Div. 2 Girls Swimming:
Four, and counting,
for Wayland
By Justin A. Rice/Daily News correspondent
"Winning a state title is a true testament to the team and how far they've come all year," Wayland coach Mike Foley said from the deck of Harvard's Blodgett Pool, a day after Wayland's boys accomplished the same feat, "but that relay is something they worked so hard for. It is just four girls that love to swim on that relay so I'm just so proud of their accomplishment, getting that little extra goal for our program today."
Last weekend at the North Sectional meet at MIT, Wayland lost in the same event to L-S by two-tenths of a second as its league foe set the state record (1:38.06). Yesterday, Wayland smashed that mark with a time of 1:37.02 on its way to scoring 308 points to take the team title, 114 more points than its nearest competitor, Weston.
Foley said he knew his relay team - consisting of junior Emily Wright, sophomore Emily Downs, sophomore Michelle Cunningham and senior Olivia Blahut - was well rested and had a chance to break the record.
But Blahut said the biggest X-factor was that there was no carrot to chase without L-S, which swam in the Division 1 meet yesterday afternoon in the same pool.
"The whole time we were nervous and just pretended we had someone ahead of us and we had to out-touch them," said Blahut, who also won the 200 freestyle in 1:57.46, ahead of Weston senior Shelby Friel (1:57.19).
Weston coach Claude Valle said Wayland breaking a state record without a formidable foe in the pool was an impressive accomplishment.
"It's tough, you have to be really self motivated," he said. "You have to race to win because you could easily back off when you're that far ahead. You have to keep pressing and pressing. That's what makes it so impressive to do that."
Wearing matching pink shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Flip that Crazy Switch" on the front and "Movin' & Grovin' All Winter Long," on the back, Weston once again played the bridesmaid yesterday. The team was second to Wayland for the fourth straight year. Valle, who took over Weston's program from Pete Foley - Mike's father - after serving as an assistant for 20 years, estimated that Weston also finished second at the meet the last 10 or 12 years as well.
"I was Mike's math teacher back in the day," the second-year head coach said. "We feel like when we get beat by Wayland we know we got beat by a quality team that does things the right way. That doesn't take anything away from what we've done this year. But they swam great today."
Valle credited his senior captains (Friel, Cale Potter and Turner Skenderian) for holding the team together after it graduated a formidable group of seniors last year.
"Those three girls made it happen," Valle said. "We graduated 12 section qualifiers from last year and those girls made it a mission for their team not to let our team fall off and they sure made it happen."
Besides her second-place 200 free finish, Friel was also third in the 100 butterfly with a time of 59.94. Potter scored three points in the backstroke and was on the fourth-place 400 freestyle relay team (3:45.97). Skenderian was sixth in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 25.54. She also anchored the 200 yard freestyle team (1:50.85) that finished second to Wayland (1:50.31) and kicked off the 200 free relay team (1:41.38) that finished second behind Wayland's record-setting time.
The first leg of that race was swum by Weston freshman Maddie Pierce.
"You could tell the whole time that ever since sectionals they were after Lincoln-Sudbury and wanted that record," said Pierce, who was also second in the 200 IM with a time of 2:14.25 and second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:01.53.
Pierce said Weston will surly reload to do battle again with Wayland.
"We're coming after them," she said. "We're getting a lot of great additions in the next couple of years and we're ready to go."
But nothing could've stopped Wayland yesterday as its also won the 400 freestyle relay in 1:09.98 and Kristen Hehir took home the diving title with a final score of 409.40.
"It just gets better and better every year, which is crazy because it gets harder every year and we outdo ourselves," said senior captain Leah Jacques, who got a personal best in the 100 freestyle (55.71, eighth place).
"To do it once is hard enough, four in a row is incredible," Blahut said. "The first time no one really looked at us to win. As the years went on the targets on our back has grown. We just try to keep in mind how hard we work. It's gone pretty well."
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