Girls' Swim Team Blasts Through Varsity Record

Editor's note: This article came from the Weston High School Athletic Department.

The Weston Girls and Boys Swimming and Diving programs had a fabulous finish to the regular season, and a strong start to the championship season, last week.  Competition was highlighted by a pair of pool records, and one varsity record, on the girls’ side, in a 98-80 victory against Tyngsborough-Groton-Dunstable.

Early last week, the girls’ squad set their sights on the pool record of 1:40.61 in the 200-yard freestyle relay.  On best splits, the 2011 GLOWS were approximately one-second off the mark, and hoped for a big swim by the foursome of Captain Seena Potter, rookie Victoria Bryson, Captain Cheryl Lang, and junior Bianca Tocci.  With hopes high and teammates lining the sides of the pool, the quartet blasted their way to an astonishing 1:38.89 clocking in the event, setting a new best-ever swim for the Weston facility.  For several minutes, the Weston girls celebrated the new standard, then something completely unexpected became obvious; the GLOWS had just established a new varsity mark in the race.

 “The varsity record was a complete surprise – not even on our radar screen,” said Head Coach Claude Valle, after the meet.  “It was so far away from what we were expecting that it took a few minutes for us to realize what just happened.  Easily, it was the most shocking record in team history.”  For senior captains Lang and Potter, it was a fitting finale to their dual meet careers.  “I’ve been involved in a few of these (record setting performances),” said Lang, “but this is easily the most surprising.”  The new mark is just two-tenths of a second off the All-America consideration cut.

Just four events earlier, a classmate of Lang and Potter, fellow Tri-captain Dale Ziobro, set a pool record of her own.  In the one-meter diving, the senior performed an 11-dive program (the normal dual meet format calls for a six-dive performance.)  Diving unofficially and performing two dives to her opponents’ one, the senior totaled 376.15 points.  Her score barely eclipsed the oldest mark on the Weston record board – 375.75 points by Jan Watkins, in 1982.  “I’m very happy for Dale,” said first-year Diving Coach Luke Henesy, “she’s a hard worker, great leader, and very deserving.”

Other winners in the Tyngsborough meet for the GLOWS included Potter in the 50 free, junior Eliza Robson in the standard, 6-dive diving format, Tocci in the 100 free, and sophomore Katie Kim in the 100 back.  Potter’s victory gave her 1,000 career points; just the 11^th girl in team history to achieve the feat.  The win gave the GLOWS an 11-3 record (6-3 in the DCL) on the year.

 For the boys, there were nine different athletes that took first place in nine individual events, en route to a 96-67 DCL win over Tyngsborough.  The victors included seniors Jonny Greb (first varsity win) and Nick Peacher, juniors Tommy Fitzgerald (a sectional cut) and Tyler Lewtan, sophomores Jack Blyzinskyj, Ryan Burrow, Jamie Packs, and Tommy Peacher, and freshman Dan Spellman.  The win gave The Tide a 14-1 regular season record; 10-1 in DCL competition.

 Late in the week, both squads took part in the DCL championships, at Atkinson Pool, in Sudbury.  For the boys on Friday, Weston’s divers led the way as Packs (4^th), senior Will Brewer (5^th), and junior Kian Nowrouzi (10^th) led the way in out-scoring the rest of the league in the competition.  Weston’s other big event proved to be the 100 freestyle as sophomores Blyzinskyj (4^th) and Ian Delaney (5^th) combined with senior Ryan Szeto (10^th) and freshman Sam Cekala (15^th), got Weston’s top-scoring race of the meet.  Other individual place-winners for The Tide included senior Nick Peacher, juniors Tommy Fitzgerald and Lewtan, sophomores Burrow, Tommy Peacher and Geoffrey Pendergast, and freshman Dan Spellman.

 Weston’s lone victory came in the 200-yard freestyle relay.  The quartet of Blyzinskyj (22.97), Lewtan (22.92), Burrow (23.09), and Tommy Peacher (22.68), combined for a 1:31.66, first-place clocking.  In the end, Weston took 2^nd overall at the meet, behind Division I foe Lincoln-Sudbury.

 For the GLOWS, junior Bianca Tocci led the way taking the league title in the 100 butterfly (58.41) and swimming to a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle (24.75).  Tocci also combined with Lang, Kim, and Bryson for Weston’s highest relay finish – a 3^rd – in the 200-yard freestyle relay.  Other individual place-winners in swimming events for the GLOWS included the senior Potter, juniors Laura Beaudry and Stephanie Palocz, and freshmen Bryson, Anna Neufeld, and Hart Rippe.  The GLOWS’ divers also fared well, taking 6^th (Ziobro), 13^th (sophomore Camille Casey), and 14^th (Robson) in the one-meter event.  Their event total was second-best in the competition to Concord-Carlisle.  Weston’s female meet total of 257 points was good for fourth, just four points ahead of C-C.

 Both teams will be back in action, at MIT, later this week.  The boys will take part in the MIAA North Sectional Championship on Saturday, while the girls will compete Sunday.  Both meets will begin at 9am.