CAMBRIDGE – The Weston swim program used to dominate Div. 2 till their neighbor Wayland rattled off 4 state championships in a row.
The pool sharks are again.
The Wildcats lastly knocked Wayland off the pedestal final season after their superfecta of state title victories and continued their dominance this yr.
Weston outpaced the sphere by greater than triple digits with 326 factors to seize back-to-back Div. 2 Swimming and Diving State Championships at Zesiger Sports Center on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Their current nemesis, Wayland, completed a distant second with 213 factors as Weston swept the relays, additionally, for the second yr in a row.
“I thought we had a chance coming into (the state tournament) to win but I had no idea we would swim like we did. It’s very rare that you have a meet like this where it just clicks for just about everyone,” mentioned head coach Jim McLaughlin. “After winning that medley relay – which we were not sure about at all, and then the two free, we won that – really did build momentum.”
The snowball impact of win after win started with the 200-yard medley relay as Nico Frangioni, Nate Whitworth, Evan Hoaglund, and Austin Chiocca picked up the first-place victory to begin issues off and Weston by no means regarded again.
Max Nelson (200 free) and Hoaglund (50 free) adopted up as Weston jumped out to a 115-to-66 lead after three occasions over their closest competitor on the time, Mystic Valley Regional Charter.
Nelson wasn’t completed for the Wildcats taking the highest spot in all 4 occasions he entered. The Babson-bound senior scored the highest spot on the rostrum within the 100-yard butterfly in addition to one of many legs of the ultimate two relays of the meet within the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle.
In truth, Nelson mixed with Frangioni, Hoaglund, and fellow senior Nick Cross to set a brand new meet document of 1.25.60 within the 200 freestyle, initially held by the 2014 Wildcats squad, however simply lacking out on the state document of 1.25.15 set in 2016 by Westford.
“This (win) means a lot, this is my second year on this team, and I’ve had a great time swimming with these guys,” mentioned Nelson. “We had a crazy crew of seniors last year that we lost. At the start of the season ,we were unsure if we were going to be able to win this meet, but thanks to our great coaches we all got a lot faster and dropped some great times.”
McLaughlin was all smiles all through and credited the 5 seniors he misplaced in this system in 2021-22 as they set the tone to convey the Wildcats again to prominence and the winner’s circle.
“Last year we had one of the best classes we’ve ever had graduate so we were looking at this year thinking, ‘Boy, we’re going to have a lot of work to do’,” mentioned McLaughlin. “And for these guys – they are amazing leaders – and to do what we did (here) and finish like we did is incredible.”
Mystic Valley Regional Charter (176), Longmeadow (149), and Duxbury (132) rounded out the highest 5 groups within the last outcomes.
Source: www.bostonherald.com