The Bromfield swim team. (Courtesy photos)
Senior swimmers with Bromfield’s second place trophy. Left to right: Kelly Sherman, Mackenzie Grant, John Wesley, Sam Sprague, Declan Dean, Sam Carlson, Sean LeRoy, and Kaya Phillips, In front: Eric Hazoury and Taylor LeBlanc.
Bromfield swimmers travelled to Tantasqua Regional High School Thursday, Feb. 2, to compete in the Midland Wachusett League Championship. Bromfield swimmers and coaches were eager to avenge two losses suffered during the season to Wachusett and league powerhouse Gardner.
Outstanding performances by every swimmer contributed to the Trojans’ best-ever league meet result: second place behind Algonquin Regional High School and well ahead of both Wachusett and Gardner.
In the diving event, Bromfield topped the scoreboard. Kelly and Casey Sherman placed first and second for the girls, confidently executing dive lists that featured impressive degrees of difficulty. Trippy Brown placed first for the boys, breaking the league meet record and bringing down the house with his signature “twisters.”
Kelly Sherman’s dive score of 292.40 broke both the league meet and school records.
Bromfield’s medley relay teams of Kaya Phillips, Fallon Schofield, Kelly Sherman, and Alyson Codner; and Sam Carlson, Declan Dean, Sam Sprague, and Sean LeRoy put in solid performances, notching Bromfield’s first swimming points of the day.
Heidi Nocka placed fourth in the 200-meter freestyle with a 2:05.86 time, while teammates Kelly Russell and Eric Hazoury swam personal bests on their way to earning spots at this weekend’s sectional meets. Hazoury also broke the Bromfield record in his race.
Hannah Wharton posted a personal best. Following suit in the next event, Alyson Codner powered to her best time in the 200-meter individual medley in a successful effort to add points to the team total. Taylor LeBlanc placed fourth in his race, posting a time of 2:14.40 and setting the school record.
Newcomer Josh Marinelli wowed his coaches, posting his season’s best time and earning the eleventh-place spot.
In a show of strength, Katherine O’Shea won the 50-meter freestyle with an astonishing lead in a time of 24.89, a school record. Clara Wang placed third in a state meet with qualifying time of 26.12. Nick Walker and LeRoy represented Bromfield in what was the strongest ever 50-mter freestyle competition on the boys’ side, notching a few more points for Bromfield.
Bromfield’s butterflyers had a strong showing with five of its seven entries scoring. Kelly Sherman and Wharton brought it home for the girls. Walker was the Trojan’s top finisher, in fifth with a time of 59.37. Carlson and Sprague both placed, earning points for Bromfield.
In the 100-meter freestyle, Bromfield’s girls dominated with an impressive 1-2-3 finish from Nocka, Wang, and Phillips. Melissa Shea, Hazoury, and LeRoy also placed and earned crucial points for the Trojans.
All four entries in the girls 500-meter freestyle were top 16 finishers, led by Codner in a time of 5:47.47 and Russell in a time of 5:51.95 and followed by Maddie VanDorpe and Julia LeBlanc, who both posted personal best times.
Bromfield’s backstrokers dominated the scoreboard with O’Shea routing the competition in a blistering and record-setting time of 59.98 for first place in the 100-yard race. Phillips, Shea and Tabitha Gruskowski all posted points for Bromfield. Carlson and Marinelli also swam strong races to get on the board for Bromfield.
In the breaststroke, Taylor LeBlanc and Dean scooped up the final individual points for Bromfield. LeBlanc took off from the start, winning the race with a 1:07.20 as well as a trip to the state meet.
The strength and depth of Bromfield’s team this year shined through in the 200- and 400-freestyle relay events, where the boys placed fifth and third and the girls placed first and second, respectively. The boys’ 200-meter team of Taylor LeBlanc, LeRoy, Hazoury, and Walker was the fastest of the season and qualified for the state meet. The girls’ team of Wang, Sherman, Nocka, and O’Shea trounced the competition, capturing gold in a commanding victory of almost 3 seconds.
In the 400-meter relay, Walker, Carlson, Taylor LeBlanc, and Hazoury won bronze in a sectional meet qualifying time of 3:40.67. In the most exciting race for the girls, O’Shea, Wang, Phillips, and Nocka went head-to-head with Gardner’s strongest freestylers. The cheering for Bromfield, the decided underdog, from the stands was deafening from start to finish and inspired Bromfield’s fastest swimming of the season. The team finished a tantalizingly close second with an impressive final time of 3:46.81, just .18 of a second behind Gardner.
The final point tally landed Bromfield in a very gratifying second place after a hard day’s work. Bromfield’s Sectional qualifiers are busy at the pool this week in preparation for the sectional meet at MIT this weekend.
