THE WAKEFIELD High girls’ swim team celebrates their big win over Reading at Medford High on Tuesday. (Courtesy Photo)
By DAN BYRNE
MEDFORD– The Wakefield Warriors varsity swim team recorded another victory in the water on Tuesday night as they handily defeated the Reading Rockets by a score of 101-68 at the Medford High pool.
A late change of venue saw the meet moved from Malden to Medford, but that didn’t really have an impact on the Warriors, according to head coach Kathy Byrne.
“We swam Reading at Medford High School pool because Malden High pool was having some technical difficulties,” Byrne said in a recent interview.
Wakefield saw no ill effects to swimming in another pool, in fact they thrived totally dominating the meet and winning every event.
“The girls were very excited to swim against Reading, they are always a tough opponent,” admitted Coach Byrne. “We thought we had a good chance we could catch them and we did. We took first place in every event. In every individual event we took either first and second or first and third.
“We had been swimming there for the past couple of days, the girls had been used to the pool, so that was nice. It was our home meet, even though it felt kind of like an away meet.”
In the first event Emma Santoro, Audrey Cook, Grace McHugh, and Angie Martinez claimed victory in the 200 Yard Medley Relay with a time of 2:04.87. Mackenzie Grace claimed points for third place.
“Winning the 200 Yard Medley Relay is a great way to start a meet,” Byrne said. “And the wins just kept coming after that.”
Next, in the 200 Yard Freestyle Allie DeGrey took the win with a 2:04.66, followed by Angie Martinez in third, and Daphne Mogan in fifth.
The 50 Yard Freestyle was won by Grace McHugh in 0:27.69. Lucy Wagner wasn’t far behind to score third place points.
In the 100 Yard Butterfly, the Warriors’ only entrant, Grace McHugh stole the show and took first place with a 1:05.44 time.
The Warriors then captured first and second in the 100 Yard Freestyle. Allie DeGray swam in at 0:57.81 to win followed by Mackenzie Grace in second place.
The 500 Yard Freestyle saw the Warriors win first, third, and fifth place. Audrey Cook swam a 5:57.97 followed by Angie Martinez in third and Teagen Norton in fifth.
Wakefield put two teams into the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay and claimed first and third place. Mackenzie Grace, Daphne Mogan, Lucy Wagner and Allie DeGray swam to a first place time of 1:57.42. The team of Natalie Chankhour, Cara Nishino, Veronica Dias, and Deyalin Medina captured points for third place.
Emma Santoro took home the win in the 100 Yard Backstroke with a time of 1:04.63. Daphne Mogan continued to put in a strong effort to capture another important third place for the Warriors.
The 100 Yard Breaststroke was another first and third finish for the Warriors. Audrey Cook took home her third win of the day with a time of 1:11.44. Lucy Wagner claimed third for the Warriors.
Finally the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay saw the Warriors cap off a strong performance with their 11th win of the day. Allie DeGray, Grace McHugh, Emma Santoro, and Audrey Cook made up the winning team which combined for a time of 4:04.16. Mackenzie Grace, Angie Martinez, Daphne Mogan, and Lucy Wagner finished up the meet with a third place finish to bring the final margin of victory to 33 points.
To sum things up the coach continued saying, “It was an exciting meet. To take down one of the league’s perennial powerhouses, it was very exciting to see the girls really step up and pour their hearts into their races.
“We knew that it could be close but in the end it really wasn’t with the score 101-68.”
When asked the reason why it was such an important meet for some of the girls, Byrne shared, “A lot of the Reading and Wakefield girls swim together on their club teams, so they know each other, and that makes it exciting. To swim against people you swim with year round, I think they were anxious and excited to hopefully beat them, and that was their motivation to win the meet, and it really came through.
“We haven’t had a meet where we show this kind of depth. First and third, that’s a good showing,” told a satisfied coach.
“The girls came to win, they wanted to win, and it came down to just having that mindset and the nerve of swimming against girls they know are good swimmers, and just having a little more depth than they did.”
With the win the Warriors’ record improves to 2-2 on the year. Check back next week to find out how the Warriors fared against Melrose on Thursday night to see if they can make it three wins in a row. Next week they will be taking on Stoneham on Tuesday and on Thursday they’ll face off with Woburn/Burlington’s combination team both at Malden High School’s pool.
