Huffman Breaks 500 Yard Freestyle Record

Ellen Atkinson, Staff Editor

With especially tough training, hard work, and positive mind sets the Newtown High School boys swim and dive have truly stepped it up this year. In a recent boys swim meet against Masuk, Newtown High School senior Richard Huffman broke the Newtown High School Boys Swim 500 yard freestyle record. Richard finished with a time of 4:55.30 breaking the school record by nearly three seconds. There is confidence in the air that this may not be the only record to be broken this year.

“It was my first time swimming that event this season and the first time I’ve dropped time in about two years,” Huffman said.

Although Huffman swims year round, he claims he has not seen a change in his time in years.

“Richard has been training hard all year round to put himself in a position to break the record, but during high school he’s been swimming 8,000-9,000 yards a day,” NHS boys swim and dive Coach Robert Gauvin said.

The swimmers certainly have some good work cut out for them, and there is plenty room for improvement. Huffman is a good example of this growth.“It’s always great to see a swimmer break a school record, it means that the program is going in the right direction, and that we’ve raised the bar for future swimmers in Newtown,” Gauvin said.

Gauvin is definitely happy to see one of his swimmers break a record and seems confident that the hard work he puts the boys through is paying off.

“I am really happy. I think that there are a lot of other fast swimmers on our team so I have a feeling it could get broken if not this year possibly in the next few years to come. As for swimming in college, it depends on what college I go to. A lot of schools require you to basically be qualified for Olympic trials to swim on their team,” Huffman said.

For now, Huffman is focused on this season swimming and not sure if his swimming career will continue when he goes to college.

“I think that all records are made to be broken and believe that Richard will probably break his own record again this season. I also think that he’s got a great chance of breaking the 100 backstroke record this year as well,” Gauvin said.

Only time will tell if Huffman will break his own record in the 500 or possibly another record in the backstroke. But in the meantime, the boys will be training hard and dropping times.

Photo credit to www.newtownbee.com.