Wellesley swimming holds off Needham in South/Central sectional

BOSTON — While Needham had the star power in Sunday’s South/Central sectional swimming and diving championships at Boston University, Wellesley had the depth.

So, despite a meet-high three individual event winners and eight top-three finishes from the Rockets, the Raiders found a way to capitalize on their large roster by racking up 32 top-16 finishes en route to a third straight sectional championship with 386.5 points.

Big days from freshman Naomi Boegholm and senior Nellie Thompson played a large role, holding off a Needham (331.5) team that Wellesley head coach Jennifer Dutton believes her group last year wouldn’t have beat.

Framingham finished third (250), Newton North (228) edged Ursuline (227) for fourth, and Brookline rounded out the top six with 211.

“Every year its a privilege to (win), to be here and to be defending us an amazing thing,” Dutton said. “We needed these freshman that we had this year, and our seniors are all stepping up because of that, and we had a lot of freshman score today. Even the 16th (places) and the 13th (places), it’s so amazing … I’ve never had a team like this before.”

Of Wellesley’s own three first-place finishes, the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:40.11) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:37.10) stood out. Thompson swam for both, also claiming second in the 50-yard freestyle (24.26 seconds) and 100-yard freestyle (54.01).

Perhaps Boegholm had the team’s biggest performance, claiming its only individual first-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley (2:09.11) while swimming the 400 freestyle relay and finishing third in the 100-yard backstroke (58.74).

“I’m really happy with (the performance),” she said. “(I wanted to) stay calm, be happy and enjoy it.”

Wellesley had 15 other swimmers pick up points, all qualifying for the state championships.

Claire Tzouros shines for Needham with a 1:57.03 first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, as did Zoei Howard as one of two double-winners on the day (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle).

The other double-winner was Marshfield senior Riley Moeykens, who dominated the 500-yard freestyle (5:09.04) and broke a 10-year-old meet record in the 100 backstroke (57.29).

“I feel with it being my senior year, it’s very important to me (to win two events),” she said. “I definitely wasn’t expecting (to break a record) … it’s really exciting.”

Laura Dube finished second in the 200-yard IM (2:11.66) and the 100 backstroke (1:07.23) for third-place Framingham, while Anna Glass had two top-three individual finishes for Ursuline.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2QgeZb5