Copyright The Boston Globe
Undefeated in the regular season, first in the Bay State Conference meet, and now first place in the South Sectional: a dream season kept on rolling for the Newton North girls’ swim and dive team as its captured its first sectional title in 11 years. The Tigers were dominant from start to finish at MIT’s Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center Sunday afternoon, winning all three relay events, placing a swimmer on the podium in six individual events and finishing with 412 points to outpace runner-up and conference rival Brookline (309), “We’ve been rebuilding the program since I came on in 2019,” said Newton North coach Kristen Smith. “Not only in size [of the roster], but just depth within the pool. People showed up this year that I didn’t expect, and people have swum really well. We’ve been kind of inching away all season, and then they swam awesome [today].” A two-second margin of victory in the 200 medley relay set the stage for the afternoon. Advertisement “Everyone swam their best, and we dropped two seconds,” junior Barbara Liao, who swam a 30.58 second leg in the event, notched a 24.68 final leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay to set a new school record, and placed first in the 50 freestyle (25.05) and 100 breaststroke (1:07.04). “Everyone was excited during the meet, the spirit was great, and everyone was really positive,” added Liao. Joining Liao as a winner for the Tigers was Victoria Sigmundstad-Callahan in the 100-yard freestyle (53.82), with Meg Urdaneta (55.39) clinching a 1-2 in the event. Jillian Schneider shaved 15 seconds off of her qualifying time in the 500-yard freestyle (5:20.64) to finish in second place. “[The 500 freestyle] isn’t her favorite event, and I put her in it all the time, because I think it could be her best event,” said Smith. “And then today she swam a 5:20, it was awesome.” Advertisement The rapid turnaround of the program after a disappointing 5-5 record last year can be credited to a new approach to the season. “To come back, we’ve just been like ‘one meet at a time, let’s see our progress.’ We’re excited for next weekend, and we know we have some tough competition coming in from the North sectional side,” she said. On the boys’ side of the meet, Milton was dominant with 319 points, ahead of Braintree (245), Walpole (184), and Weymouth (167). MIAA South Championship BOYS at MIT 200 medley relay — 1. Milton, 1:49.83; 2. Walpole, 1:59.45; 3. Weymouth, 1:59.72. 200 IM — 1. Daniel Le, Walpole, 2:07.45; 2. Cody Keung, Braintree, 2:24.63. 50 freestyle — 1. Ryan Kelly, Milton, 0:23.28; 2. Deacon O’Riordan, Milton, 0:24.66; 3. Corey Mei, Weymouth, 0:24.86. 100 butterfly — 1. Cody Keung, Braintree, 1:00.92; 2. Deacon O’Riordan, Milton, 1:04.95. 100 freestyle — 1. Ryan Kelly, Milton, 0:51.7; 2. Ryan Thin, Weymouth, 0:53.7; 3. Corey Mei, Weymouth, 0:57.82. 500 freestyle — 1. Matt Twitchell, Milton, 5:29.91; 2. Lucas Lee, Braintree, 5:54.43. 200 freestyle relay — 1. Milton, 1:37.19; 2. Walpole, 1:44; 3. Braintree, 1:44.7. 100 backstroke — 1. Kyle Phan, Milton, 0:59.04; 2. Ryan Thin, Weymouth, 1:04. 100 breaststroke — 1. Daniel Le, Walpole, 1:03.35; 2. Bao Tran, Braintree, 1:07.38; 3. Brendon Truong, Braintree, 1:07.57. 400 freestyle relay — 1. Braintree, 3:45.49; 2. Milton, 3:55.77; 3. Weymouth, 4:03.29. Team results — 1. Milton, 319; 2. Brookline, 309; 3. Walpole, 184; 4. Weymouth, 167. GIRLS at MIT 200 medley relay — 1. Newton North, 1:52.57; 2. Brookline, 1:54.48; 3. Framingham, 1:56.57. 200 freestyle — 1. Erin MacDonald, Boston Latin, 1:57.82; 2. Victoria Sigmundstad Callah, Newton North, 1:57.91; 3. Jillian Schneider, Newton North, 2:00.35. Advertisement 200 IM — 1. Sam Noble, Weymouth, 2:11.1; 2. Evie Gao, Framingham, 2:11.7; 3. Claudia Rothman, Brookline, 2:14.83. 50 freestyle — 1. Barbara Liao, Newton North, 0:25.05; 2. Elaine Cheng, Wellesley, 0:25.78; 3. Meg Urdaneta, Newton North, 0:25.81. Diving — 1. Julia Scapicchio, Ursuline, 463.300 points; 2. Morgan Trainor, Framingham, 449.650; 3. Sarah Ginsberg, Wellesley, 422.750. 100 butterfly — 1. Georgia Crisafulli, Natick, 1:00.23; 2. Allison Boynton, Milton, 1:00.38; 3. Natalie Guarrera, Needham, 1:01.14. 100 freestyle — 1. Victoria Sigmundstad Callah, Newton North, 0:53.82; 2. Meg Urdaneta, Newton North, 0:55.39; 3. Elaine Cheng, Wellesley, 0:55.79. 500 freestyle — 1. Bella Edwards, Framingham, 5:18.31; 2. Jillian Schneider, Newton North, 5:20.64; 3. Colbi Krause, Notre Dame (Hingham), 5:21.07. 200 freestyle relay — 1. Newton North, 1:39.82; 2. Wellesley, 1:45.27; 3. Boston Latin, 1:45.51. 100 backstroke — 1. Allison Boynton, Milton, 0:58.58; 2. Evie Gao, Framingham, 0:59.6; 3. Ava Zheng, Newton North, 1:00.63. 100 breaststroke — 1. Barbara Liao, Newton North, 1:07.04; 2. Sam Noble, Weymouth, 1:07.25; 3. Daisy Huang, Brookline, 1:10.2. 400 freestyle relay — 1. Newton North, 3:43.26; 2. Wellesley, 3:49.14; 3. Framingham, 3:49.21. Team results — 1. Newton North, 412; 2. Brookline, 309; 3. Wellesley, 254; 4. Framingham, 252; 5. Natick, 173. Joe Eachus can be reached at joseph.eachus@globe.com. Follow him @joeeachus_.
