L-S Girls Swim Team Takes Third in DCL Championships

Last Friday, the Lincoln-Sudbury girls swim and dive team competed in the Dual County League Championship meet. The team has been preparing for this meet the entire season and they did not disappoint.  Everyone had great swims and a couple of girls made post-season for the first time at the last meet they could possibly do it.

The attitude of the girls at the meet was great and captain Alicia Perry said “the energy and positivity was higher than it has been all season and it clearly showed in and out of the pool. I am so proud of each and every one of the girls on our team.”

The girls DCL diving took place two days before the swim meet.  Kim Yang, Emma Jarczyk and Clara Shealy put L-S ahead by 52 points with first, second and fifth place.

The meet started off with the 200 medley relay and the team of Ann-Marie Billig, Caroline Hultin, Catherine MacKeen and Leah McCabe came in third. In the 200 freestyle Alicia Perry made the podium in fifth with a great swim, dropping five seconds off her seed time. Michela Eckhouse, Jenny Genovese and Emily Huang also scored for L-S. Huang and Caroline Thomas also both made sectionals for the first time in this event.

MacKeen placed fourth in the 200 individual medley, dropping six seconds off of her seed time.  Hultin, Lexi Barrera and Eugenia Almandoz also scored in this event.  Jen Maarkand from Westford Academy won the 200 IM going an incredible 2:02.39, faster than the state record.

In the 50 freestyle Katherine O’Shea and Ansley Baker took second and third.  McCabe, Shannon Johnson and Caroline Goswami also scored for L-S.  Johnson swam very well and made sectionals and states for the first time in this event.

MacKeen made the podium again in the 100 butterfly with a sixth place finish.  Eckhouse and Thomas both scored in this even as well.  It was a great swim for Eckhouse and she made states for the first time in the event.

O’Shea had a fantastic swim in the 100 freestyle, winning with a time of 53.27.  Genovese, McCabe and Huang also scored for L-S.  Then, Perry and Barrera both scored in the long 500 freestyle, coming in fourth and sixteenth.

The 200 freestyle relay was a very exciting event.  The team of McCabe, Baker, Perry and O’Shea started the last 50 slightly behind but they managed to pull ahead for the win.

Billig and Goswami both swam their best times in the 100 backstroke, coming in tenth and twelfth.  The 100 breaststroke was another event that came down to the final touch.  Baker had a great swim but she was just out-touched by 0.04 seconds for second place.  Hultin and Almandoz both scored in the event as well, coming in eighth and fifteenth.  Johnson and Nathalie Cabrera swam very well and they both qualified for sectionals for the first time in the event.

The 400 freestyle relay was also a very close and exciting race.  The team of Perry, MacKeen, Baker and O’Shea raced as fast as they could and just finished in second.  L-S’s second team (Huang, Eckhouse, Genovese and Thomas) did much better than was expected and beat out half of the other teams ‘A’ relays to come in fourth.

L-S ultimately finished third behind the very strong teams of Wayland and Westford Academy.

The captains were happy with the result.  Leah McCabe explains it saying, “All we've worked for finally paid off, the unity we have as a team really showed and we couldn't be happier to end our regular season this way.”  Emma Jarczyk echoed this thought saying, “Sure, Wayland may have won the meet in points, but we won the meet in our love for each other and for the sport.”

The postseason begins next week with sectionals.

(Taylor Dawson submitted this report.)