The Bromfield girls swimming and diving team won 139-16, and the boys lost 135-34 in the team’s Dec. 10 season opener against Algonquin Regional High School. The competition was held at Atkinson Swimming Pool in Sudbury and was the team’s first in-person dual meet in more than a year.
The Bromfield team is a coop, open to Bromfield students in grades 7-12 and to grades 9-12 from the neighboring towns of Littleton, Ayer, and Shirley.
The girls placed first in two events and set a new school record. Littleton sophomore Ella Bergeron won her 100-yard backstroke race with a time of 1 minute, 7.5 seconds, and the 400-yard freestyle relay team, consisting of Bromfield junior Adaline Boissy, Bergeron, Ayer Shirley ninth-grader Grace Hanss, and Ayer Shirley senior Lorelei Folger, placed first in their event with a time of 4:5.27. Folger took first place and set a new school record in the 100-yard butterfly event with a time of 59:87. An “incredible” performance, team coach Sabiha Madraswalla told the Press.
While the boys squad came up short in its races against Algonquin swimmers, two relay teams showed future promise. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, a team consisting of returning Bromfield senior Theo Myles and new teammates Bromfield junior Jack Bunnell, Ayer Shirley ninth-grader Hayden Fallon, and Ayer Shirley junior Angello Mavila, came in third with a time of 2:16.18. A second all-Bromfield team of seventh-graders Bowen Clarke, Vineet Kumar, Shea Van Cleef, and Evan Gill finished fifth with a time of 2:29.34. Both teams qualified to compete in Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association state finals later this winter.
Also qualifying for the state meet were junior diver Lily Tonole and the girls 200-yard medley relay team of Bergeron, Ayer Shirley junior Sierra Quinty, Folger, and Hanss, with a time of 2:01.57.
Coach Madraswalla said she is excited by the return to live events after a year in which schools competed by swimming alone and calculating their scores at the end of each week. With rising cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts, the MIAA once again requires masks at all swimming events. Swimmers must remain with their teams on opposite sides of the pool and wear a mask until it’s time for them to swim or dive. Athletes can remove their masks when they step onto the starting block or dive board, but they must mask up once they have finished a race or dive. “Hopefully this lasts,” said Madraswalla.
With 45 swimmers from three schools—22 of whom are new to the sport—Madraswalla said she is looking forward to her first year as team coach, assisted by Caley Zannoni, formerly a coach at Swymfit in Boxborough, where the team practices. Bromfield junior Alexander Myles is boys team captain; Littleton senior Madeline Meyers and Folger co-captain the girls team.
The team has three more meets scheduled before the end of the year, including one against Tantasqua Regional High School on Dec. 15.
