Girls' Swimming & Diving Sinks NMH
Hot on the tail of her opponent, lower Lindsay Machado pushes through the water to complete the 500 freestyle. L. Machado turns into the last lap and, motivated by her teammates on the side of the pool, she returns to out-touch the Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) swimmer. By clinching first place, L. Machado gave the Big Red Girls’ Swim team points to further their win over NMH.
Big Red varsity girls’ swimming defeated NMH this past Saturday, bringing home a stunning 94-73 win. The win pulled their record up to four wins and three losses, a promising record as the team begins preparing for its E/A meet and the championships shortly thereafter.
Prep Sofia Morais noted how leading up to the meet, Head Coach Lundy Smith’s expertise helped them prepare. “We focused a lot on our stamina, endurance and pace throughout the week… All the practices were pretty challenging up until Friday, where we only worked on starts for the whole practice,” she said. “This was really helpful heading into the meet because, although we were sore from previous practices, we all felt confident in our dives.”
“Heading into the meet, the girls were focused on swimming and finishing every race hard, but we were also going to have a good time,” senior and co-captain Wynter Sands said.
The team did just that. “We walked onto the pool deck and NMH was blasting music and swimmers from both teams sang along on the pool deck and in the water,” Sands said. “The mood was very lighthearted and happy at the beginning of the meet.”
The rest of the swim team concurred with Sands. “This season has been so much fun thanks to the team dynamic. I love how everyone gets along and supports each other,” Morais said. “We have so much fun at practices listening to music and swimming as a team, and I don't think our team would be the same without that openness and positive environment.”
Senior and co-captain Maddie Machado commented that her sister, L. Machado, had an outstanding 500 freestyle race. “She had a come-from-behind victory against a girl from NMH in the final sixty seconds of the race. It was like a photo finish,” she said.
“Everyone was cheering from both sides of the pool and it got really loud because everyone was so excited,” Morais added. “Lindsay barely out-touched her and ended up winning, which helped give us additional points.”
According to Sands, lower Andrea Luo also had an outstanding performance. “Andrea recovered from her shoulder injury quicker than expected and popped out to the meet with us,” Sands said. “She killed the 50 free in her exhibition heat with a 26.81, the quickest 50 free for girls at the meet.”
After a thrilling weekend, Big Red has two weeks left in the countdown to E/A. “Looking forward, practices will continue to be relentless in pushing the team to work hard and get quicker,” Sands said. “However, we are always ready to meet the challenge and get better.”
Morais outlined further goals for the team. “I think we just need to give it our all this week in practice so that all our hard work will pay off, hopefully in a win,” she said. “We need to work on pushing through to the end of our races, so if we continue to push ourselves in practice during hard sets, then we can build up our stamina and speed for the meet.”
If the team pulls off an E/A win, they will earn a three-win streak, after beating Dana Hall before the NMH meet.