And so it goes.
The 2025-26 boys swimming and diving season was highlighted once again by that extremely lengthy and continuous dynasty that is the Greenwich High School program.
Coach Terry Lowe’s Cardinals won a Triple Crown for the 12th consecutive year when they won the FCIAC and two state championship meets.
Greenwich seniors Colin Bucaria and Charlie Koven combined to win many of their races in their individual events and as members of several relay teams to lead the Cardinals in the postseason.
Bucaria was a winner in his races and on relay teams in the three championship meets, as he and Darien’s senior diver Jake Simon were the two athletes from the FCIAC who won their respective individual events at the 2026 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Boys Swimming and Diving State Open.
The Cardinals won their program’s 40th State Open title on March 14 at Yale’s Kiphuth Exhibition pool after they previously won their 57th FCIAC championship and 50th Class LL state championship.
Those numbers add up to 147 combined postseason titles for GHS.
After Greenwich was the first FCIAC champion ever in 1963, those following 146 titles occurred under Lowe’s head coaching guidance beginning with his first FCIAC championship in 1971, four years after he became Greenwich’s head coach in 1967.
And so it happened, once again, the program’s seemingly annual post-meet tradition of Lowe getting soaked after being lifted by his young athletes and tossed into the pool shortly after the end of a championship meet.
This year’s Cardinals won all three championship meets by large margins and they secured their Triple Crown at the State Open when they scored 685 points, 321 more than runner-up Fairfield Prep (364). Pomperaug placed third with 358 points and FCIAC member Ridgefield was fourth with 291.
Five days earlier Greenwich racked up 1,010 points to win the CIAC LL Boys Swimming and Diving Championship at Cornerstone Aquatics in West Hartford. Glastonbury placed second with 666 points, the New Fairfield/Danbury cooperative team placed third with 365 and Westhill/Stamford cooperative team (253) placed eighth as the second highest scoring team from the FCIAC.
Coach Lowe’s Cardinals, who utilized their usual depth but were a young team with many underclassmen contributing this year, won eight out of the 12 events when they won their FCIAC championship in their own pool with 540 points.
Greenwich has won 55 of the last 56 FCIAC championships. New Canaan dethroned the Cardinals in 2007 to end their streak of 36 consecutive conference crowns and this past 2026 season they won their 19th straight FCIAC championship.
Ridgefield placed second with 323 points and was followed in the top five by Wilton (307), Darien (193), and Staples (188).
Ridgefield followed that up by placing second in the Class L meet with 555 points and Darien placed third with 503.5 points, well ahead of fourth-place Farmington (366). Fairfield Prep won the Class L state championship with 844.5 points.
Simon, the Darien senior, got his own Triple Crown as the diving champion in three postseason championship meets.
He scored 527.6 points when he won the FCIAC championship. Simon won his Class L state title with 503.95 points and then he racked up 552.4 points at the State Open when he and Greenwich sophomore Niko Kassaris (517.95) placed 1-2.
Kassaris previously defended his Class LL diving championship with 467.7 points, which was an improvement of 12.5 points from when he won with 455.2 points in 2025.
Simon and those two senior Greenwich leaders, Bucaria and Koven, were the three FCIAC athletes among the dozen total selected to the 2026-26 GametimeCT All-State Boys Swimming and Diving First Team.
Bucaria won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 58.02, was runner-up in the 200 individual medley (1:54.29) and he was also on Greenwich’s winning 400 freestyle relay team (3:08.63) and runner-up 200 medley relay (1:35.73) at the State Open.
Bucaria previously won the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM and was on the victorious 400 free relay at the Class LL state championship meet and he was the 200 IM winner at the conference championship meet.
Koven swept the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle races and swam the anchor leg on the winning 200 freestyle relay at the FCIAC Championships. Koven won the 100 free at the Class LL meet with a time of 47.17 and then lowered his time to 46.77 at the State Open when he placed third.
Bucaria and Koven swam the last two legs after Hunter Bodey and Wim McCarthy swam the first two legs on Greenwich’s victorious 400 free relay team at the State Open.
Bodey was the FCIAC 100 backstroke winner (52.68) prior to being the State Open runner-up (52.73).
Greenwich senior Jack Smith won the 500 freestyle (4:48.22) at the FCIAC meet and then placed third in that event (4:44.62) at the State Open.
Smith and Kassaris of Greenwich, Wilton senior Hirsh Iyer, Ridgefield freshman Tommy Casey, and Norwalk/McMahon junior Christian Sanchez were the five FCIAC athletes selected to the GametimeCT All-State Boys Swimming and Diving Second Team.
Bodey, McCarthy, Matt Bergner, and TJ Nelson of Greenwich, Darien’s Thomas Goertel, and Wilton’s Samuel Jacobson earned GametimeCT All-State Honorable Mention.
Iyer placed third in the 100 backstroke (52.25) and his Wilton teammate Jacobson was the FCIAC 100 breaststroke champion (48.63) before he placed third in the 100 breaststroke (59.07) at the State Open.
Casey placed third in the 100 butterfly (50.88) at the State Open after he swam the leadoff leg and was joined by his teammates Teddy Westcott, Griffin Riebling and Neil Kelly on Ridgefield’s FCIAC championship 400 free relay team (3:12.9).
Sanchez first became the FCIAC 100 butterfly champion (50.26) before he was the State Open runner-up (50.56) in the event.
There were 28 athletes selected to the 2026 All-FCIAC Boys Swimming and Diving First Team, another 21 athletes made the All-FCIAC Second Team, and they are all listed on the link below: