So many championship qualifiers and best times!

It’s been a great week for the Sharks. Between the very chilly SSYS Thanksgiving Invitational in Quincy (that gym was so cold!) and the slightly chaotic meet with Malden (poor Vicky was pretty hoarse when she got home), the swimmers have been busy—and have made tremendous progress.

Coaches Mary and Kate were very proud of the 8 and under swimmers. At the SSYS meet, both Emily Giovanardi and Sarah Hitchman qualified for Districts. Thomas Butler, Francesca D’Amato, Gabriel Diaz, Casey Duggan, Grace Fronteiro, Drew Hebert, Adam Ho, Julia Ho, Madeleine Ungashick and Matia Kaliris all swam best times. Both Ho’s, Brian Nguyen and Diaz tackled the 100IM for the first time. At Malden, Julia Ho qualified for the New England Championships in the 25 fly, Liam Brown and Daniel Ferris qualified for Districts, and Diaz, Duggan,  Chloe Gentile, Mariana Kay, Abby LaFontana, Nguyen and Ungashick all had best times—some of them better than just a couple of days before!

The 9-10 swimmers had three District qualifiers at the SSYS meet: Catherine Curry (50 breast and 50 fly), Kieran Dunn (who took 13 seconds off his 50 fly) and Natalia Kay, who swam her best meet yet with 4 best times. Eleanor Ferris, Aysha Lakacha, Eva Rhinelander, Randy Sullivan and Milania Saggese all swam best times too; Saggese had a very impressive performance in the IM. At the Malden meet Dunn added another Districts event, and Gianna Defrancesca qualified in the 50 free. Lindsay Collar, Curry, Ferris, King and Randy Sullivan swam best times.

There were two New England qualifiers among the 11-12’s at SSYS: Sean Kay qualified in the 200 free, and Ellie Walsh swam a big best to qualify in the 200 IM. Chris Terranova, who had some great turns in his 200 free, qualified for Districts. Frankie Biggs, Emily Boutchia, Courtney Casey, Lillian DiNoto, Devin McDaid, Sameera Qureshi, Allison Stoelzel, Todd Tringale all turned in best times, some of them remarkably big improvements. At Malden, Natasha Brown qualified for Districts in the 100 free and 50 fly, and Izzy Achab, Biggs, Casey, Andra Prada, Katie Regan, Stoelzel and Walsh had best times in their races.

Katherine Aristizabal of the 13 and overs qualified for Districts in the 200 free at SSYS and swam a best in the 50 free as well. Lauren Giordano, who had a great meet, qualified for Districts, as did Bridget Kelley, who had 6 best times. Isabel Bates, Holly Cohan, Sam Foley, Delia Frederick, Aidan Kay, Alexandra Kay, and Alva Ronn (who also had 6 best times, including an 11 second improvement in her 200 free in 1 week!). There weren’t any championship qualifiers in this age group at Malden, but Rowan Emerson, Bates, Ben Fiesel, Foley, Frederick, Megan McDaid and Hudson Rubbins all turned in best times.

“I’m really proud of all my swimmers,” said Coach Laura. “Everyone has been working hard in the pool, and that hard work is paying off!”