Regan, MacKellar lift Pomperaug to M championship

MIDDLETOWN — It was a special Monday afternoon, as far as Monday afternoons go, for seniors Billy Regan and Colin MacKellar and their Pomperaug boys swim team. It turned out to be a pretty good day for the Hand boys team as well.

Regan won the 100-yard freestyle (46.99 seconds) and 200 individual medley (1:51.66) and MacKellar won the 100 butterfly (51.26) and the 100 backstroke (51.17) to lead Pomperaug to the CIAC Class M boys swimming team title with 810 points at Wesleyan University. K.C. Green also added a win in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.06).

The Tigers ended up second with 435 points, Masuk was third with 420 and Farmington fourth with 412. Two-time defending Class M champion Weston ended up 11th with 256 points.

It was the Panthers first Class title since 2016 and 17th Class title overall — eight Class L, seven Class M and two Class S.

“We’ve been waiting to do this, win a Class meet, the past three years,” MacKellar said. “The last two years we’ve been competing in Class L and this season moved to Class M. The move really wasn’t as much of a factor as our depth and talent was this season. Everyone contributed and we worked hard for this title. It really feels good to win this.”

Regan, who also swam a leg of the 4x400 relay that Pomperaug won (3:19.54) thought the Panthers had a chance to win the title this season.

“We knew Class M had talented swimmers and would be tough,” said Regan, who has committed to UConn. “It’s really exciting winning two events in a Class meet and contributing to the team title. Today, I was just focused on my times and raced against the clock. In both my events I just went out hard and led from start to finish.”

Hand coach Christina Foristall couldn’t have been happier with the Tigers’ performance at the meet. Hand’s WIlliam Porter was second in the 200 freestyle (1:46.39) and second in the 100 freestyle (48.27) and Daniel Chen was second in the 200 individual medley (1:59.88) and second in the 100 backstroke (54.41).

“We had an awesome meet today,” Foristall said. “The boys have been training hard for this meet all year. This was a kind of year where there was a lot of growth and improvement in an effort to do our best at the states. It all came together for us today.

“It was so nice to see so many of our swimmers do well and have so many personal bests.”