By DAN BYRNE
MALDEN— The final Middlesex League Swim Meet for the Wakefield Memorial High School varsity team was on Tuesday, Oct. 17 when the Warriors faced off with league powerhouse Belmont.
Wakefield came in winners of their last five meets and set their sights on upsetting Belmont.
It was an excitement filled night with the teams trading the lead a few times before in the final event, the Warriors got the win and earned an 85-85 tie, ruining Belmont’s undefeated league season.
“We knew this was going to be a fight to the finish,” Warriors’ head coach Kathy Byrne said in a recent interview. “It was our Senior Meet so we were honoring Natalie Chankhour, Grace McHugh and Mackenzie Grace.”
Things started out well with a win in the 200 Yard Medley Relay, as Emma Santoro, Audrey Cook, Grace McHugh and Allie DeGray took first place and the Warriors led 8-6.
“They are a big team, a deep team and we really strategized as best as we possibly could to put together the strongest lineup that we could,” the coach mentioned.
McHugh claimed victory in the next event, the 200 Yard Freestyle, with Mackenzie Grace placing fourth. After two events Wakefield led 16-14.
“In the 200 Yard Freestyle Grace swam a 2:10.23 and their girl swam a 2:10.32, so it was very close, there were a couple of them that were close like that,” Byrne admitted.
“Again we won every event except the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay,” the coach said. “It was a battle all the way down the line.”
A victory for Emma Santoro in the 200 Yard Individual Medley and a fourth place from Angie Martinez matched the 8 point output Belmont achieved in the event and the Warriors maintained their two point lead at 24-22.
“Every event that we won and placed in was hard fought, the girls were really determined to win this meet,” the coach noted.
Another win for the Warriors came next in the 50 Yard Freestyle, with Allie DeGray touching the wall first. Sam Bordonaro was edged on a judge’s decision as her time of 0:29.28 was faster than Belmont’s Narineh Chase’s 0:29.37, but Belmont was awarded 4th and Wakefield 5th place. That decision swung the meet, giving the Marauder’s 2 more points in the event than the Warriors, tying the score at 31-31.
The score remained tied after the team’s matched 8 point outputs in the next event, the 100 Yard Butterfly. Wakefield’s Grace McHugh won the event, with Laila Atoui claiming 4th place.
The Warriors reclaimed a narrow two point lead after Allie DeGray won the 100 Yard Freestyle and Lucy Wagner beat her Belmont counterpart by 0:00.2 for third place.
“The 100 Free was pretty close,” Byrne said, “That was probably Allie’s closest competition in the 100 Free was Mia Murphy, she did a 56.52 and Mia did a 0:57.82.”
The lead grew to its largest margin of 4 points in favor of the Warriors after Audrey Cook won the 500 Yard Freestyle with Angie Martinez taking third place.
Heading into the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay the Warriors led 57-53, but they only managed to score 4 points in the event with 2nd and 5th place finishes from the team of Mackenzie Grace, Laila Atoui, Samantha Bordonaro, and Lucy Wagner and Natalie Chankhour, Cara Nishino, Teagan Norton, and Angie Martinez respectively.
With the Warriors now trailing by two points, Emma Santoro came through and won the next event, the 100 Yard Backstroke. Laila Atoui claimed 4th place for the Warriors,and the two teams each earned 8 points in the event.
Again in the 100 Yard Breaststroke, the Warriors claimed 1st and 4th with Audrey Cook taking the win and Lucy Wagner in fourth.
It would all come down to the final event for the Warriors as they trailed 77-79 heading into the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay. Once again, the Warriors came through with a win from Allie DeGray, Grace McHugh, Emma Santoro, and Audrey Cook by 2 seconds over the Belmont team that took second. In an all-important moment, the team of Mackenzie Grace, Angie Martinez, Samantha Bordonaro, and Daphne Mogan took 4th place points and gave the Warriors 8 points over Belmont’s 6 in the event, leading to the final score being tied at 85 a piece.
“This team has really come together nicely and they started to push each other,” Byrne said wrapping things up.
The Warriors competed well in the Middlesex League Meet on Thursday, taking 3rd overall. A full story will appear at a later date.
