The Branford-Guilford (B-G) boys’ swimming and diving team turned in several solid showings at last week’s Class L State Championship and saw one of its swimmers advance to the State Open by virtue of his performance. Junior Aidan Henry took third place in the 500 freestyle and finished seventh in the 200 freestyle for the Hornets in the Class L meet, qualifying to compete in both events at the State Open, where he placed fourth in the 500. As a team, B-G totaled a score of 167 points and finished in 12th place out of 22 teams at the Class L State Championship, which was held at Southern Connecticut State University on March 11.

Henry swam a time of 4:40.45 to finish third in the 500-yard freestyle at states. The junior scored 26 points for the Hornets with this performance. Henry’s time was nearly four seconds faster than when he won the 500 freestyle with a mark of 4:44.28 at the Southern Connecticut Conference Championship on Feb. 27.

Henry also took seventh place in the 200 freestyle at the Class L meet, recording a time of 1:45.77 to score 22 points. Henry’s brother, freshman Finn Henry, finished ninth in both the 200 freestyle (1:47.09) and the 500 freestyle (4:49.85), scoring 19 points in each event for B-G. He had previously earned runner-up honors in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:49.62 at the SCC meet.

The Hornets also saw all three of their relays compete at the Class L State Championship. The 200 freestyle relay of Finn Henry, sophomore Daniel Kamen, senior Noah Horton, and junior Aidan Henry scored 38 points by finishing ninth with a 1:33.78. In the 400 freestyle relay, Finn Henry, Kamen, Horton, and Aidan Henry joined forces again to take 12th place at 3:29.20 and score 29 points for B-G. The 200 medley relay of sophomore David Zhang, senior Andrew Orce, Horton, and junior Evan Laughlin finished in 18th with a time of 1:56.20, scoring 14 points.

On March 14, Aidan Henry represented the Branford-Guilford boys’ swim team when he competed in two events at the State Open Championship that took place at Kiputh Pool at Yale University. Henry finished fourth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:38.34, bettering his time from the Class L meet by more than two seconds. He also improved his time in the 200 freestyle by swimming a 1:44.91 to finish in 15th place. Henry scored 25 points for the Hornets in the 500 freestyle and 12 more in the 200 freestyle, putting the team in 32nd place out of 48 teams with 37 points scored at the meet.