Mystic Valley Boys Swimming downs reigning State Champion Weston, 98-70

By Emily Brennan

The Mystic Valley Regional Charter School boys swimming team upped its season record to 4-0 over winter break with a 98-70 home victory over perennial powerhouse Weston, the 2024 MIAA D2 State Champions. In the opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, Weston led wire-to-wire to start the meet, with the Eagles earning a second-place finish in the 200 Medley relay. Kyle Nguyen, Christian Antonucci, Thomas Sodeyama-Cardoso and Lucas Freitas turned in at 1:45.24. Nicholas Caballero, Aris Catic, Brandon Wamala and Dylan Phan took third in 1:49.86.

The tone of the meet changed in the next event, the 200 Freestyle, where Jayden Anthony led his team to a one, three, four finish – setting the pace with a stellar time of 1:51.96. Lucas Santos followed with a determined fight to the finish, earning third place with a time of 1:56.04. Phan rounded out the top group, securing fourth place with a solid 2:01.75.

In the next event, the 200-yard individual medley, Thomas Sodeyama-Cardoso touched the wall first at 2:03.82. Antonucci finished third, clocking in at 2:05.22. Anthony earned his second win of the day in the 100 freestyle with a 51.06, a season best. Phan took second place coming in at 53.16. MV took the top two spots in the 100-yard butterfly, with Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso taking first with 56.27 and Brandon Wamala taking second in a season-best 57.25. In the 500 free, twin brothers Thomas Sodeyama-Cardoso and Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso finished first and second at 5:04.82 and 5:14.21, respectively. Eighth-grader Kyle Nguyen shined in the 100 backstroke with a second-place finish, clocking in at 59.85 with Nick Caballero following closely, securing third place for the Eagles with a solid 1:01.86. Wamala wasn’t far behind, delivering a personal best of 1:02.40 to claim fifth place.

“I am very happy with how we swam today,” Head Coach Andrew DiGiacomo said. “We had a lot of our younger boys step up, they came prepared to swim their best for the team and we wouldn’t have been able to win today without them.”

The Eagles will return to action when they host the Northeast Knights on January 8 (after press deadline). After a meet at Shawsheen on Friday, Jan. 10, the Eagles return home to host Scituate on Saturday, Jan. 18