MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Competition brought out the best in the Eastern Connecticut State University swim programs Saturday at the Connecticut Cup competition, with the men breaking 11 individual and one relay records and the women establishing a total of 40 fastest times this year.
 
Backed by two solid weeks of training since their last meet, the men broke 11 of a possible 18 individual program records, with 19 of the 20 women's participants combining to swim their fastest times a total of 40 times.
 
A total of eight Division III programs—seven from Connecticut – competed in the meet at the Wesleyan University Natatorium. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy won both the men's and women's competition, edging Hamilton College, 513-498, to claim the women's title and besting Connecticut College, 567-445, in the men's meet. The Eastern women recorded 73 points to finish sixth and the men were seventh with 70 points.
 
Following its final meet of 2021 at the Connecticut Cup, Eastern is at the halfway point of the regular season before  the Little East Conference Championships Feb. 20-22 at the Boston Sports Institute.
 
Five men break individual program records
 
Five different individuals broke a total of 11 individual records for the third-year men's program, all but one breaking the record that they had established earlier this year. In all Eastern swimmers posted a total of 14 Top Ten times this year by a Little East Conference swimmer.
 
Ben D'Addario (Fairfield) broke his own records in the 50 and 100 freestyle and 50 butterfly; Connor Scully (Oxford) his records in the 50 and 100 breaststroke; Connor Rego (Winsted) his own in the 100 butterfly and 400 individual medley, and Drew Cavar (Vernon) broke his own in the 1000 freestyle; Joseph Sylvester (Morris) broke his own record in the 500 freestyle and the program record in the 50 backstroke as the lead swimmer in the 200 medley relay. Scully and Cavar are sophomores and D'Addario and Rego are first-year swimmers.
 
Sylvester, Scully, Rego and D'Addario also combined to break the 12^th record of the day, with the 200 medley record breaking the mark established 11 days ago by Sylvester, Scully, Rego and sophomore Nathan Melia (Manchester) against Regis College.
 
Scully's time of 1:03.43 in the 100 breaststroke is the second-fastest time by a Little East swimmer this year, as is Rego's times of 4:39.99 in the 400 IM and 55.06 in the 100 butterfly, Sylvester's time of 5:13.14 in the 500 freestyle and the 200 medley relay's clocking of 1:44.14. D'Addario's time of 23.19 in the 50 freestyle and Scully's time of 29.55 in the 50 breaststroke are both the third-best this year in the LEC.
 
Buchanan's freestyle times rank 1-2-3 in the LEC this year
 
For the women, seniors Kerry-Rose Buchanan (Southington) and Vanessa Streb (Warwick, RI), along with newcomers Kyleigh Connolly (Cheshire) and Ally Verdicchio (Shelton) all established season-bests in all three of their individual events. Buchanan swam her best this year in winning the 1000 freestyle and also in the 200 and 500 freestyle; Streb's season-bests came in the 50 freestyle and 50 and 100 breaststroke, Connolly's in the 200 and 500 freestyle and 50 butterfly and Verdicchio's in the 50 and 100 freestyle and 50 backstroke.
 
First-year swimmer Allison Ronan (Northbridge, MA) posted the seventh-fastest times ever in the 100 backstroke (1:03.90), and sophomore Nancy Scanlon (West Hartford) swam the eight-fastest time in program history in the 100 butterfly (1:02.82).
 
Twelve individual times and one relay time were among the Top 10 fastest times swam by a Little East female this year. Buchanan's time of 5:28.49 in the 500 freestyle now stands as the top mark in the LEC this year, with her time of 11:31.24 in the 1000 freestyle the second-fastest. Recording the third-best times this year in the conference were sophomore Lindsay Weaver (Newington) in the 50 butterfly (28.77), Buchanan in the 200 freestyle (2:04.04) and Ronan in the 100 backstroke.