L-S Boys Swim and Dive Team Repeats as Dual County League Champs

The Lincoln-Sudbury boys swim and dive team won the 2012 Dual County League Championship for the second year in a row. This is the fourth win for the L-S boys in DCL history, which dates back to 1974.  

The Warriors won six of the 12 events.

It was a special meet for L-S seniors Ryan Fleming, Bryan Johnson, Ryan Kenney, Sam Mackie, and Joey Merullo, who competed together for the last time as a high school team at their home pool. All seniors was announced at the start of the meet and lined the pool to be recognized for their last DCL meet.

The 39th annual DCL championship meet started off with a second-place tie between L-S and Wayland in the 200-yard medley relay. The L-S medley relay team consisted of Dylan Brown, Mackie, Kenney and Merullo. In seventh place earning points for the team was the relay team of Chris Knightly, Taylor Brown, Ricky Billig and Andrei Rikatin. This allowed the Warriors to start off the meet in the plus column for overall points.

The 200 freestyle event was a big point winner for the Warriors, who had finished in third, ninth, 11th, 14th and 16th place, winning 35 overall points. The swimmers in their order were: Johnson, Dylan Brown, Chris Wilkins, Jake Hogan and Nate Thomas.

The 200 IM was won by Mackie who came in first by more than 5 seconds. Taylor Brown placed sixth. Both swimmers had their best swims in the event of the season and kept L-S on top of the leaderboard in overall points.

The 50-yard freestyle was an exciting event to watch. Ryan Fleming took home the gold with a L-S record-breaking time. The Fleming name will now adorn the record board in this event which was previously held by Martin Kafina in 2009. Joey Merullo placed eighth as L-S kept its first-place standing. Andrei Rikatin, Matt Shelly, Chris Knightly, Josh Kolodny and Sam Pace all recorded their best times in this event.

Earlier in the week the L-S boys divers competed at the Beede Center in Concord. Scott Henderson placed 11th overall and earned enough points to appear at sectionals, and Tom Novick placed 12th. This earned 11 overall points for L-S.

Tom Edwards recorded his best time in the 100 butterfly and placed seventh overall. Ricky Billig also notched his best time and placed 16th. Both contributed to the team's overall points. Kenney and Alex Yamron both swam great and posted their best times.

Fleming swam with power in the 100 freestyle earning his second gold medal and top tier on the podium with a personal best time. Rikatin and Shelley swam their personal best times and placed 13th and 15th, respectively, earning points for the Warriors. Jack Walker, Anthony Foscolos and Kolodny also swam their best times in this event.

The 500 freestyle was a big point winner for L-S as freshman Chris Wilkins chopped close to 8 seconds of his seed time and placed third. Johnson placed fourth, Hogan placed ninth and Thomas placed 14th, keeping L-S in first place in the overall standings.

The 200 free relay team of Merullo, Edwards, Johnson and Fleming won top tier on the podium with an impressive show of sprinting to win the event in a very close race. The second relay team of Knightly, Kenney, Wilkins and Shelley placed 11th, boosting team points.

Edwards did his best time in the 100 backstroke and won the silver. Dylan Brown and Billing placed ninth and 10th, respectively, and Knightly placed 15th knocking more than 2 seconds off his seed time. Jack Hurley also swam his best personal time in this event.

Mackie soared as the leader from start to finish in the 100-yard breastroke, easily winning the gold. He broke the L-S record held by Alex Boyd since 2008 and also broke the meet record by more than 2 seconds. Taylor Brown earned the silver medal and Kenney placed sixth. Foscolos swam his personal best time in this event.

The final event of the meet was the 400 freestyle relay which went swimmingly for the team of Edwards, Johnson, Mackie and Fleming, who won in a close race between Weston and Westford Academy. It was a great achievement for this relay team and sealed four gold medals for Fleming, three golds for Mackie and two for Johnson.

The victory for L-S will gives the Warriors momentum as they enter the postseason. Many of the swimmers have qualified for the sectional meet which will take place on Feb. 12 at 4:15 p.m. at the Aquatics Center at MIT.