Pat Nowak, the son of a U.S. Navy commander, has lived in the state of Washington, where he loved hiking and the Seattle Seahawks, and Virginia, which he enjoyed because of its proximity to the water. His family also lived on a Navy base in Japan for a time.

It has been here, however, that Nowak has found perhaps his favorite spot.

“Maybe just because of high school,” Nowak said.

Nowak is a junior at Stonington High School and a swimmer for the Fitch/Stonington cooperative team. This season, he won two individual events and took part in two winning relays at the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship meet March 4 at UConn Avery Point, breaking a 28-year-old league record in the 100-yard breaststroke.

A three-time All-Area pick, Nowak was named The Day's 2017 All-Area Swimmer of the Year.

When he moved here from Chesapeake, Va., prior to starting high school, the competitive Nowak just wanted to be successful.

“I swam a little bit. I wasn't really into it though,” said Nowak of his pre-Fitch swimming career. “I guess I just wanted to win. That's mostly it. I never really had the means to win. I was just upset with not being good. I decided to really put in the work.

“I joined club swimming in the fall of my freshman year, CAC, the Connecticut Aquatic Club and swam there for a bit. We knew that Ken Berg (Fitch coach) was this big-time coach. Everybody talked him up. Everybody knew him. Just knowing I would have to put in the work to make him happy … he decided to dedicate a lot of his coaching time to me.”

Nowak has grown since then, from 5-foot-6 to 5-11, and has gained 30 pounds, he said.

He has always been able to swim the breaststroke, however, which Berg said probably the lowest percentage of swimmers know how to perfect.

As a freshman, Nowak tied for the breaststroke title at the ECC meet and added two relay victories. Last year, he won those three events and added a first-place finish in the 200 individual medley to his haul, as the Falcons won the league championship.

This season, Nowak was 4-for-4 once again, joining sophomore teammate John Marcolina in that feat. Nowak switched things up by winning the 200 freestyle in 1 minute, 51.65 seconds and broke the meet record in the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.38. Waterford's Troy Hosmer, who went on to compete at the Coast Guard Academy, set the record at 1:01.47 in 1989.

Nowak also joined the winning 200 medley relay (1:40.59) and 400 freestyle relay (3:27.15) teams.

From there, he finished fourth in the Class L state championship in the breaststroke (1:00.63) and lowered his time in the event even further at the State Open, where he finished 10th in 1:00.41. Also in Class L, he was sixth in the 200 IM and led the Falcons to a pair of top-10 relay finishes.

“It's a power-based stroke. Everything about the breaststroke is using the power from your kick the best you can,” Nowak said, explaining his most accomplished stroke. “Your arms are about setting your body into a position that's going to snap you forward through the water. You've just got to be strong all-around.”

Berg said Nowak, who travels about 25 minutes each way to get to and from practices at Avery Point — sometimes before school — will get faster as he gets stronger.

He also expects Nowak to go faster in the IM, having swum the backstroke leg of the medley relay this season, polishing his least favorite stroke.

Nowak is able to adapt to Berg's tough-love style of coaching perhaps because he is more composed than most high school juniors. He remains unruffled.

“I like to learn on my own a lot, try new things. If Ken tells (a teammate) something, he just does it, sometimes I like to try it out first,” Nowak said of his more cerebral approach to learning. “Oh yeah, there's lots of yelling that goes on. I don't take it personally at all. Sometimes I don't like it in the moment, but I like it. I want to win and he wants me to win."

"Patrick is used to being third all the time on his club because there's some good swimmers,” Berg said. “I tell him pretend you're No. 1. You can't follow guys. Other coaches, if you don't want to do that, they might say, 'I'm not going to bother.' … He's an all-around kid, which is beautiful. You need to be able to do all four strokes. Him and (Marcolina), I keep coming back for guys like that.”

Nowak's dad, Brian, is currently the commanding officer of the Naval Submarine Support Center in New London. Pat, the oldest of three children, said the family is set to remain in the area at least until he graduates from high school. He's very much valued his travels, however, and said they have created a strong family bond.

“(Japan) was awesome. Just everything was so different than here,” Nowak said. “We lived on a naval base, but we went out every weekend to the Japan part of Japan. … (Stonington) is smaller than every single school I've been to. I know every single person in my grade."

He said it was his first practice at Fitch, where he still knew no one, that Berg had him going through all the strokes and discovered he had talent in the breaststroke. It was the event in which Nowak would go on to command the ECC for the next three seasons with a season still to go.

“It's hard to say going into it,” Nowak said of what might gain him precious seconds in his races. “Work harder, get stronger, more endurance, technique. Mostly for me, probably walls. This summer I really want to just work harder, harder than I ever have before.

“The feeling when you touch that wall, you know you've worked harder, you've put in more work. You know you're better.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

The Day's 2017 All-Area Swimming & Diving Team

Swimmer of the Year — Pat Nowak (Fitch)

200-yard medley relay — Fitch (Pat Nowak, Keegan Reck, Matt Planchon, John Marcolina)

200 individual medley — Jack Wheeler (East Lyme)

50 freestyle, 100 freestyle — John Marcolina (Fitch)

Diving — Ben Prouty (East Lyme)

100 butterfly — Jack Zhang (East Lyme)

500 freestyle — Eain Goolsbey (East Lyme)

200 freestyle relay — Fitch (Matt Planchon, Keegan Reck, Pat Nowak, John Marcolina)

100 backstroke — Will Jarrett (Williams)

400 freestyle relay — Fitch (Matt Planchon, Maxwell Cartier, Pat Nowak, John Marcolina)

Utility — Jacob Olson (Old Lyme)