By BOB MONTGOMERY

If I’m correct, the top swimmer from each of Bristol’s three high schools are juniors. Just wait until next year!

Anyway, I’ve written about Faith Martin of St. Paul and Stephanie Niman of Bristol Eastern, but haven’t as yet about Bristol Central’s Sarah Leoni. So, here goes.

Sarah had a great past week or so in winning two events during the city meet a week ago and on Friday, when she won two events (500 free and 100 breaststroke) and was on two winning relay teams for the Rams in a 89-85 edging of the Hartford co-op.

“My goal this year is to drop my time in the 100 breaststroke at the states,” she told me.

She’s qualified for the 500 free, too, and may have also qualified in a relay event.

Asked what she liked about swimming at Central, the answer was very positive.

“I like the work and the attitude of the team,” she told me.

Swimming since she was in the fifth grade in Georgia, she calls coach Gary Harrigan as one of the best coaches she’s had. In addition to high school swimming, she swims for Charter Oak out of the University of Hartford in a United States Swimming Association league.

On Austin Mizzell

Former Bristol Eastern swimmer Austin Mizzell is currently a sophomore swimmer at Southern Connecticut State University, where he takes part in the 200 IM and the breaststroke events. He recently finished seventh in the 200 IM (2:03.57) at the Sonny Werblin Invitational in Piscataway, N.J.

Austin comes off a standout freshman year. He was Northeast-10 Conference champion in the 100 and 200 breaststroke while also on the winning 200 and 400 medley relays.

His resume lists him as an All-American in high school, in the 100 breaststroke, and as a two-time Bristol Eastern captain.

Ted Ostroski and Ted Williams

I met longtime Bristol resident Ted Ostroski on Saturday for the first time and learned he once spent a day with Ted Williams. I figure it was around 1950 or a little later when the Red Sox Hall of Famer was a representative of Horton Manufacturing in Bristol.

Ted was employed at the plant where both fishing poles and golf clubs had been made. “Teddy Baseball,” as everyone knows, was an avid fisherman, thus the connection with the Bristol firm.

Ostroski and four or five other Horton employees spent a day with Ted when Boston was playing the Yankees in New York.

“He arranged it for us,” said Ostroski. “We went with him to see the movie he had made and when we went to eat, he left to go to the ballpark because he didn’t eat before the games.

“He knew fishing from A to Z and when he shook your hand, he had a hand like a ham. He was a big guy.”

Another time the eventual Hall of Famer took a tour of the Horton plant when Ostroski was there.

“He was having a bad year and I told him he was getting old,” Ostroski told me.

By the way, Ostroski was a good athlete himself in his day. I’ve come across his name when looking at the archived sports pages of The Bristol Press.

Kudos to the Central harriers

Bristol Central has come up big the past week or so in both boys and girls cross country, winning both the city and CCC South championships, not an easy task when the Bristol Eastern girls lurked behind them.

In the CCC South Championships, the Rams slipped by Eastern in the girls competition as coach Bob Rottler’s charges made quite a showing of themselves in finishing just two points away from Central. The Rams had Aubrey Palmquist (1st), Melissa Cummings (2nd) and Alyssa Brandt (4th) leading the way.

On the boys side, Central finished first and had an amazing six runners in the top 10: Connor Kelley (1st), Mike Duprey (2nd), Jake Mancini (4th), Ethan Washburn (5th), Jacob Eschner (6th) and Nick Cyr (9th). Outstanding!

Kudos to coach Tamara Stafford-Kirk and her hard-charging Rams.

Coach Stafford-Kirk and runner Kelley

I love the stories when former neighbors, friends or whoever have in remembering our standout athletes of today when the latter were kids. Tom Maghini, sports-minded City of Bristol retiree, told me of being a neighbor to the Hernandez family when D.J. and Aaron were youngsters. He had only good things to say about the boys and their late father, Dennis, who spent so much time with them.

Tamara Stafford-Kirk, coach of the Bristol Central boys and girls cross country teams, recently recalled to me how she knew her No. 1 runner this year, junior Connor Kelley, when he was but two years old.

“I worked in the baby room in the summer of 1996 at a daycare and Connor was one of my kids,” she writes. “He was very bright, even as a two-year-old, and we quickly became ‘buddies.’

“At the end of the summer, I returned to N.C. to do my student teaching and kept in touch with the Kelleys for a while.

“Flash forward 10 or so years and I hear Connor is running cross country with Chippens Hill Middle School and doing well. I was very happy to be reunited with him at Bristol Central!”

A look back at area sports in 1990

Bristol Central (4-12) triumphed 3-1 over Newington in girls volleyball. Dawn Killiany led all servers with 18 points and Tracy Dufour added 13. Kim Santiago and Janet Kawiecki played well on defense and Abby Daniels and Lisa Korytkowski were complimented as having solid all-around games for the Rams.

Bristol Eastern (9-4-1) disposed of Bulkeley 3-1 in boys soccer. Scoring goals for the Lancers were Bryan Thomas, Steve Rich and Damon Delmonte. The Lancers’ goalie combination of Shawn Kelly and John Kopinja recorded nine saves and Craig Malone, Jim Burelli and Colin Smyth were credited with strong performances.

Greg Fortier and Craig Bouchard scored the goals and Chris Rogers was strong in goal as Terryville edged Wolcott Tech 2-1 in boys soccer.

“Chris had six saves but four were of the spectacular type,” said Terryville coach Phil Lyga.