With every reference to Michael Urgo there comes a tie to his team, the Fitch cooperative swimming and diving program.

Urgo, a junior at Wheeler High School, was without a team until the school's athletic director, Ellen Turner, arranged the co-op with Fitch prior to Urgo's freshman season so that Urgo wouldn't have to perform as a "team of one."

Urgo then sat out the 2020-21 season after the Eastern Connecticut Conference ruled that there could be no cooperative teams during the winter months due to COVID-19.

Finally this season, its co-op back together under the leadership of head coach Katey Kokomoor, Fitch won the ECC championship meet with 550 points, edging second-place East Lyme with 535. Urgo, who won two individual events and anchored two record-setting relays for the Falcons, was named the league's Swimmer of the Meet.

"I always knew he was a good swimmer but you never know at the high school level," said Turner, who has known Urgo since he was in sixth grade. "I was getting the information from the ECC meet and his father texted me, 'You're not going to believe this. He was Swimmer of the Meet.'

"Mike's big into the relays. A team of one, you can't be part of a relay team; a team of one wasn't going to do it for him. That's his thing. To be part of a small school he gets that: we're small but together you can do things."

Urgo was named The Day's 2022 All-Area Swimmer of the Year.

He won the 50-yard freestyle (21.86 seconds) and 100 freestyle (47.16) at the ECC meet before helping the Falcons to meet records in the 200 freestyle relay (1:28.53) and 400 free relay (3:16.99).

He added to his successful season by earning Class L all-state honors in three events. Urgo was second in the 100 freestyle in 47.56 seconds, choosing to forgo any other individual events in favor of swimming three relays. The Falcons' team of Julian Mileski, Matt Nowak, Ben Chidley and Urgo was state champion in the 200 free relay in 1:27.80 and Jacob Lin, Chidley, Urgo and Mileski were second in the 200 medley relay in 1:37.71, both receiving all-state recognition. Fitch added a fifth in the 400 free relay.

At the State Open, Urgo was sixth in the 100 freestyle (47.36) and the Falcons were fifth in the 200 free relay, sixth in the medley relay and 10th in the 400 free relay.

"He takes his workouts very seriously," Kokomoor said of Urgo. "He has a fire. He loves to race. He loves to work hard. He likes to push himself to the limit, find his limit and then exceed it. I just love knowing he's anchoring the relay. He hates to lose. He'll bleed before he'll lose."

"I wasn't from Fitch and they made it feel so welcoming," Urgo, named a captain for next year, said of joining the co-op. "It's like my home now."

Fitch swam on its own last year without any of the other schools in its co-op: Ledyard, Stonington or Wheeler. This season, Kokomoor had to put those pieces back together in order to be competitive at the ECC level and in the first state championship meet held since 2019 due to the pandemic.

"The fact we all came back together and the pieces were still there ..." Urgo said. "The seniors, Ben Chidley, Matt Nowak, Julien Mileski, Sam Yout, Jack Nystrom, we wanted to do it for them. I really became good friends with them. I wanted to win for those guys so much.

"It was definitely a learning curve, an adjustment period (to start the season). After the first day we were just back. The chemistry was all there."

Urgo, whose dad Mike is the former North Stonington first selectman, is the first swimmer to represent Wheeler in a co-op. His younger sister Abby swam as a team of one this year with Fitch, with Wheeler unable to join the Fitch girls' swimming co-op until after the current two-year cycle is up.

Turner doesn't believe she's ever had Urgo in class, but describes him as "one of those kids that come over and start talking to you."

"He's a pretty genuine kid. He's very articulate. He has his thoughts and he backs them up," Turner said. "It's always good. You have great conversations. He's funny. He's a big-time Patriots fan ... he always banters back and forth. That's the kind of kid he is. He just embraces everything he's in. We need to sit down and talk about what's next for him for college."

Urgo was uncertain what loomed for him after he was unable to compete last season. He swam at the Westerly YMCA and involved himself with lifting weights. After a successful freshman season swimming — he won the 50 freestyle and swam on two winning relays at the ECC meet — he felt he had more to prove, yet was unable to join his teammates.

"I feel like I have to be in shape, having some kind of goal," Urgo said. "It was definitely rough (sitting out). I finished (my freshman year) strongly ... (then) the rug kind of got swept out from under us."

He calls the ECC championship this season the most pressure he's ever felt for a swim meet because of the team aspect.

"I wanted to win so badly," Urgo said of the overall title. "The thing about co-ops, I think a co-op is a really good idea. You get to meet all these new people. Some of my best friends have been from all the different schools. I go to a small school; it's nice to get out and know more people.

"After the season was over, it was definitely the best season I've ever had. With my teammates, with Katey, to have that support, to want to do well for them, not for myself ... I found out that I still love swimming and I still love being a part of that."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

The Day's 2022 All-Area Swimming & Diving Team

Player of the Year - Michael Urgo (Fitch co-op)

200-yard medley relay - Fitch co-op (Jacob Lin, Ben Chidley, Michael Urgo, Julian Mileski)

200 freestyle - Eric Wang (East Lyme)

200 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke - Jacob Lin (Fitch co-op)

Diving - Ryan McLaughlin (East Lyme)

500 freestyle - Evan Lombardo (East Lyme)

200 freestyle relay - Fitch co-op (Julian Mileski, Matt Nowak, Ben Chidley, Michael Urgo)

East Lyme (Ken Chen, Brendan Fant, Ryan Huang, Eric Wang)

100 breaststroke - Ben Chidley (Fitch co-op)

400 freestyle relay - Fitch co-op (Julian Mileski, Matt Nowak, Jacob Lin, Michael Urgo)

Utility - Ian Gonzalez (St. Bernard), Hawken Hammen (East Lyme)