After a rare miss of the state championship last year, the girls of Andover High School got back on top in 2014, winning their 14th Division 1 title in the past 16 years.
Andover did it by winning just one individual race in an exciting meet where multiple events came down to touchouts. That win came from Alison Murtagh in the 500 free.
In Division 2, for the state’s smaller schools, Bishop Feehan took home the team win, led by a state record in diving from Hannah Phelan.
Results:
Division 1 Meet (big schools)
Andover’s lone win came via Alison Murtagh in the 500 free. Murtagh put together a gutsy race, going out fast and barely hanging on for the win in 5:07.88. Less than a tenth behind and closing fast at the finish was Sarah McEachern out of Newton North, who went 5:07.96.
Newton North took third as a team, but claimed the top of the podium for much of the meet. North won three individual races plus one relay in addition to McEachern’s near-win in the 500.
Amanda Graf was the heavy lifter, taking home state titles in the 200 IM and 100 back. The IM was another nailbiter of a finish, as Graf came from behind to beat New Bedford’s Kyleigh Barao 2:09.57 to 2:09.68. Graf came back to go 58.03 to win the 100 back.
Also winning for Newton North: Serena Ly, who paced the 100 breast in 1:08.05. Graf and Ly also made up the front-half of the winning 200 medley relay, joining with Logan Gallagher and McEachern to go 1:50.05, a new Division 1 state record.
Both of the runners-up in Graf’s races went on to win state titles of their own. Barao, second in the IM touchout, won a 100 fly race that was even closer. Her 59.94 just topped the 59.99 from Acton Boxborough’s Peggy Flanagan. Meanwhile 100 back runner-up Maddie Biron won the 50 free for Franingham, going 24.78.
Lexington’s Jayne Vogelzang was the other double winner. Vogelzang won the 200 free with flying colors, going 1:54.89, and then took the 100 free in a touchout, 53.80 to 53.85. Acton Boxborough’s Madison Ford was second in both.
Acton Boxborough, second place as a team, won both of the free relays with Ford serving as the anchor on both. The 200 free relay broke the Division 1 state record with a time of 1:40.20. That team featured Tiffany Shao, Sofia Ricciardi, Michelle Yao and Ford, and was capped off by a 24.51 from Ford.
Ricciardi, Yao, Flanagan and Ford came back to win the 400 free relay in 3:38.04, getting a 53.24 split from Ford.
Also breaking a state record was Haverhill diver Michaela Sliney. Sliney scored 545.25 points to blow out the field by nearly 90 points, shattering the Division 1 record in the process.
Top 5 Teams
- Andover – 367
- Acton Boxborough – 314
- Newton North – 309
- Framingham – 209
- Lexington – 195
Division 2 Meet (small schools)
In the state’s small-school division, Bishop Feehan took the team title, getting three event wins including a state record from diver Hannah Phelan.
Phelan scored 537.05 points to eclipse the old Division 2 state record set in 2010.
That was one of two state records set back-to-back. In the next event, Belmont butterflyer Jessie Blake-West went 56.28 to break the Division 2 record by just under half a second. Blake-West also won the 200 IM in 2:08.26, about a second off the state record there.
Blake-West joined teammates Claudia Nebraska, Emily Quinn and Alison Sawyer to power away with the 200 medley relay title in 1:52.01. Blake-West split 25.27 on the fly leg.
Bishop Feehan won two swimming races in addition to the diving title. Marisa Reidemeister took home the 200 free win, going 1:54.26. She also put up a 52.77 anchoring the winning 400 free relay. Reidemeister, along with Taylor Durand, Paige Bernhardt and Kirsten Wade went 3:39.07.
Walpole’s Kathryn Smith won twice, taking the 50 free (24.18) and 100 free (53.84) by convincing margins. Other individual winners included Wakefield’s Shannon Quirk in the 500 free (5:06.97), Natick’s Caitlin Dye in the 100 back (59.30) and Bishop Stang’s Sienna Lepalme in the 100 breast (1:07.32).
Westwood took the 200 free relay with the team of Amy Tang, Casey Rideout, Sophia Smith and Samantha McDonald. They went 1:41.42 to just beat out Lepalme and Westwood.
Top 5 Teams
- Bishop Feehan – 270
- Belmont – 239
- Bishop Stang 199
- Natick – 198
- Westwood – 165
Does anyone know if Massachusetts is going to follow its’ plan of moving all of the swimming to the winter? Kind of hard to hear “state champion” unless it’s followed by a Fall or Winter. Right now some girls teams swim in the Fall and all of the boys and the rest of the girls swim in the Winter. Certainly easier to be a club swimmer if your school swims in the Fall.