By DAN BYRNE

CAMBRIDGE– Following their stellar 6th place finish at the Division 2 North Sectional Meet, the Wakefield Memorial High School Girls’ varsity swim team headed to the MIT natatorium in Cambridge on Saturday, Nov. 11 for the Division 2 State Championship Meet. 

It was another outstanding performance for the select group of Warriors swimmers that reached this level of competition, as they would finish up the season taking 3rd place. 

With some of the larger schools pulled up to Division 1, the Warriors had fewer teams to worry about at States than they did at Sectionals and their finish reflected that. 

In the greatest outcome of the day for the Warriors, Audrey Cook claimed 1st place in the 100 Yard Breaststroke and was crowned D2 State Champion with a time of 1:08.92. Lucy Wagner came in 7th place with a time of 1:15.58. 

In the 200 Medley Relay, the Warriors team of Emma Santoro, Audrey Cook, Grace McHugh, Allie DeGray took 2nd place and re-broke the school record they broke earlier in the season, with a time of 1:52.47. 

In the 200 Yard Freestyle, Audrey Cook took 6th place with a time of 2:05.99.

The 200 Yard Individual Medley saw Emma Santoro take 3rd place with a time of 2:16.20 and Grace McHugh claimed 6th place with a time of 2:21.35.

Allie DeGray re-broke her own school record and finished in 3rd place with a time of 24.98 in the 50 Yard Freestyle. 

“Breaking 0:30.00 used to be really good and breaking 0:25.00 used to only be something noys did, but Allie broke it, it’s a huge accomplishment,” Warriors’ head coach Kathy Byrne said in a recent interview. 

Grace McHugh raced to a 5th place finish with a time of 1:03.14 in the 100 Yard Butterfly.

Allie DeGray re-broke her own school record in the 100 Yard Freestyle and claimed 3rd place with a time of 55.01.

The Warriors’ team in the 200 yard Freestyle Relay of Laila Atoui, Dam Bordonaro, Mackenzie Grace, Lucy Wagner finished in 9th place with a time of 1:50.68. 

Emma Santoro finished 3rd in the 100 Yard Backstroke with a time of 1:01.13.

Finally, in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay, Emma Santoro, Grace McHugh, Audrey Cook and Allie DeGray capped off the day with a 3rd place finish for the Warriors with a time of 3:47.65.

The Warrior swimmers ended up accumulating 219 points, the third highest total on the day. State Champions Wellesley had 426, and runner-up Chelmsford who had 229.5 both obtained points from the Diving competition, something the Warriors have not participated in for decades. 

In the end, it went down as a 3rd place finish, but the Warriors’ had the 2nd best swimmers at MIT on Saturday. Their 219 points would have been 2nd most in strictly swimming, though officially they came in 3rd place.

Nevertheless, it was another record breaking day for the Wakefield girls. 

“It was a great meet,” Byrne said, I’m very pleased with how everybody swam. Our 200 free relay swam a fabulous race also, everybody had a good meet.”

To wrap the season up, coach Byrne said, “We had a small team, but a mighty team.”