While holding a small roster labeled heavily with youngsters, the North Haven girls’ swimming and diving team did not look to utilize those parameters as an excuse or crutch, and the Nighthawks’ heart did beat proud and true with strong postseason representation.

Following the regular season, the Nighthawks placed 14th with 897 points at the Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC) Championship on Nov. 1 at Southern Connecticut State University. A few weeks later on Nov. 14 at the Class M State Championship at the same venue at Southern, North Haven finished with 108 points to place 15th out of 18 schools. Pomperaug took the team title with a tally of 796.5 points.

Head Coach Ken Pierson knew going into the campaign that with his roster’s youth, combined with the fact that the Nighthawks were participating in the top tier of the SCC, the battle plan for 2023 was not so much to chase regular-season recognition, but rather harness their individual efforts to make a splash in the postseason.

“We have a young team and knew the dual-meet season would be tough since we are in SCC Division I,” said Pierson. “We had our focus on the championship season, where we had 100% best times at the SCC and Class M State Championships, and the future looks bright, with 19 on the team and only five seniors graduating.”

Captains for the Nighthawks this fall were seniors of Maddy Karavas, who swam in the freestyle and butterfly events, diver Meghan DeRubeis, and breaststroke/freestyle competitor Shen Wan. Additional senior leadership came from Morgan Nunez (also participating in the freestyle and butterfly) plus Alyssa Cherian, also a freestyle performer.

At the SCC Championship in relays, the 200 medley foursome of juniors Scarlett Russek, Angelina Valentino, Abigail Lorusso, and sophomore Avery Cullen was 16th in a time of two minutes and 26.92 seconds, the 400 free group was 11th in a mark of four minutes and 13.79 seconds with Karavas, senior Morgan Nunez, sophomore Andrea Laborde, and junior Giada Garofalo, and the 200 free relay of Karavas, Nunez, junior Amelia Bautz, and Garofalo swam to 10th (1:53.70).

For solo events, Karavas found ninth for the 200 free in a time of 2:08.78, while Nunez was 28th (2:24.20). Garofalo finished 15th for the 50 free in 27.39 ticks, while freshman Riley Mattox was 20th for diving (score of 286.85) and DeRubeis qualified but did not place. Karavas came in 16th for the 100 butterfly after clocking in at 1:07.49, and Garofalo finished 21st with respect to the 100 freestyle (1:00.53).

North Haven started off the Class M State Championships with the diving portion on Nov. 9 in Middletown, when Mattox placed 17th with a score of 235.80. The 200 medley relay of Russek, Valentino, Bautz, and Laborde was 17th in a time of 2:19.81, the 400 freestyle relay in Karavas, Nunez, Laborde, and Garofalo placed 13th by clocking in at 4:16.48, and the 200 freestyle quartet of Karavas, Nunez, Bautz, and Garofalo also came in 13th place with a mark of one minute and 54.92 seconds.

Within the individual strokes, Karavas was 14th for the 200 freestyle in 2:09.46, and she was then 15th for the 100 butterfly race, with a duration of one minute and seven seconds.

Pierson projected a very optimistic horizon ahead following several swimmers hitting their personal peaks on the state-wide stage.

“We achieved our goals for the Class M State Championships with personal best times for all the swimmers and divers that participated,” said Pierson. “We finished 15th as a team, and the team is young and the future looks bright.”

The 2023 North Haven roster is comprised of seniors Cherian, DeRubeis, Karavas, Nunez, Lieannjie Enid Tavarez, Wan; juniors Bautz, Garofalo, Lorusso, Russek, Valentino; sophomores Tessa Boisseau, Cullen, Laborde, Natalie Pause; freshmen of Mattox, Abigail Ray, Reese Tesla, and Kaili Wan.

Pierson finished the third season of his second stint as North Haven head coach, having previously served in that capacity from 2001 until 2008. Bob Lewis was his assistant as diving coach this fall.

During the campaign, North Haven competed in Division I of the SCC, alongside rivals Cheshire, Guilford, Amity, Hand, Lyman Hall, Law, and Lauralton Hall.

2023 North Haven Girls’ Swimming and Diving Team Regular Season Results

Sept. 12: Shelton 91, North Haven 64

Sept. 18: Lauralton Hall 92, North Haven 81

Sept. 26: Amity 93, North Haven 76

Sept. 28: Hamden 95, North Haven 88

Oct. 2: Guilford 92, North Haven 81

Oct. 5: Cheshire 88, North Haven 77

Oct. 9: Hand 89, North Haven 73

Oct. 16: Lyman Hall 97, North Haven 76

Oct. 23: Law 94, North Haven 81