PEABODY — On Dec. 22, the Wakefield/Lynnfield High cooperative boys’ swim team jumped back in the pool for the first meet of the season against Ipswich and the Manchester-Essex/Hamilton-Wenham’s cooperative team. During this tri-meet, which wasn’t scored overall but counted for qualifying times, the Warrior-Pioneers came away with wins in nearly every race, along with some state and sectionals cuts.
Starting off the meet and the season, the 200-yard medley relay team cruised to a first-place finish while nabbing state and sectionals qualifying times. This team consisted of two of the primary relay swimmers from last year, senior captain Henry Brown and sophomore standout James Cook. Added to the mix for this season were up-and-comer Malcolm Kelton, a promising Wakefield freshman, and also junior Nick DeGennaro from Lynnfield.
A number of individual first/second place finishes for Wakefield followed the medley relay. Cook placed first in the 200-yard freestyle and Owen Kelley second, Brown won the 50-yard freestyle race while Kelton came in second and Marc Gagne won the 100-yard freestyle with Kelley taking second place.
Brown, who qualified for states and sectionals with his 50-yard freestyle, crushed the competition in the 500-yard freestyle. Senior captain Hudson Little placed second in the 100-yard butterfly.
Cook took first place in the 100-yard backstroke, and Kelton placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Little, Kelley, Gagne and Lynnfield swimmer, Brendan Koleszar, placed first as did the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Brown, DeGennaro, Cook and Kelton. The 400-yard finish resulted in state and sectionals qualifying times to cap off this successful meet for the boys.
Brown was asked for his thoughts on the season opener and stated, “Even though the meet didn’t technically count, we all went out there and put in our best races as if it was a championship meet. I really am proud of that mindset that we showed in a meet that other teams would write off as meaningless.
“Being a tri-meet against two teams we swim against in actual scored competition, I think it’s safe to say we sent out a message to the rest of the league saying that we not only have a legit chance, but are the favorites to get a third consecutive league title. And that’s always been the goal. Qualifying for states is nice and all, but swimming is a team sport, so the main thing that pushes us every night until 10 p.m. at practice is adding another championship to the banner up in the rafters.”
The boys defeated North Reading/Wilmington 95-67 on Dec. 29. A full story will appear at a later date. They will race Hamilton-Wenham/Manchester-Essex in a league meet on Sunday, 5:30 p.m. back at the Peabody YMCA.