Grey Ghosts arefourreal
Following last week’s North sectional title performance, Westford Academy swimming coach Caitlin KlickMcHugh knew her team was ready to defend its state title.
DIV. 1 SWIMMING
Yesterday at Boston University, the Grey Ghosts justified that confidence by racing to another convincing victory, this time amassing 439.50 points to take their fourth consecutive Division 1 state title and sixth over the last seven seasons.
For seniors Ada Ferrick, Anika Svoboda, Samantha Blanc and Jessica Leong winning has become the norm as the quartet helped launch the program into new heights, never losing as much as a regular-season meet throughout the dynastic four-year run.
“We haven’t had a class do that so I’m really proud of all of the girls, and especially the seniors,” Klick-McHugh said of the unbeaten streak. “That has never happened in our program’s history so for them to cap that off with a win today is unbelievable to me.
“We are losing a lot of talent, a lot of personality and just some great leaders. All of them contributed today and they really just set the tone for the whole team.”
After three events, the Grey Ghosts already had full control of the leaderboard with 125.5 points as sophomore Madison Leong became the team’s first topthree individual finisher with a third place mark of 2:11.40 in the 200 individual medley.
Westford followed it up by stringing together back-toback second place finishes when Julia Tracanna and Michaela Martin each earned a spot on the podium in the 50 freestyle (24.25) and 100 butterfly (57.16), respectively.
In the 100 backstroke, the Grey Ghosts notched another top-three finish when Amy Jiang raced to second (58.28). The team rounded out its individual podium efforts in the one-meter diving as Blanc finished second with 509 points.
In the relays, Westford again showed its depth is hard to match with a clean sweep in the team events. The Grey Ghosts won the 200 medley, the first event of the day, in 1:47.18.
In the 200 freestyle, the group of Svoboda, Ferrick, Kate Edison and Tracanna set a meet standard with their time of 1:37.34 — nearly five seconds ahead of the second place squad.
The Grey Ghosts wrapped up the day with their third relay win, coasting to the top spot in the 400 freestyle with a time of 3:36.41.
“No individual winners and three relays and they were able to pull off a convincing win,” Klick-McHugh said. “It really shows how much of a team sport swimming is and what a great team these girls are when they combine.”
Individually, Triton’s Maggie Summit fulfilled her goal of breaking a state record in her final high school meet as she set the new bar for the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.30.
The Minnesota bound senior became the meet’s first double winner when she clipped the field by more than two seconds to take the 100 freestyle (50.88).
“That was a great way to end my high school season,” Summit said. “It is bittersweet for this to be the end but I’m really proud of how I did today and proud of how well our team did placing fourth. It was a great way to end it.”