THE WAKEFIELD girls’ swim team took 5th overall at the Middlesex League Meet last week. The Warriors will compete at Sectionals this Sunday at MIT. (Courtesy Photo)
By CASSIDY SILVA
WALTHAM — Hundreds of athletes filed into Bentley University’s pool deck wrapped in the throes of pre-meet anxiety and excitement last Thursday. After a bus ride of concentration, the Wakefield girls’ swim team stepped into the room with the determination to prove themselves among seven other swim teams from the Middlesex League.
The Middlesex League Meet is one of the biggest competitions for the Warriors.
“It’s a magic time where all the teams are together,” as assistant coach Tash Brown puts it. The swimmers are divided into heats for each event depending on their best times of the season. So, each swimmer is racing against others with very similar times. As a result, says Brown, “the energy is up and so is their pace.”
It’s the perfect recipe for nerves, but Wakefield was ready for it. The Warriors had a mindset of “turning negative into positive” according to Brown. “You have to turn those nerves into excitement…use that inner anxiety and turn it into being stoked.”
The girls also had the team to back each other up.
“They’re the ones that really push one another and keep each other really pumped up. They’re the ones that take the lead in making sure they are all ready to perform their best every single time,” notes head coach Laura McCormack.
The energy of the Warriors served them well in the first event: the 200-yard Medley Relay. In heat 1 of the race, a team of freshman Daisy McGourty, freshman Teadora Elezovic, junior Angelina Martinez and senior Deyalin Medina took 1st place and 15th overall. Heat 2 was another heat win for Wakefield by a team of senior captain Laila Atoui, freshman Elie Wagner, sophomore Daphne Mogan and senior Samantha Bordonaro as they took 9th overall. In heat 3, a team of freshman Carolyn Cote, senior captain Audrey Cook, sophomore Allie Degray and junior Lucy Wagner took 2nd place in the heat and 2nd place overall, earning Wakefield an All-Star title for the event.
The 200-yard Freestyle was also a wild win for the Warriors. In an incredible feat, heat 4 saw a 1, 2 finish by Cook and Elie Wagner. The two also placed 1st and 2nd overall, instating Cook as the Middlesex League Champion for the 200-yard Freestyle and All-Conference for the Middlesex League and Elie as an All-Star. Heat 3 had Martinez place 3rd in the heat and senior Teagan Norton place 3rd in heat 1. Even more significant, all four Wakefield athletes celebrated personal bests, setting the tone for the rest of the team moving forward.
In the 200-yard Individual Medley, McGourty and Elezovic raced side by side in Heat 2, touching the wall in 2nd and 3rd place. They placed 11th and 18th overall, both receiving a new personal record. Elezovic enjoyed a new time of 2:46.71 while McGourty shaved off an astounding 9.31 seconds. Cote represented Wakefield in heat 3, placing 7th in the heat and 17th overall.
The shortest event of the meet, the 50-yard Freestyle, was ironically one of the longest with 21 heats and 155 athletes competing in total. In heat 1, sophomore Molly Preston took 3rd while taking off 3.58 seconds for a new personal record. Freshman Mayte De Alvarenga competed in heat 4, placing 3rd while also taking a new pr of 36.97. Heat 5 saw sophomore Pyper Tallent place 7th and heat 15 saw Medina take 6th. Bordonaro competed in heat 18, accomplishing a new personal best of 27.71 and placing 1st in her heat and 17th overall before Degray finished 4th in heat 21 and overall with a new pr of 25.76.
After a brief 10-minute break, the Warriors faced down the 100-yard Butterfly. McGourty took 5th in heat 3 and 14th overall with a new personal record by 2.08 seconds. Alongside McGourty, Atoui took 4th in heat 3 and 10th overall, pr-ing by 4.70 seconds and earning herself a qualification to both States and Sectionals. Degray competed in heat 4, also pr-ing by 1.88 seconds and placing 3rd in both the heat and overall. With the swim, Degray earned herself the title of All-Star in the 100-yard Butterfly.
In the 100-yard Freestyle, the Warriors competed in heats 1 and 2. Tallent placed 7th and Medina placed 3rd in heat 1. In heat 2, Lucy Wagner and Bordonaro dominated, taking 1st and 2nd in the heat and 14th and 17th overall. Bordonaro set a new personal record of 1:04.59 and Lucy Wagner followed suit with a new personal record of 1:02.77.
Then, the Warriors were facing down the ultimate test of endurance in the form of the 500-yard Freestyle. In heat 1, Norton took 6th, shaving off 11.05 seconds for a new personal best. In heat 3, Martinez took 6th in the heat and 14th overall with a new pr of 6:20.40. Mogan also competed in heat 3, finishing 5th in the heat and 13th overall. In heat 4, Elie Wagner took 4th both in her heat and overall with a new pr of 5:45.53.
The relays started back up with the 200-yard Freestyle Relay. In teams of four, the athletes sprint a 50-yard distance to tie together the quick-paced event. Heat 1 saw a team of Tallent, De Alvarenga, Norton, and Martinez place 7th in their heat. Mogan, McGourty, Medina, and Elezovic tied together a 5th place finish in heat 2, and Bordonaro, Cote, Lucy Wagner, and Atoui represented Wakefield in heat 3 with a 6th place heat finish and 7th place finish overall.
The Warriors also did damage in the 100-yard Backstroke. Mogan and Atoui competed in heat 3, taking 9th and 11th overall. Mogan dropped 1.94 seconds off her previous best and Atoui dropped 2.53 seconds off as well. In heat 4, Cote also delivered a new personal record by 1.51 for a 5th place finish in her heat and overall. With this time, she qualified for States.
In the last individual event, the 100-yard Breaststroke, Wakefield did not let up the intensity. Elezovic competed in heat 3, placing 7th place in her heat and 16th overall with a new personal record of 1:25.12. Cook rounded out the event in heat 4 with a 3rd-place finish in her heat and overall. The swim made her an All-Star in the 100-yard Breaststroke, breaking her previous personal record by 2.86 seconds.
Lastly, the Warriors put up their final bid in the 400-yard Freestyle Relay. A team of Degray, Elie Wagner, Lucy Wagner and Cook pieced together a 5th-place finish, ending the meet strong for the Wakefield team.
Overall, Wakefield finished 5th in the Middlesex League with a whopping 248 points.
“It was an unreal meet,” said McCormack. “We did even better than expected. But the times that they posted, the way they dropped time and came together as a team was unbelievable.”
With the major success under the team’s belt, they will now face down Sectionals and States.
McCormack is optimistic about the future.
“After today, I’m expecting to see more drops in time because they got so excited about how well they are going to do,” said the coach. “I think there are going to be some State cut times made at Sectionals.”
The Sectionals Meet takes place on Sunday at MIT.
