Groton — Fitch/Stonington coach Ken Berg was dressed up, wearing a blue and white checked, long-sleeve shirt and dress pants for his team's 106-64 victory over East Lyme in Tuesday's high school swim meet.

He choked up afterwards talking about his opponents.

"I told (East Lyme) that I got dressed up out of respect. I get emotional. I really care about the sport," Berg said. "(East Lyme coach Jen Lyman) is a good coach. We had to work hard for it. That's where first places are so important."

Sam Kokomoor and Patrick Nowak each won two individual events and swam on two winning relays and Fitch captured victories in all but one event in the first matchup of the season against the Vikings. Both teams were unbeaten in the Eastern Connecticut Conference coming in.

Fitch (6-0, 6-0) won both regular-season meetings against the Vikings (4-4, 4-1) a year ago before East Lyme, in Lyman's first season replacing longtime coach Jack Stabach, came back for a 534.5-500.5 victory at the league championship meet.

It's what Lyman believes can happen again with a little seasoning for this team, which features only two seniors, and what Berg knows he needs to caution his team against. East Lyme also features seven divers, which could not compete Tuesday because there is no diving board at the UConn-Avery Point pool.

"It's nice to see Fitch and their seniors really leading their squad," Lyman said. "Just to see his (eight) seniors lead the way and to see what that looks like. We're trying to replicate that. ... We're keeping our eye on the prize. We don't rest for a dual meet. We try to keep it in perspective. We'll try to be more competitive in a couple weeks when they come to our pool."

Kokomoor, a senior, won the 100-yard freestyle (50.20 seconds) and the 200 freestyle (1:55.33) and Nowak, a sophomore, took the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke.

Fitch won all three relays, with John Moody, Nowak, Kokomoor and Sam Rea first in the 200 medley relay (1:45.63), Rea, Nowak, Sean Estep and Kokomoor in the 200 free relay (1:38.89) and Aaron Lewis, Malik Mitchell, Estep and Moody in the 400 free relay (3:51.81).

Fitch's Will Ferguson won the 100 butterfly, Lewis the 500 free and Moody the 100 backstroke. East Lyme senior Benas Kirvelevicius won the 50 freestyle.

Berg said Kokomoor swam the 100 freestyle instead of his usual butterfly so he could see how he matched up against Kirvelevicius.

"Benas and I are friends. We've been swimming against each other for four years. We have a really competitive spirit," Kokomoor said. "I was tired (from already swimming two events)."

Berg said this year's Fitch/Stonington cooperative team is even more cohesive than last year's, which went 10-0 in the ECC during the regular season and crowned 10 ECC champions. Stonington previously swam with Ledyard and had to get used to the idea of its old rival swimmers as teammates, Berg said.

"I asked one of the captains and he gave me a lot of information," Berg said. "Last year they were smart enough they knew they had to be teammates. It took them a year for everyone to be friends. I love coaching these guys."

Berg said, however, this is no time for his team to rest on its laurels, especially considering what happened a year ago with the East Lyme victory at the championship meet.

"Over Christmas break they were working their butts off. We've gotten away from that a little bit," Berg said. "Fish swim in the ocean all day and all night, right? That's why they're good swimmers. You've got to put the work in. We have 13 boys and one girl and we have to figure out how to get the most points with that."

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Twitter: @vickieattheday