Westfield senior Captain Hope Walsh came in seeded sixth in the 200 yard freestyle capturing second place with a time of 1:56.81 during the 2014 Girls’ Western Massachusetts High School Swimming and Diving Championship at Springfield College Sunday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – It will come as no surprise to the swim community when people hear of the continued success of the Westfield High School swim team.
Westfield upheld the pride, tradition, and long-standing commitment to excellence when its girls’ swim team captured a silver-medal worthy performance in another championship event. The Bombers placed second at the Western Massachusetts finals Sunday at Springfield College.
Westfield scored 251.5 points, finishing only behind overall team winner, Northampton (312). Longmeadow (227), Belchertown (220), and Hoosac Valley (188) rounded out the top five.
“I’m extremely proud,” Westfield coach Tom Lewis said. “Nearly everyone had almost their best times across the board. We worked really hard on the timing of this. We seem to always save our best performance for the championship. It was a good team effort.”
Westfield senior captain Hope Walsh helped pave the way.
Walsh, who came in seeded sixth in the 200 yard freestyle, captured second with a time of 1:56.81. Only Northampton’s Erin Voss was better in 1:51.16.
“On the third 50 I really kind of turned it on and tried to pull through the people next to me,” Walsh said. It was her career best.
“I was stuck in a plateau for a couple of years,” said Walsh, who has made her living, so to speak, in the long distance events. “This was a great way to end Western Mass.”
Walsh also placed second in the 500 freestyle (5:12.71), and helped anchor two second-place relay teams.
Westfield’s 200 yard medley relay team (Kelsey Johnstone, Erin Lewis, Lauren Longley, Walsh) and 200 yard freestyle relay team (Longley, Lewis, Johnstone, Walsh) each placed second in 1:53.89 and 1:43.41, respectively.
The Bombers’ 200 yard medley relay squad was just touched out by a fraction of a second when Northampton (Maela Whitcomb, Kaitlin Travers, Erin Voss, and Maggie Miller) won in 1:53.69. Longmeadow’s team of Jerrica Li, Emilee Smith, Marissa Schwartz, and Maria Caputo placed first in the 200 yard freestyle relay (1:41.11).
Lewis placed fourth in the 100 yard backstroke (1:12.22) and sixth in the 200 yard individual medley (2:21.63). More importantly, though, was the moment just before the championship event when she learned that she was the Raymond Deforge Scholar-Athlete Award winner, presented to the top scholar-athlete in the sport of swimming, who carries the overall best GPA and SAT scores and is a Western Massachusetts swim qualifier.
“It will be one of the biggest memories I will take way from today, apart from coming together with my team,” Lewis said. “It was a great honor and surprise – and I love surprises.”
There were so many big moments in Sunday’s championship swim meet.
From Longley’s fourth-place finish in the 100 yard butterfly (1:01.00) and eighth-place standing in the 50 yard free (26.58) to Kelsey Johnstone’s third-place finish in the 100 yard backstroke (1:00.12) and fifth-place swim in the 100 free (55.99).
“I heard my team cheering,” said an exuberant Longley of her butterfly swim. “That empowered me to keep going.”
Longley swam so well that she trimmed nearly a second-and-a-half off her previous best.
“I don’t care about the score,” Longley said. “I’m just so proud of (my teammates). We’re a solid group of kids who put in the effort and work. I’m definitely excited.”
Other notable Westfield swimmers included: Ali Johnstone (100 back/6th/1:13.56; 200 IM/11th/2:26.17), Kate McCabe (100 free/11th/58.93; 100 back/12th/1:05.14), Rachel Charette (200 IM/12th/2:28.82; 100 breast/19th/1:17.64), Samantha Dolan (500 free/13th/5:55.52; 100 fly/17th/1:07.39), Shaylyn Jurczyk (200 free/16th/2:13.03; 500 free/16th/6:01.72), Madison Stinehart (500 free/19th/6:15.18), Hayley Jurczyk (200 IM/16th/2:31.66; 100 fly/25th/1:10.81), Liz Gelinas (100 back/26th/1:11.60), and Hannah Ditto (50 free/34th/28.18).
The Bombers’ 400 yard freestyle relay team, comprised of Shaylyn Jurczyk, McCabe, Charette, and Ali Johnstone, placed seventh (3:58.49).
Westfield did not have any WMass qualifiers in diving.
