Division 2 boys swimming: Weston back on top
CAMBRIDGE >> The Weston swim program used to dominate Div. 2 until their neighbor Wayland rattled off four state championships in a row.
The pool sharks are back. The Wildcats finally knocked Wayland off the pedestal last season after their superfecta of state title victories and continued their dominance this year.
Weston outpaced the field by more than triple digits with 326 points to grab back-to-back Div. 2 Swimming and Diving State Championships at Zesiger Sports Center on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Their recent nemesis, Wayland, finished a distant second with 213 points as Weston swept the relays, also, for the second year 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,” said 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 effect of win after win began with the 200-yard medley relay as Nico Frangioni, Nate Whitworth, Evan Hoaglund, and Austin Chiocca picked up the first-place victory to start things off and Weston never looked back.
Max Nelson (200 free) and Hoaglund (50 free) followed up as Weston jumped out to a 115-to-66 lead after three events over their closest competitor at the time, Mystic Valley Regional Charter.
Nelson wasn’t finished for the Wildcats taking the top spot in all four events he entered. The Babson-bound senior scored the top spot on the podium in the 100yard butterfly as well as one of the legs of the final two relays of the meet in the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle.
In fact, Nelson combined with Frangioni, Hoaglund, and fellow senior Nick Cross to set a new meet record of 1.25.60 in the 200 freestyle, originally held by the 2014 Wildcats squad, but just missing out on the state record 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,” said 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 throughout and credited the five seniors he lost in the program in 202122 as they set the tone to bring the Wildcats back 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’,” said 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 top five teams in the final results.