Before the Marblehead High swim team wiped out its rivals at the annual Northeastern Conference (NEC) Meet in both the boys and girls divisions with historically high scores, they together wrapped up the regular season with a dominating performance against Swampscott on Jan. 25 at the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA, 98-73. With this win over the Big Blue, the Magicians completed a perfect 7-0 campaign to secure another conference championship.
“This meet against Swampscott is always exciting and fun, but this one was also our senior celebration night, where we honored the seven seniors on the roster for their contributions to the program the last four years,” coach Sue Guertin said.
The Marblehead seniors included Stephen DoRosario, Emiyah Setalsingh, Bella Takata, Owen
Torstenson, Song Waitekus and Sophia Weiner, all captains, and Rebecca Vaynshetyn. Their junior teammates made posters for the occasion, and also presented roses and candy to each of them during the ceremony.
In the 200-yard medley relay, Ian Chemel, Cale Nelson, Greg Podstrelov and Owen Torstenson (1:51.87), and Sophia Weiner, Song Waitekus, Finn Bergquist and Bella Takata (2:01.82, state cut) topped the ticket in first and second place.
Nate Rosen (1:58.78) and Chemel (2:08.3) also finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 200-yard freestyle. Brinleigh Callahan (2:13.48) ended up fourth. Nelson (2:11.44, state cut), Takata (2:24.90, state cut) and Bergquist (2:28.47) swept the 200 IM. Logan Doody (22.38, state cut), Torstenson (24.46) and Yuri Volkov (26.00) experienced the same results in the 50-yard freestyle.
Caroline Crosby (134.05 points), Maxine Hall (128.20) and Yuri Volkov (127.15) completed the diving competition in second through fourth place, respectively. Brady Leveroni (58.14, sectional cut), Gary Podstrelov (58.72) and Vaynshetyn (1:08.2) took all nine points in the 100-yard butterfly, as did Doody (53.5), Weiner (59.14, sectional cut) and Takata (59.63) in the 100-yard freestyle. Nelson (5:17.92, state cut), Waitekus (5:35.53, state cut) and Brinleigh Callahan (5:55.51, sectional cut) did likewise in the 500-yard freestyle.
Rosen, Torstenson, Greg Podstrelov and Doody (1:39.85, sectional cut) and Chemel, Leveroni, Volkov and Ezra Reid (1:45.43) were the top two quartets in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Chemel (1:01.32), Leveroni (1:02.29) and Weiner (1:08.14) were the top three swimmers in the 100-yard backstroke. Greg Podstrelov (1:09.25), Rosen (1:15.72) and Bergquist (1:18) maintained the trend in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Nelson, Rosen, Leveroni and Doody (3:47.78) came out on top in the 400-yard freestyle relay, while Weiner, Waitekus, Bergquist and Takata (4:11.2, sectional cut) ended up second.
