Wellesley win streak survives co-ed Milton
Wellesley 99
Milton 87
CANTON — In a six-year perfect run in Bay State Conference pools, featuring 70 consecutive victories, the Wellesley girls’ swimming & diving team has met all challenges. The three-time defending Division 2 state champions have weathered every test in sectional and championship meets.
Friday’s conference meet against an unbeaten and improved Milton squad at Blue Hills Regional offered a unique twist. The Wildcat roster lists 12 girls and 10 boys, a conference-approved swimming co-ed when a school is unable to field a team with just one gender, which also is in use at BSC members Braintree, Walpole, and Weymouth.
But Wellesley pushed through the test with power and efficiency, pulling away for a 99-87 victory, the program’s 71st straight. Alexandra Loo clinched the win with a first-place finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.39), and Anna McGrew delivered key points — and a career best — in the 100 butterfly (1:00.59), plus a secondplace finish in the 200 freestyle (1:58.54).
McGrew and Loo both competed on Wellesley’s winning 200 free relay (1:41.51), along with Tracey Peng and Elaine Cheng. Divers Julia Harding (186 points) and Sarah Ginsberg (180) placed first and second, respectively, for the Raiders.
“We just had to control what we could control, and go out and race,” said Wellesley coach Doug Curtin. “In the grand scheme of victories, it’s a good one and we’re really proud of the way the girls pushed themselves, swam really hard, and continued a good streak.”
Statewide, boys’ swim teams compete in the winter season. The BSC, along with the Merrimack Valley Conference and a few others, field girls’ teams in the fall. The rest compete in the winter. Wellesley, along with fellow BSC members Brookline, Framingham, Natick, Needham, and Newton North, fields a boys’ team in the winter season.
“Do we wish it was all girls [on Milton]? Of course we do, but it’s not,” said Wellesley athletic director John Brown on Thursday, in advance of the meet. “Is it a competitive advantage to have boys against girls? I don’t think there’s any doubt. I think that’s a proven fact.”
Milton AD Michael Bierwirth said his school is just following league guidelines.
“Any time we put on a high school event, it’s not really about the wins and losses, it’s about the experience for the student athletes,” he said Thursday.
“I think that the league recommendations worked in the end,” said Milton coach Jessica Gillooly. “It’s great competition. [Facing Wellesley] pushed a lot of our swimmers.”
Brown has proposed in the past that Milton and the three other schools — Walpole, Braintree, and Weymouth — form a four-school co-op that would field a girls’ swim team in the fall and a boys’ team in the winter. The idea has not advanced.
Brown noted “we don’t hold anything against the Milton team or the boys that are on that team — it’s the situation that they’ve been dealt.”
“I’m really just proud of the way that the girls carry themselves in the pool,” Curtin added. “We have a great group of kids that take care of business in and out of the pool.”