Mystic Valley girls swimming places 6th at MIAA Division 2 State Championship Meet

By Emily Brennan

The MIAA Division 2 girls state swimming championships took place on Saturday, February 17 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The Eagles collected their best result in program history, finishing in sixth place overall.

Sydney Cao, Crystal Tang, Isabelle Pennachio and Lana Santos Albuquerque opened the meet with a celebration on the podium in the 200-medley relay. The foursome dropped a full second from their previous best and touched the wall in 1:57.34 to earn a seventh-place finish and a school record. A few minutes later, sophomore Isabella Cirame touched the wall in tenth place in the 200 yard Individual Medley with a swim of 2:18.07. Cirame’s time was not only a lifetime best, but the program’s second fastest ever in the event.

Later in the day in the 100 freestyle, Cirame and Cao both broke their lifetime best records. Cirame would finish in ninth place with a time of 55.61 while Cao achieved a 15th place finish in 56.69. With that time Cirame is closing in on the Mystic Valley record.

After a short break Mystic Valley’s 200-yard freestyle relay was arguably the most exciting event of the day, with the team of Cao, Albuquerque, Cirame and Nayiga going neck and neck with four teams for the relay title. With a swim of 1:41.80, Mystic Valley finished in fourth place – three tenths of second behind State Champion Wayland – which finished at 1:41.50. Mystic Valley finished almost two full seconds ahead of the previous record in an amazing photo finish with Wayland, Duxbury and Weston High Schools.

Mystic Valley added valuable points in the 100 breaststroke, led by sophomore Lucia Antonucci in 10th place (1:10.71). Britney Nayiga was not far behind, touching the wall in 1:10.77 to drop just over two seconds from her fastest this year, finishing in 11^th place.

The 400-freestyle relay team of Cirame, Albuquerque, Antonucci and Nayiga secured another podium appearance with a sixth-place finish in 3:51.25. Most notably, Cirame swam to a 55.56 in her 100-freestyle leg, earning her yet another lifetime best.

“I am so proud of this young group of girls to achieve what they did this weekend,” Head Coach Andrew DiGiacomo said. “What is even more exciting is that we do not graduate a single swimmer from this states team. It was a great end to a great season.”

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