The boys’ and girls’ swim teams defeated Saugus High School with respective scores of 134-49 and 126-57 on April 13. This win improved the boys’ overall record to 4-1 and brings the girls’ undefeated streak to 5-0.
However, since Saugus High School is not a member of the Mission League, the win did not contribute to the teams’ league record.
The meet was also senior night, beginning with a ceremony where the boys’ team’s four upperclassmen were honored with flowers and pictures taken with their parents. However, there are no seniors on the girls’ team this season.
Both teams defeated Saugus in critical relays, which are worth more points than individual events, putting the Wolverines ahead very early in the meet.
However, despite the early domination, the team showed a lack of enthusiasm, something team captain Paul Leclerc ’18 says they can improve on as a whole.
“I know it’s a smaller meet, so people aren’t as impressive because the outcome usually doesn’t matter as much, and it is usually pretty clear cut whether it’s gonna be a win or loss,” he said.
Both teams are preparing for the upcoming Mission League Championship meet on April 23 and 24, with select swimmers potentially moving on to CIF prelims, finals and state championship meets in May.
Last year, the girls’ team won Mission League, with the boys’ team coming in second place behind Loyola. Even so, both teams continue to focus on improving.
“We’ve already had some really fast swims this season,” Mila Fejzo ‘19 said. “I think the goal is to keep improving because we’ve already set the bar so high.”
In the absence of a large senior presence on the team, Jameson McMullen ’19, Adam Copses ’20, Eve Hookstratten ’20 and Fejzo have emerged as leaders and major point scorers. According to Leclerc, they have been tantamount to the team’s success.
“The season is going great,” Leclerc said. “We have a pretty young team with a lot of sophomores. I wasn’t really sure coming into the season how it was going to pan out with the team being so young, but over the season everyone has developed pretty amazingly.”
In addition to their regular season successes, the boys’ team is also in the hunt for a top-10 finish at the CIF State Championship meet, where last year they ended in 12th place. The team plans to rely on their under-appreciated diving squad to help them accomplish this goal, as the points earned by the divers combine with the swimmers to produce a final score, and points from a strong diving team can make a difference in the outcome of a meet.
“We need to keep going to practice and maybe get a good taper in and rest up before CIF,” Marcus Leher ’18 said. “Something that’s not mentioned a lot is our diving, which is really important. Will Rains ‘19 is an absolute beast, and hopefully this year he’ll do really [well] for us and that will help propel us forward.”
While Rains, the school record holder in 1M diving, was injured last year during the CIF State meet, he is expected to be back for this year’s final meets.
Both teams will travel to Alemany High School for the final league meet of the season April 17.
