By JENNIFER GENTILE
MELROSE—The Melrose Red Raider swim team is hitting their stride as they approach the mid-point of their season, and earned some individual wins in recent meets against Reading and Winchester.
Though the Red Raiders fell in both meets, some best times and vast improvements were made, and Melrose enjoyed some standout swims particularly against Winchester whom they played on Jan 11. Melrose was edged 90-78 but saw many first place finishes, which included Andrew DiFiore in the 50 and 100 free, Gabe Hunnicutt in the 100 back, Will Lowe in the 500 and Melrose’s two relay teams.
The Red Raiders started out with a quality second place finish in the 200 medley relay behind the work of Owen Brodeur, Gabe Hunnicutt, Arthur Hitchman and Dan Muller, then saw a 1-2 sweep in the 200 freestyle behind the work of Nick Sasso and Will Lowe, respectively. Ben Terentiyev had a solid day with two second place finishes in his races (200 IM, 100 breast). Melrose continued to see success in distance races with Will Lowe prevailing in the 500, while Nick Sasso and Jonah Peters came in after him. Melrose’s relay teams also picked up two key wins to add to Melrose’s point total. In the 200 free Melrose saw to victory behind the work of Ben Terentiyev, Gabe Hunnicutt, Nick Sasso and Andrew DiFiore with a time of 1:46. As a finale, Melrose placed first in the 400 free with a time of 3:51.30 behind the swims of Andrew DiFiore, Will Lowe, Nick Sasso and Ben Terentiyev.
Melrose had traveled to the Burbank YMCA in Reading on Saturday, Jan 8 and came up shy against a strong Rockets team. But there were several highlights in the meet including first place finishes by Ben Terentiyev (200 IM) and a big day for Andrew DiFiore who placed first in the 50 free and 100 free. Melrose’s 200 medley relay team of Gabe Hunnicutt, Ben Terentiyev, Arthur Hitchman and Andrew DiFiore also placed a solid second, and Will Lowe had a nice second place finish in the 200 with a time of 5:56.74.
According to coach Alex Pennachio, he’s seeing glimpses of the future in some of his younger swimmers. “Freshmen William Lowe has started swimming the 500 free and had a lot of success including a close race, coming from behind against Reading and winning the race against Winchester.”
To date, Melrose has qualified Andrew DiFiore and Ben Terentiyev for States. DiFiore will represent Melrose in the 50 free and 100 free and Trentiyev will compete in the 100 breast and 200 IM.
Says the coach, “This team has been working hard and swimming out of their mind. They’ve managed to roll with all the setbacks of this season and have continued to get better, especially the freshmen. I see strong future for Melrose swimming”
Melrose will next compete against Arlington on January 13 (post deadline) and Belmont on the road on January 18 at 4:30 p.m.
