Weston Swimming: Girls Set Two State Records

Editor's note: Submitted by the Weston Athletic Department.

In one of the most memorable days in team history, the Weston girls blasted their way to one freshman, three school, three sectional, and two state records last weekend at the North Sectional Swimming and Diving Championships, at MIT. From start to finish, Weston’s girl relays dominated the competition, as the Weston raced to a third-place overall team finish in a field of more than 30 schools.

In the opening medley relay, the team of backstroker Bianca Tocci (26.98), breaststroker Maddie Pierce (30.89), butterflyer Julimar Avila (25.12), and freestyler Victoria Bryson (23.51) stormed their way to a winning time of 1:46.52. The clocking destroyed the school record of 1:50.06, and broke the state record of 1:47.58 by over a second. It was Weston’s first girls’ relay state mark. A little over an hour later, the same foursome broke another state mark – the 200 freestyle relay best of 1:37.02 – by over a second with a time of 1:35.64. This time, it was Avila leading off (24.24), followed by Bryson (23.91), Pierce (24.06), and Tocci (23.42). The quartet closed their record-setting afternoon with respective splits of 52.62, 52.93, 53.21, and 51.67 to set a new school and sectional record of 3:30.37.

“I can honestly say, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Head Coach Claude Valle. “We set some pretty high goals for ourselves, and achieved or surpassed every one of them.” Assuring that diving was well represented on this day of records, freshman diver Mikaela Thompson set a new 11-dive standard in the one-meter event of 371.65. Her score broke the previous mark of 358.40, set by Kelly Ferro, in 1992.

Other strong performances were submitted by seniors Laura Beaudry (a seasonal best in distance freestyle), Julia Meehan (a pair of bests in fly and back), Stephanie Palocz (a lifetime best in backstroke), and Eliza Robson (first time scoring in the diving), juniors Camille Casey (a best total in diving) and Katie Kim (a PR in the butterfly), sophomore Anna Neufeld (a pair of best times in middle distance free), and freshman Nicole Davenport (a shocking four-second drop and state-qualifying time in IM). Every girl that swam in the meet for Weston recorded at least one lifetime best performance.

One day later, the boys traveled to MIT’s Zesiger Center to race in their North Sectional meet. As with the girls, every boy making the journey posted at least one lifetime best. The meet was highlighted by Ryan Burrow becoming just the 5th boy in Weston history to crack the 2:00-barrier in the individual medley. His time of 1:59.75 moved him into that number five slot behind such former stars as Eric Nilsson (’06), Stuart Butts (’08), Niles Madison (’01), and Vijay Lathi (’90).

Not to be outdone, classmate Tommy Peacher also moved into a number five slot of his own – on the all-time 200 freestyle list. His 1:45.69-clocking ranks behind only Nilsson, Butts, Graham Frankel (’08), and Brian Kelly (’04) for Weston. A third star for Weston – senior Tyler Lewtan – also looked good in
the meet. The captain currently holds the number three all-time swim for The Tide in the 100 butterfly behind Nilsson, and Chris Rossborough (’08).

Also making a fine showing for Weston were seniors Tommy Fitzgerald (a key lead-off backstroke swim in the medley relay) and Kian Nowrouzi (a top-16 performance in diving), juniors Ian Delaney (lifetime best time in the 50 and 100 free) and Jamie Packs (a top-8 placing in the diving), sophomores Sam Cekala (a pair of bests in sprint free) and Jamie Noonan (a lifetime best swim in breaststroke), and freshmen Alan Blaesser (a state-qualifying backstroke swim) and Spencer Clough (a solid performance in diving).

The team will close out their season this coming weekend at Harvard in the state championships. The boys will swim Saturday at 7 p.m. and the girls will close the year out on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.