Windham/RHAM gets past NFA

Things got a little too close for comfort for Windham/RHAM coach Carlos Flores, so he had to do a little lineup shuffling late in a swim meet against NFA at the Norwich YMCA Friday afternoon.
The shuffling worked as a slim eight-point lead blossomed into a 98-72 win for the cooperative program, but NFA coach Tom Theve took it as a compliment. After all, Windham/RHAM is in second place in the Eastern Connecticut Conference with a 7-2 record and NFA (2-8) has struggled.
Windham/RHAM broke out to a 46-32 lead behind the talents of junior Rob Husta. Husta captured the 50-yard freestyle in a swift 23.40 — just shy of his personal best. He followed that with a 59.22 to win his favorite event, the 100-yard butterfly. Prior to those two first-place finishes, Husta teamed with James Flores, Kevin Philips and Kevin Gryk to take first in the 200-yard medley relay.
Despite those Windham/RHAM victories, NFA hung tough. Senior Dan Carroll won both the 100 and 200-yard freestyle (2:01.91) races. Jason Depina captured the 200-yard individual medley and NFA only trailed, 59-51, going into the 200-yard freestyle relay.
“I didn’t really prepare the kids for NFA,” Carlos Flores said. “The lineup was pretty much matched up to see how (we) would do against another team and I was getting those times. At the end, I had to do a little switch to make sure we had it in the bag.”
Flores took Hustus off his first 200-yard relay team and installed him as the anchor leg on his No. 2 squad. The moved worked, as Philips, Elliott Mitchell, Derek Johnson and James Flores captured first in 1:43.93 and Windham/RHAM’s second team touched the wall just behind them to outscore NFA 12-2 in the event and give the Whippets a 71-53 lead.
Windham/RHAM also outscored NFA 9-7 in the 100-yard backstroke, despite a first-place finish by NFA’s Justin Paz. ook the first two spots in the 100-yard breaststroke to finish off the Wildcats.
“It was real close,” Husta said, “but they’re a pretty good team. Everyone underestimates them, but they have some good swimmers.”
Carroll was one of the best for the Wildcats as he not only won his two individual events, but also joined Matt Exley, Paz, and Depina to finish first in the meet-ending, 400-yard freestyle relay.
“We felt good, really good, coming into this meet,” Carroll said. “It’s our home pool, we had all of our friends and family here, there was a general air of really good will, and we felt really strong and confident.”
Carroll wasn’t the only one who was feeling the hint of upset in the air coming into the meet, Theve put in some overtime to try and make that happen.
“They’ve beat some real good teams and we wanted to make them earn it — actually, we wanted to win,” Theve admitted. “I spent two hours looking at their lineup, looking at their times, what they did the first meet (vs. NFA). I know the guys here have been working, Waterford beat us by 31 (points) the first time and the second by eight. Maybe by the ECC’s, we’ll be there, and be in the mix.”