Six Warriors named M.L. All-Stars

THE WARRIORS had a day to remember at BU’s D2N Sectional tournament. Wakefield will travel to MIT on Sunday for States. (Courtesy Photos)

Published in the November 15, 2019 edition.

By DAN BYRNE

BOSTON—On Sunday, the Wakefield Memorial High School girls’ varsity swim team participated in the Division 2 North Sectionals meet at Boston University. It was quite a banner day for Wakefield from the moment things got going.

To start things off, Warriors standout sophomore Katie Patt sang the National Anthem, setting the tone for the evening.

In the end, Wakefield’s 9th place overall finish is secondary to their actual performances put on in the pool.

When all was said and done, there were five new Wakefield High School Swimming records set that night.

“All the new records that we broke were incredible,” Warriors’ head coach Kathy Byrne said. “That’s how you want your season to end, with records falling, and the girls really stepped up.

“Everyone swam very well, if they didn’t do their best time they were very close to it. Definitely the way you would want to see them swim at a championship meet. The meet was late at night, and we’re not used to swimming that late, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but it didn’t seem to bother them, they swam fabulously.”

Right off the bat things were looking special for the Warriors as the 200 Medley Relay broke the all-time school record in the first event. Hannah Guay, Emily Chan, Katie Patt and Laura Sweeney combined to swim a 1:55.15.

“To see two relay records come down, that was really exciting,” Byrne said, as she watched the records fall.

The next event saw a Warrior swimmer’s season of hard work and dedication pay off, as Sophie Brown’s time in the 200 Yard Freestyle got her below the cut for States.

On that race, coach Byrne said, “One thing that was pretty cool that happened was Sophie Brown, who had missed part of the season early on due to an injury, qualified for states at this meet. She had just qualified for sectionals at league meet, that’s amazing, talk about a comeback kid, but she worked hard to get there, she had to work very hard to get there, she showed her grit as a hard worker.

“These girls are all hard workers, they work hard to get where they are,” the coach said.

Wakefield also saw its longest standing record fall, as Laura Sweeney broke the school record for the 50 Free that had stood since 1999, and now all of the program’s records have happened in the 2000’s.

“Laura really set her sights on that record and she got it, I’m really proud of her for achieving that, it’s a big deal,” coach Byrne said.

Warrior swimmers also broke the 400 Yard Medley relay record, with Abby Federici, Laura Sweeney, Hannah Guay, and Katie Patt swimming a 3:49.23.

Katie Patt had another outstanding day, culminating with her new school record swim in the 100 Yard Butterfly with a time of 1:00.23.

Hannah Guay also swam an incredible night, setting a school record for the 200 Yard Individual Medley with a time of 2:12.91, and claiming 4th place in the event.

“Anybody who finished in the top eight had a fabulous finish for that event,” explained coach Byrne as the top eight scored points.

At the meet, the Middlesex League All-Stars and All-Conference teams were named with a host of Warriors being honored for their performance this season.

“The All-Stars and All-Conference representation is our biggest ever this year, I’m very proud of them,” coach Byrne said.

For the Middlesex League All-Star team, the 200 Medley Relay team of Guay, Chan, Patt, and Sweeney were credited with All-Star honors. Patt was named as the representative for the 100 Yard Butterfly, and Guay for the 500 Yard freestyle. Patt and Guay were also named to the All-Conference team for the 100 yard Backstroke and the 200 IM individually while Alyssa Toppi and Abby Lane were voted onto the All-Star team.

With the season nearly done, the Warriors have one last time in the pool, when they head to MIT on Sunday to take part in States.