkurt was the runner-up, clocking in at 54.96. Junior Ainsley Sahrbeck of GHS was ninth (1:00.82).

“She’s amazing, she’s got a really good career ahead of her at Rice University,” Tigers assistant coach Ronald Vaughan said of Arichibald, who received FCIAC Swimmer of the Meet honors.

Ridgefield’s Kelly earned the gold medal in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.38, while Van Derzee of Darien placed second (52.13) and Wales of the Cardinals took third (52.40). Stehmann, one of the Cardinals’ captains, was 10th in the 500 freestyle (55.24) and teammate Sara Jee, a freshman, finished 11th (55.39).

“I think it was really fun, we were all cheering each other on,” Stehmann said of the championship meet. “It was a great environment. Even though we came in second, I think that we stayed positive and we had a good attitude.”

Ward gave Ridgefield 20 more team points by winning the 500 freestyle in 5:03.53. Emma Giafardino, a freshman representing Norwalk/McMahon was second (5:04.68) and Giles took third (5:04.88).

“That 500 was a really tight race,” Marchese said. “It was competitive with those girls (Ward, Giles). It’s friendly but they get competitive with each other.”

Greenwich’s Geiger was fourth in the 500 freestyle (5:05.20), while Charette finished fifth (5:07.84).

“I’m so proud, we’ve been looking forward to this all season and we finally got here and I’m so proud of everybody,” Charette noted. “Especially our freshmen, I’m really proud of them. I think they all had really great races and times and every single person looked up at the board and had a smile on their face.”

Charette also reflected on her fourth-place effort in the 200 IM.

“The 2 IM is not my normal event, but I was really happy that I got to swim it at this meet.” she added. “I was happy I was able to get a good time. I’m really excited that I got to race Sena Bozkurt, she’s the captain and she just made me go really fast and I’m thankful. It was nice to have two people next to me (Julia Kozma also) that I know I could race.”

In the 200 freestyle relay, Ridgefield claimed the gold medal (1:37.45), while Greenwich (Bozkurt, Stehmann, Lily Norton and Charette) were second (1:39.11).

Archibald won the 100 backstroke (55.55), while Fairfield Warde sophomore Adrianna Spelman took second (56.79) and Wales was third in 59.48. Kozma finished sixth (59.90). McGerald won the 100 breaststroke for the Tigers (1:05.41) and Gussen of Ludlowe was second (1:07.24). Worden (1:08.18), Stehmann (1:08.63) and Guzman (1:08.66) were 4th-6th, respectively, for the Cardinals.

The meet concluded with Ward, Giles, Kelly and Archibald winning the 400 freestyle in an FCIAC record time of 3:26.76 – an automatic All-American time.

“The 400 freestyle runs through Ridgefield,” said Vaughan, who pointed out how much of a team effort it took for Ridgefield to capture the FCIAC championship.

“It shows the depth that Paul and I have been able to work together and create the last five years,” he said. “We obviously won the majority of the events, but we had a lot of swimmers pick up the slack in the B final. That made the difference as a whole. Shout out to our B relays, shout out to our C and D swimmers – without them, Greenwich takes that. It takes an army, not just the commanders out in front shouting the orders.”

Marchese credited Greenwich for providing motivation for teams in the FCIAC to improve.

“Greenwich is the reason why people are getting better at swimming,” he said. “People look at them and they say what can we do to get there? I feel that our success is based on them. What can we do to get to where they are?”

Up next for Greenwich is the CIAC Class LL Championships. The Class LL trials will be held on Nov. 9 at Cornerstone Aquatics Center. The Class LL finals is scheduled to take place on Nov. 2, also at Cornerstone.

“We knew what they could do, they’re very good, well-coached and talented,” Heller said of Ridgefield. “I look forward to not seeing them at the LL championship and seeing what we can do at the Open,” he added with a smile.

Said Stehmann: “I feel pretty confident going into states. We have the attitude, we’re going to taper. I’m hoping for big things and I think it’s going to be a fun way to end the championship season going into LLs and Opens.”

Bozkurt noted: “We’re just at the beginning of championship season, so I’m excited to get back in the water and keep working and see what I can do when we’ve rested and tapered and really gotten ready. The LL meet, we’re very pumped going into it. We’ve got a great lineup going into it. I think we can do even greater than we did today.”