A new alignment doesn’t take away the old rivalries among Eastern Connecticut Conference boys’ swimming and diving teams.

“We’ll be targeting one for sure,” East Lyme High School coach Rob Bouchey said with a laugh this week, speaking of the defending ECC champion Fitch cooperative team.

But “familiarity” and “comfort” no longer apply here.

Because there are only three ECC teams, the league will compete this season as part of the Southern Connecticut Conference Division II ranks, as announced by league swimming chairman Kevin Marcoux, the athletic director at East Lyme.

East Lyme/Norwich Free Academy, Waterford/Ledyard and the Fitch co-op, consisting of swimmers from Fitch, St. Bernard, Stonington and Wheeler (all three arrangements are different from last season) will compete along with the Sheehan/Lyman Hall/Coginchaug co-op, Notre Dame-West Haven, the Milford co-op, Shelton and West Haven.

The ECC teams will swim each other once (formerly twice) and then compete in their own ECC Invitational on Feb. 24 at East Lyme.

There will not be an ECC regular-season or tournament champion, but the teams can compete for a regular-season title within SCC Division II. The ECC Invitational will recognize individuals who place first through sixth at the event, along with a Most Outstanding Swimmer based on points.

The teams will not swim in the SCC championship meet.

“It’s mixed,” said Bouchey of the reaction thus far to the new format. “The bus rides are certainly interesting. It’s new competition. The kids are good with it. They’re embracing it.

“It looks a little different. It’s turned upside down. But we’re going after it. We’re going to try to beat as many teams as we can.”

Marcoux said the league was looking for options to fill the schedule with only three teams. He said the idea came from discussions at athletic directors’ meetings and from talking to SCC commissioner Al Carbone, who is also now the ECC’s chief advisory officer.

“It definitely increased our travel time to competitions,” Marcoux said. “But it gives all three teams a full schedule.”

Because of East Lyme’s co-op with NFA, the Vikings are now competing in Class LL, Bouchey said, up from M. That alters the state qualifying standards for East Lyme swimmers.

The Fitch co-op, the 2022 and 2023 ECC champion, lost its affiliation with Ledyard, as Ledyard now swims with Waterford. Fitch gained St. Bernard in the co-op, however. All of the ECC teams have small rosters.

East Lyme/NFA fell to 0-2 Thursday, including a season-opening 104-52 loss to Fairfield Prep. Milford beat East Lyme 89-77 Thursday, but the Vikings got wins from Albert Zhu in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke, Ryan Zhuang in the 50 free, Mingwen Duan in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke and Connor Foerster in the 500 free.

“It will still be fast swimming,” Bouchey said. “The boys can still get a lot out of it.”

East Lyme/NFA will swim Fitch on Jan. 9 and Waterford/Ledyard on Jan. 16. Fitch swims Waterford/Ledyard on Feb 6.

“We miss the boys from Ledyard; however, we are looking forward to the competitive schedule,” Fitch co-op coach Katey Kokomoor said.

And more

• The Old Lyme girls’ indoor track 4x200-meter relay team of Tabitha Colwell, Serena Mazzi, Bronwyn Kyle and Zoe Eastman-Grossel finished first Thursday at the Relay Rust Buster Invitational at Southern Connecticut State University in 1:53.82. Two other Old Lyme teams, the boys’ 4x800 team (Eric Dagher, Ryan Ortoleva, Simon Karpinski and Gabriel Tooker) and the girls’ 4x800 team (Kathleen Walsh, Beatrice Hunt, Gabrielle Field and Aggie Hunt) finished as runners-up.

• Ledyard’s Mateo Viviano’s winning pole vault of 13 feet, 6 inches at the most recent ECC developmental meet at the Coast Guard Academy broke the 45-year old school record of 13-3.75 set by Wayne Dalton in 1978. Viviano is ranked first in Class M and tied with Hunter Feitel of Xavier for the best mark in the state so far this season.

v.fulkerson@theday.com