Wayland builds tradition
Winning is looking to become the new tradition for the Wayland boys swim team.
One year after capturing their first ever sectional, the Warriors are back on top, as they took home their second straight North title at MIT yesterday.
“It’s really a lot of the work that goes in all season long,” Warriors coach Mike Foley said. “And today, once again, it was the depth of our program that fortunately allowed us to kind of pull ahead of St. John’s (Prep) a little bit as the meet just rolled on. Because they are obviously a phenomenal team, and we knew they were going to be a lot better than their seeds, than they looked on paper. So we just had to challenge the guys, that we’ve got to get up and perform the way we did here last year. Because no one’s going to hand us anything just because we won a year ago. It’s a new year, it’s a new team, so let’s go see if we can do it again.”
The Warriors were powered by sophomore Jiming Xu, who took first place honors in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 58.61 seconds. Senior Nick Smith also proved to be a standout, helping Wayland to first place finishes in the 200 medley (1:37.23) and 200 freestyle (1:28.91) relays, while taking second as an individual in the 50 freestyle (21.90) and third at the 100 freestyle (49.05).
St. John’s Prep was carried to a second-place finish by Mitchell Lockwood, who finished the day a double winner by taking the crown in both the 50 freestyle (21.45) and 100 freestyle (46.97) races. He would also anchor the Eagles to a victory in the 400 freestyle relay (3:17.80).
“I just wanted to swim fast,” Lockwood said. “I’m here to race. Our team, we compete for each other. We work together. We fight everyday. And I thought we did great today, even though we came in second overall. But I’m happy with our team.”
As for other individual performers who went on to make noise at MIT, Scott Spear would place first in two events for Reading. The sophomore star won the 500 freestyle (4:43.04), as well as the 200 freestyle (1:42.42).
While no records were broken, history was still made at the Zesiger Fitness Center. Although Christian Kinnon was a three-time winner on the statewide circuit, he surprisingly never managed to win an event at sectionals for Mystic Valley. Jake Williams became the first in program history to do so, winning the 100 butterfly with an impressive time of 51.95 seconds, barely edging out Malden senior Kevin Ochoa.