WORCESTER – Acton-Boxboro ladies’ swim coach Gretchen Turner knew coming into Sunday’s North sectional Swimming and Diving Championships at Worcester Polytechnic Institute that her staff won’t win a ton of occasions. Instead, it was the Colonials’ depth that she figured would repay in spades.
It did. The Colonials solely took one first-place end, mockingly within the opening occasion of the meet. But it was their depth that confirmed off within the later portion of the meet as they racked up high eight end after high eight end. It added as much as 321.5 factors, simply outdistancing second-place Andover (269), to say a second consecutive North title. Winchester and Lexington tied for third.
“It was the same thing for us last year,” Turner mentioned. “We couldn’t put up the points like some of the teams did in the relays but our depth came through for us. Everyone did what they needed to do for us to win.”
With meet and state information being rewritten all day lengthy, A-B saved plodding alongside and selecting up factors the place it might. Even nonetheless, with two particular person occasions and a remaining relay left to go, the Colonials solely held a 3.5-point lead over Andover coming into the 100 yard backstroke.
It was there the place A-B lastly was capable of open up some desperately wanted respiration room. Sophomore Caroline Tyrrell’s second-place end together with a fourth from Chelsea Zhou and a fifth by Katie Baxter resulted in 46 factors in comparison with Andover’s three which finally proved to be the majority of the distinction within the two groups rating’s at meet’s finish.
“We really are a back half of the meet kind of team with the backstroke and breaststroke,” Turner mentioned. “And we used that really well in that event to get some breathing room.”
On the person aspect of the ledger, it was a memorable day for 3 swimmers particularly.
Reading senior Anna Boemer put the gang on its ear together with her efficiency within the 100 yard butterfly as her successful time of 53.46 seconds was some 9 seconds higher than second place Lauren Jolley from Lexington. Boemer’s time set not solely a meet report however erased Rachel Moore’s 53.56 second time from 2012 because the state’s finest ever within the occasion.
Another report setting efficiency got here from Andover’s Michaela Chokureva within the 100 freestyle as her time of fifty.15 broke Moore’s meet report and was simply .06 away from matching her personal state report from 2019. She additionally crushed the sphere within the 200 particular person medley with a 2:04.56.
Winchester’s Elle Michaud was the gap queen on this present day as she gained the 200 free in 1:55.92 after which put in a Katie Ledecky-esque efficiency within the 500 free as she practically lapped the sphere en path to a successful time of 5:10.82.
In the boys staff competitors, Billerica received a robust problem from Merrimack Valley Conference rival Methuen however the Indians have been capable of come away with a 282 level complete, adequate to finest the Rangers rating of 248.
Billerica’s efforts on Sunday have been led by senior Craig Florino and junior Gabriel Flores, who mixed to win 4 particular person occasions and have been part of the successful 200 IM and 400 free relays.
Florino set a meet report together with his 49.71 second swim in successful the 100 free. He additionally took first with a commanding 1:51.88 within the 200 free. Flores, in the meantime, took first within the 100 butterfly (58.09) and 100 backstroke (1:01.88).
Methuen’s Matthew Joy additionally had two wins on the day. He set a brand new meet report of 5:10.42 within the 500 free and in addition took first within the 200 IM.
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