Wakefield swim honors seniors, beats Woburn in final two meets

THE WAKEFIELD HIGH girls’ swim team celebrated their seniors before their final home meet of the season on Oct. 19. (Courtesy Photo)

Compete in league championship meet today

By DAN BYRNE

WAKEFIELD—Last week, the Wakefield Memorial High School girls’ varsity swim team wrapped up their regular season with meets against Belmont and Woburn. Next up for the Warriors’ swimmers is the Middlesex League Championship Meet today at 3 p.m.

On Tuesday, October 19, the girls hosted Belmont for their Senior Night meet.

“We knew Belmont was a very strong team,” head coach Kathy Byrne admitted in a recent interview. “I think we caught them by surprise a bit in the beginning by winning the first relay, and the next two individual events.”

Katie Patt, Audrey Cook, Abby Lane and Sophie Brown claimed 1^st place in the 200 Yard Medley Relay, the meet’s first event. Then, Audrey Cook and Katie Patt won the 200 Yard Freestyle, and the 200 Yard Individual Medley respectively.

“We actually won a few individual events, we hung tough with them right through,” Byrne said of her team, who claimed six 1^st place finishes.

“It was senior day, everyone was all pumped up to honor the seniors, and the fact that they stayed as close to Belmont as they did, and swam well as a team, I was very proud of them,” Byrne added. “Senior meet was a lot of fun.”

The final meet of the season was last Friday in Woburn.

“It was only our second away meet,” Coach Byrne told, “We knew Woburn wasn’t very strong. We won most of the events, and if we didn’t win we got 2nd, 3rd and 4th. It was nice to finish the season up with a W.”

THE SENIORS of the Wakefield High girls’ swim team were honored on senior night, Oct. 19. Pictured from left to right are seniors Abby Lane, Katie Patt, Sophie Brown, Molly Grady, Vanessa Moran, Emily Federici, Hannah Morris, Emily Chan, Maria Brizon, Hannah Federici and Sam Sheedy. (Courtesy Photo)

The Warriors enjoyed great success against the Tanners, winning all but one event.

“The only event we didn’t win was the 200 Free,” Byrne said, “But Sophie Brown swam a fabulous race and almost qualified for sectionals. It was her personal best on the season, so she was pumped, it was a really good race, it was a good swim for both of them (Brown and Sarah Herbst of Woburn).”

In reflection of a strong performance, coach Byrne recalled, “Audrey Cook blew everybody away in the 500. We had a good, strong 200 Yard Freestyle Relay, and we won all but one event. We also had a few personal bests, so that was nice to see.”

Byrne went on to say, “Abby Lane’s backstroke was a really good race too, against Sarah Herbst.”

“It was a good meet and I was very happy the team swam well and came out with a win.”

Looking ahead to the upcoming championship meet season coach Byrne said that, “Our League Championship Meet is Thursday at Medford High School Pool, we’ll be swimming there with Stoneham, Belmont and Reading.”

This year, the League Meet is being split into three pools, Medford High School, Atknison Pool in Sudbury and the Boys’ and Girls’ Club in Woburn.

When asked about why the league did it this way, Byrne said, “It had to do with size and good matchups. So what they’re going to do is take all the times and put them together.”

Last year’s virtual League Meet proved to be vastly successful for the Warriors, but coach Byrne is looking forward to this year’s format.

“We did swim League Meet with no competition present at all (last year) and broke two school records and had league champions but it’s much more fun to have an actual meet.”

Dual meet season is over for the Warriors, culminating with the Middlesex League Championship Meet Thursday night. Then the swimmers who have posted fast enough official times move onto the North Sectional Championship at WPI on Sunday, November 7. This year, the State Championships are on the 12^th of November, a Friday night, at Boston Sports Institute in Wellesley.