L-S Boys Swim Team Finishes 2nd in North Sectional Meet

On Sunday at the Howard Johnson Sports Center pool at MIT, the boys swim and dive team wound up with 191 points, good enough for second place out of 37 other squads

St. John's Prep won with 432 points while Weston was third with 182 points.

The meet began with the Class of 2012 swimmers lining up around the pool. L-S swimmers Ryan Fleming, Bryan Johnson, Ryan Kenney, Joey Merullo, and Sam Mackie were honored. The L-S fan base, dressed in red and pink, were the loudest in the balcony cheering on their team.

The medley relay team of Tom Edwards (back), Mackie (breast), Fleming (fly) and Merrulo (free) placed third, coming in more than 2 seconds faster than their seed time. St. John's Prep and Reading placed first and second.

Mackie placed fourth in the 200 IM, earning 15 points for the team.

Fleming earned the No. 1 spot on the podium in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.45. Fleming also placed fourth the 100 freestyle (47.91). Johnson placed eighth and Edwards placed 10th and between all three swimmers 33 points were earned for L-S.

Freshman swimmers Chris Wilkins (5:05.47) and Jake Hogan (5:13.25) continue to consistently drop time in the grueling 500 freestyle race. Wilkins placed 11th which added precious points which L-S needed.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Joe Merullo, Taylor Brown, Matt Shelley and Johnson sprinted to 12th place giving the team a 10-point advantage to their total score.

Edwards did his best time this season in the 100 backstroke (55.94) placing sixth overall. Freshman Ricky Billig (58.91) swam hard and dropped 2 seconds off his best time, earning him a spot at the State Meet.

Mackie won the 100 breast stroke (58.49) in a hard-fought finish and continues to drop time in this event. Kenney (1:04.15) placed 12th and dropped a significant amount of time to earn a spot at the State Meet. Taylor Brown placed 14th and also swam his best time (1:04.59). The three breaststrokers earned a total of 28 points for L-S.

The final event for the swimmers was the 400 freestyle relay swum by Johnson, Edwards, Mackie and Fleming. They placed second only to St. John's Prep and the points earned put them in second place overall.  

The L-S divers performed well against tough competition but did not make it to the finals. It was a long wait to get the diving scores in, but once they were in, L-S was secure in their second place spot.  

The final meet of the season is the State Meet on Friday at 8:30 p.m. at Blodgett Pool at Harvard University.