Small Warrior squad needs to be versatile to compete in the M.L.

MADISON GUAY, a senior co-captain, returns to swim a variety of events for the Warriors. She will compete in the butterfly, freestyle, individual medley and breaststroke this season. (Donna Larsson File Photo)

MADISON GUAY, a senior co-captain, returns to swim a variety of events for the Warriors. She will compete in the butterfly, freestyle, individual medley and breaststroke this season. (Donna Larsson File Photo)

Published in the September 10, 2015 edition.

By JIM SOUTHMAYD

WAKEFIELD — The one thing that members of this year’s Wakefield Memorial High girls’ swim team won’t have to worry about is sitting around and not getting into the pool.

That’s because the Warriors have seen their numbers stay the same at 23 swimmers out for this year’s team and that will mean that the athletes will have to compete in multiple events to help the team to fill the 11 events.

Wakefield will be seeking to do the best it can and improve on the 2-6 record in the always tough Middlesex League.

Wakefield lost some key seniors from last year’s including all-scholastic Shannon Quirk. Quirk captured the 500 freestyle title in the Div. 2 All-State Meet and secured a third place finish in the 200 freestyle.

The Warrior standout also captured two first place finishes in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle at the North Sectional Swimming and Diving Championships.

Quirk was also named a Middlesex League All-Star and captured first in both the 200 and 500 freestyles at the M.L. meet.

Wakefield also graduated captains Shannon Grady and Avery York along with seniors Abby Carney, Kim Green, Hannah Melanson and Gianna Tringale.

So there will be some places in the pool to fill among the returning seniors, juniors, sophomores and incoming freshmen.

“Lexington is a top three powerhouse and that is a tough point to start for us,” said Head Coach Kathy Byrne. “Lexington has a huge team and is the biggest school in the league. They’re a Div. 1 school. We’ll work on getting our times down. It’s a tough first meet.”

The two co-captains for this year’s team are Madison Guay and Erin Lucey. They are among six returning seniors.

Guay is perhaps Wakefield’s top returning swimmer and she is an extremely versatile athlete. She can swim the butterfly, freestyle, individual medley and breaststroke. Byrne feels that she swims pretty much anywhere and will be relied on to swim as many events as she can.

Lucey returns and has a couple of events where she will be competing. The senior can swim the breaststroke, individual medley and the relays.

There are four more returning seniors that will be relied upon to contribute points. They are Nicole Pecjo, Taylor Guarino, Tori Tringale and Erin Lomasney.

Pecjo swam the 500 freestyle a year ago and she returns to compete in the long distance event. The senior can also swim the 200 individual medley and she also is versatile which is something the Warriors will need this year.

Guarino returns to compete in the backstroke. She is also a freestyler and could be entered in several events.

With versatility being a key, Tringale will be able to compete in a number of events. She will swim in the freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke.

According to Byrne, Lomasney has worked hard all summer and shown tremendous improvement. She will swim the freestyle events and the 100 breaststroke.

“We have a versatile group of seniors,” said Byrne. “It’s good to be able to work with them for the younger kids.”

Wakefield also has one sophomore returning who was part of Wakefield’s postseason qualifying relay teams. Caroline Sweeney returns and is a freestyler.

The rest of the roster is made up of underclass swimmers including two boys who are freshmen. With Wakefield no longer having a co-operative team with Northeast Metro Tech, they are now part of the girls’ swim team since WMHS doesn’t have a boys’ swim program.

Byrne didn’t name the two male swimmers since they haven’t even competed in a meet yet and are ninth graders. Also other teams in the M.L. have male swimmers including Woburn, Stoneham and newcomer Arlington and that may give the young men a chance to swim against each other in competition depending on what events they swim.

Since Arlington is fielding a girls’ swim team this year, that means Wakefield will have nine dual meets since there are 10 teams now in the M.L.

“We were practicing in the pool at Bear Hill last week and now we’re practicing at the Malden High pool where we will have our home meets,” said Byrne. “We have a lot of home meets this year. We’re starting them at 5:30 p.m. to give the parents time to get there.”

Even though the Warriors have six home dual meets, the first one is scheduled to take place on the road. Wakefield faces Lexington tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the Minuteman Regional Pool.