Medling Breaks Through At SCC Championship

March 6, 2010 by Greg Lederer

There is little room for error when swimming sprint events. One misstep could mean the difference between first and last place. Cheshire High School senior Ethan Medling knows this quite well. Medling spent three years developing his skills before finally realizing a breakout season.
His sheer excitement couldn't be contained during the Southern Connecticut Conference Finals on March 3. He posted personal-best times in the 50- (22.65) and 100-yard (49.67) freestyles, placing fourth for both swims at Yale University. Medling had never cracked 23 or 51 seconds, respectively.
“It feels amazing. I'm so happy,” explained Medling. “I've trained hard and it's good to see it pay off.”
He has been working hard to minimize each second of his races.
“My big problem is taking turns slowly. I've been trying to speed that up,” Medling added.
“To do those times before tapering, that is a credit to him,” said Cheshire Head Coach Fran Connolly. “He is getting confident. (Sophomore Brendan) Smalec and Ethan are training well together.”
Medling also joined classmate Miguel Rodriguez Lapman on the 200-yard medley (Smalec, freshman Greg Han; 1:45.52) and freestyle (juniors Dan Mongillo and Peter Broadbridge; 1:34.29) teams, securing fifth place finishes. Cheshire also placed fifth overall with 384 points.
Han, the top point-scorer during the dual-meet season, contributed heavily despite battling sickness. Han posted strong finishes in 200-yard individual medley (eighth, 2:06.57) and 500-yard freestyle (sixth, 5:05.88), along with adding ninth place for the 400-yard freestyle relay (Smalec, sophomore Ray Chen, Broadbridge; 3:34.47).
“I got sick twice, so I've been off,” reflected Han, who made his first championship appearance at Yale. “I pulled it off for the first half (of the 500-yard freestyle), but was hurting down the stretch.”
Mongillo (100-yard butterfly, 12th, 1:00.9), Smalec (200-yard individual medley, 13th, 2:11.71; 100-yard backstroke, 15th, 1:00.53), Chen (100-yard backstroke, 12th, 59.6), and Broadbridge (200-yard freestyle, 15th, 1:56.25) also swam into the top 15 individually.
“We had some kids in off events, but they swam really well tonight,” said Connolly.
Diving took center stage the night before. Seniors Mike Topitzer (349.15) and Jordan Attwood (314.85), along with junior Matt Annenberg (291.45), placed seventh to ninth respectively, at Hamden High School. The trio has been together for the last two seasons.
“I don't think it was our best performance, but we did our best,” explained Topitzer. “It is awesome to work off each other in practice.”
Class L Diving is being held March 11, starting at 5:30 p.m. from Bulkeley High School. Six days later, the Rams visit Wesleyan University for the Class L Finals, at 7 p.m.
“It feels really good (to swim individually). I only made it on relays last year,” recalled Medling.