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By Emily Brennan
For the first time in its History the Mystic Valley Boys Swim Team finished in third place at the North Sectional Championship, which includes both Division 1 and 2 Swim teams. Mystic Valley led all teams including perennial powerhouse Division 1 Saint John’s Prep right down to the last event, but its small but indomitable team simply ran out of depth.
Leading off the meet Mystic Valley team of Jaden Anthony, Christian Antonucci, Brandon Wamala and Dylan Phan swam to the team’s first sectional championship ever, setting a new Mystic Valley record in a time of 1:36.64 beating the second place team by over two seconds and crushing the former team record of 1:38.72 which had held for nearly ten years. The former record was held by the quartet of Christian Kinnon (MV16), Ryan Kinnon (MV17), Michael Leung (MV17) and Damir Durakovic (MV16).
In the next event, the 200-yard freestyle, Sr. Jaden Anthony placed 11th with a time of 1:50.51. That was followed by the 200-yard Individual Medley where the swimmers swim two lengths of each stroke butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Senior Captain Christian Antonucci placed second in a time of 1:59.83 and his fellow senior Captain Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso finished sixth at 2:03.64 a personal best. The duo racked up 30 total points, which kept Mystic Valley in the lead.
In the 50 Freestyle senior Dylan Phan set a personal best at 22.64 placing sixth and moving up from his sixteenth-place seed to score valuable points. He was followed by his teammate’s freshman Brandon Wamala and Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso who placed 3rd and 4th respectively in the 100-yard butterfly at 53.4 and 53.9. Wamala had the highest place ever for a freshman at the Sectional Meet.
Phan came back after that and placed 6th in the 100-yard freestyle in a blazing time of 49.19, beating his best time ever by over a second and once again moving up from an 11th place seed to score valuable points keeping Mystic Valley in the lead. Phan, who also split a lifetime best 21.64 in the freestyle leg of the medley relay without a doubt had the best meet of his life according to head coach Andrew DiGiacomo.
In the next two events Mystic Valley was able to stay ahead of Saint John’s Prep and Wayland when Thomas Sodeyama-Cardoso placed 4th in 4:57.12 and it was followed by 5th place finish in the 200 Freestyle relay by the team of Anthony, Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso, Wamala and Phan finishing with a time of 1:30.61.
In the final individual event of the day Mystic Valley’s Captain Christian Antonucci took second place, again this time in the 100-yard Breaststroke, in a season best 59.30. His teammate Thomas Sodeyama-Cardoso placed 12th also scoring valuable points. Mystic Valley was leading at that point by 18 points, but could not hold off Saint John’s Prep nor Wayland when the diving tally was complete and in the final event the 400 Freestyle relay where Saint Johns was first and Wayland 3rd with Mystic Valley following in a distant 10th with a valiant effort by the team of seniors Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso, Nicolas Caballero, Thomas Sodeyama-Cardoso and Christian Antonucci clocking in at 3:24.0. Of note Thomas and Christian had just exited the pool from swimming Breaststroke hindering a peak performance, but Antonucci still swam his 100 leg in 48.8 one of the best splits ever for a Mystic Valley Swimmer.
Mystic Valley will compete this coming week in the State Division 2 Championship meet.
