This winter, the New Canaan boys swimming and diving team won the class L state championships. They scored 776 points, 156 points more than runner up Darien. This is their first win since 2017.
It is also their first win with Katherine Munson as their head coach. “It was actually pretty because we had a coach switch going into the year.” said Daniel Liu, one of the swim team captains.
Ms.Munson became the head when the old head coach took a new position at Greenwich. “Definitely putting up a lineup is something that’s a new responsibility, developing strategies for each team we’re going up against, and I’m also responsible for making workouts. It’s overall more paperwork, and being in charge of things behind the scenes.” said Ms.Munson.
Ms.Munson is not new to coaching, however. “ I’ve been the boy’s assistant coach for 7 years, and this was my 8th year and my first year as the head coach,” she said.
Ms.Munson and the captains agree that many students shone in the state championship. “The meet was particularly exciting this year because many of our underclassmen had incredible breakout swims, which means that our future is still very bright and that we have a possibility of defending the title next year.” said Ms.Munson. “Michael Kotlyar was an amazing statemate, Patrick Cowell did very well,” Said Jake “Jake Ritz also did very well.”.
Jake Ritz, one of the Boys Swimming and Diving team captains, says that one of the reasons they did so well this year was because of the community within the swim team. “All season we had a really good team chemistry and we all emphasized working hard because that was really how we were gonna get the state title in the end,” he said. “Thankfully we were able to work really well together and fight for the state title.”
