Well, it’s Sunday, and you know what that means. It’s time for the Sports Watch, the fastest three minutes in Weston Sports coming your way right now:
We start with girls track, where the Wildcats sparkled with an eighth place finish out of 39 teams at the Division 4 State Track and Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center.
Sophomore Abigail Pohl and junior Olivia Brackett were the big winners for Weston, crossing first and second, respectively, in the one mile run. Pohl won the event with a stunning time of 5:08.30, while Brackett followed at 5:11.27. Sophomore Edom Wessenyeleh also contributed with a time of 5:43.48
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Junior Julia Kee and senior Emeilia Barron also shined for Weston. Kee finished the 55 meter dash in 10th place out of 24 entries in a time of 7.78. Barron placed 13th in 7.79.
Barron also finished 12th of 23 in the long jump with a leap of 14 ft., 10 inches.
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As a team, Weston finished with 22 points. Old Rochester won the event with 40 points, while Bromfield finished second with 38. Coyle-Cassidy and Narragansett finished third and fourth with 36 and 32 points, respectively, while Hamilton-Wenham and Lunenberg tied for fifth with 24.
For the boys track team, sophomore Matt Herzig led the day for Weston with a solid seventh place finish in the two mile run. Herzig finished in 10:10.67. Junior David Freeman followed in 15th place for the Wildcats in a time of 10:23.75.
Senior Connor Mahoney finished the 1000 meter in ninth place in 2:46.75. Sophomore Craig Shytle placed ninth in the long jump with a leap of 19 ft., 2.75 inches, while senior Spencer Shea finished 11th with a jump of 19 ft., 2 inches. Junior Jorge Castro also contributed with a leap of 17 ft., 10 inches.
Shea and senior Nicky Packs placed 13th and 14th in the 300 meter in times of 37.89 and 37.91, respectively.
And everything is cool in the pool. Junior standout Bianca Tocci was the big winner for the Weston girls swim team at the Division 2 Girls’ State Meet. Tocci won both the 50 and 100 freestyles in times of 24.16 and 52.08, respectively.
Senior Dale Ziobro also had a strong outing, placing fifth in the one meter diving event with a score of 366.
As a team, Weston finished in fifth place with a score of 122, behind Marblehead (229), Wayland (223.5), Duxbury (128), and East Longmeadow (124). Rounding out the top 10 were Holyoke Catholic (92), Northampton (55), Bedford (54), Nauset (49), and Belchertown (42).
Well, the Weston boys swim team is on par with the Celtics in the NBA, the Canadians in the NHL, and the Yankees in MLB, with 18 of the last 22 Division 2 state titles going into the Wildcats' trophy case.
In 2010-11, there is a new King.
King Philip secured their first Division 2 State Swimming Championship in the school’s history with a 178-172 win over Weston Saturday night at Blodgett Pool on the campus of Harvard University.
Weston led by two, 148-146, going into the 12th and final event. But the Wildcats (Ian Delaney, Sam Cekela, Ryan Burrow, Tommy Peacher) placed third in the 400 Freestyle while the Warriors took the top spot with Ryan Palmer, Chris Digiacomo, Kyle Viera, and Patrick Myers placing first overall with a 3:17.33 to allow King Philip to catapult into first place.
The Warriors’ program is only three years old so the victory is that much more impressive over the Wildcats’ juggernaut. Concord Carlisle (111) pulled down the bronze, while two-time defending Division 2 state champion – and cross-town rival - Wayland settled for fourth place with an overall score of 94.
“Oh, it’s huge”, said King Philip head coach, Heather Tomassian, when asked how it felt about defeating Weston in the final heat. “Weston, for 25 years, has been top dog and it was amazing to come in and do as well as we did.”
Hall of Fame head coach Claude Valle, in his fourth year at Weston and 29th as a high school swim coach, applauded his young team but tipped his capped to the new champ in the locker room.
“We knew we had to have a lead going into that last relay but we swam our hearts out and (King Philip) just out swam us”, said Valle. “King Philip is surely a deserving champion.”
King Philip was anchored by Myers, as the University of North Carolina-bound senior knocked down two meet records in the 100 Butterfly and the 100 backstroke. The All-American knocked down a 30-year record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 49.31, besting Norm Shippert’s record of 50.82 from 1981 in the sixth event of the night and then followed it up in Event 10 with a time of 49.68 in the 100-yard backstroke taking down Sal Barba’s (St. John’s Shrewsbury) 50.70 from 2004.
But more importantly, Myers outdistanced Weston’s Tommy Peacher in the final leg of the 400 Freestyle and raised his hand triumphantly in his final season with the Warriors.
“You put him in the water and you have a trump card like that at the end is why he is there,” said Valle. “For (King Philip), without a big lead – (Myers) was able to dominate.”
Weston was poised to pull away as the Wildcats won the 200-yard Freestyle in Event 9 with Jack Blyzinskyj, Tyler Lewtan, Delaney, and Peacher as the anchor with a time of 1:28.55. But after Myers snapped his second meet record in Event 10 to keep King Philip in the hunt, Peacher’s brother Nick, the senior captain and emotional leader for the Wildcats, had to follow and placed a respectable fifth overall in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.08 to keep things in Weston's favor.
“We swam way over what we should have swam today and I give all the credit in the world to Nick Peacher,” said Valle. “He gave one of the best inspirational speeches I ever heard on the bus and we gave it all we could.”
Sean O’Brien of Concord-Carlisle smashed his own 1-meter diving state and meet record with an overall score of 639.65, but Myers - especially in the last leg of the fifth and final heat, was the story of the meet.
“(Myers) wanted it so bad for this team and him and his mom were so integral in getting this program started from the beginning,” added Tomassian. “He loved this team, he worked so hard for them, so I’m glad to see him come in because he knew if we were close in that last leg it was going to work out.”
Brian Fabry contributed to this report.
