THE WAKEFIELD HIGH girls’ swim team celebrates their 87-82 win over Stoneham on Oct. 6. Wakefield hosts Woburn at Malden High on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. (WMHS Athletics Photo)
By DAN BYRNE
MALDEN— When we last updated you on the WMHS girls varsity swim team season they were coming off a pair of losses to Arlington/Watertown and Winchester.
Their latest two meets were against Lexington and against Stoneham.
A few weeks ago, the Warriors faced a large and talented Lexington team that saw the Warriors pose little threat to claim victory.
Last week, they came up against a much more equal opponent in Stoneham, with the Warriors putting in a gutsy performance to pull through and come away with the victory.
Recently, Warriors’ head coach Kathy Byrne sat down to discuss the team’s most recent meets.
“We knew Lexington would be tough because their team is huge and very talented, so we just had to look at our times and where we can improve,” she began, talking her philosophy when facing an opponent such as Lexington.
“We put our best foot forward considering we had 14 or 15 girls and they had 40,” she continued. “We had some good swims, our 400 Freestyle Relay did their best time, which qualified them for States.”
Byrne mentioned that the relay has qualified for Sectional in a previous meet.
Grace McHugh, Laila Atoui, Lucy Wagner and Audrey Cook swam a time of 4:10.66 to qualify for the postseason.
“Now we have all three relays qualified for both meets, which is exciting,” the coach added. “Then we went into Stoneham knowing we were pretty well-matched, however they do have boys on the team and that always makes it a little more challenging, especially getting ready the girls who aren’t used to swimming against boys. We talked a lot about what the outcome could be and we decided to forget that there were boys and just do our very best to try to come out on top, let’s swim our hardest.
“Of course, the meet was away at Medford so some girls had never swam there before, but we beat them overall with some very good times,” Byrne continued. “Grace McHugh and first year senior Sam Marshall are finding their way as is Leila Atoui.Audrey Cook is a standout in every race she swims, she puts her heart and soul in and is a great example for the rest of the team, and she’s only a sophomore,” raved coach Byrne.
“To come out with a win was great for the team, we were very happy to celebrate,” Byrne admitted. “The important thing is they all pulled together, got into their personal zones, and did the best they could.”
The Warriors placed 1st in the Medley Relay, the 200 Free, the 50 Free, the 500, and 200 Freestyle relay, and the backstroke and the breaststroke.
“The girls were very focused on gaining points for the team and they did,” said Byrne. Against Stoneham, the Warriors had only 4 sixth place finishes out of the 11 events.
“They’re doing alright considering we’re so small, having two wins under our belt is something we’re very proud of,” said coach Byrne.
The Warriors fell to Belmont on Wednesday. Next Wednesday, the team hosts Woburn at Malden High, 5:30 p.m.
