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By Emily Brennan
The water was electric at the 2026 MIAA Division 2 Boys Swimming & Diving State Championship meet, held at MIT, as the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School boys’ swimming team turned in the most memorable performance in program history led by two team and a State record by Christian Antonucci.
The meet opened with the 200-yard medley relay, and Mystic Valley delivered a championship performance for the ages. The quartet of Jaden Anthony (backstroke 25.86), Christian Antonucci (breaststroke 25.5), freshman Brandon Wamala (butterfly 23.03), and Dylan Phan (freestyle 21.53) stormed to first place and the Division 2 title and team record with a blazing time of 1:35.93 — the fastest time posted by any D1 or D2 team all season. Their splits were spectacular.
The crowd erupted as the Mystic Valley boys touched the wall first, arms raised in celebration. It was the perfect tone-setter for a historic afternoon with the team holding the lead over Wayland and Weston for most of the day.
But the story of the meet belonged to senior Christian Antonucci. Growing up as the next-door neighbor to Mystic Valley alum Christian Kinnon — a three-time state champion who set the 100-yard school breaststroke record of 58.01 back in 2016 — added a deeply personal layer to Antonucci’s breakthrough. Kinnon, his siblings and Antonucci’s older siblings (including accomplished swimmers like Kenny and Nick Antonucci) had swum together on Mystic Valley teams starting over twenty years ago, forging bonds and passing down the program’s proud tradition right next door.
Antonucci had already been part of the winning medley relay, yet he was just getting started. In the 200-yard individual medley, he powered to an incredible 3rd-place finish with a time of 1:56.03, shattering Jake Williams’(MV 2018) long-standing record of 1:58.5 that had stood untouched since 2018. Then, in the 100-yard breaststroke, Antonucci delivered the swim of a lifetime — 1st place in 56.34, dropping three seconds and obliterating Kinnon’s ten-year-old record and smashing the state Division 2 record, becoming the first Mystic Valley swimmer to ever claim a state record. The moment he touched the wall, the entire deck knew they had just witnessed history. Antonucci’s time was the best in the State in D1 or D2 and is the third best MIAA High School Breaststroke time in State history.
The rest of the Mystic Valley roster refused to be overshadowed. Thomas Sodeyama Cardoso was a machine, capturing 2nd place in the 500-yard freestyle with a stellar 4:52.20 and adding a gritty 4th-place finish in the 200 IM at 1:58.80. His twin Kevin Sodeyama Cardoso notched two top ten finishes of his own: 5th in the 100 butterfly (53.91) and 7th in the 200 IM (2:01.93).
Senior Dylan Phan continued his sprint dominance with a 4th-place showing in the 50 freestyle (22.21) and 6th in the 100 freestyle (49.12). Jaden Anthony backed up his relay heroics with a 5th-place finish in the 200 freestyle (1:47.22) and a tied 8th in the 100 freestyle (49.66). Freshman Brandon Wamala rounded out the individual top ten with 7th in the 100 butterfly (55.01).
The relays kept the points flowing too. Mystic Valley grabbed 3rd in the 200-freestyle relay (1:30.66) with Wamala, Kevin Sodeyama Cardoso, Anthony, and Phan, then added another 3rd in the 400-freestyle relay (3:21.35) anchored by Antonucci after Thomas Sodeyama Cardoso, Wamala, and Kevin opened strong. Antonucci despite having gotten out of the water from the breaststroke event, right before the relay, split an incredible 48.65, the fourth best relay split in Mystic Valley history.
When the final scores were tallied after leading the meet most of the day, the diving scores were added, Mystic Valley stood proudly in 3rd place overall with 262 team points, its most ever with Weston at 263.5 and Wayland at 292— a massive achievement for a program rich in legacy. Note Mystic Valley does not have a diving team whereas Wayland and Weston scored enough points in that event to overcome Mystic Valley. Today, Christian Antonucci now stands alone as a State Record Holder and with his teammates the first boys relay gold medal hanging around their proud necks. The 2026 Mystic Valley team has set a new bar for future generations of Mystic Valley Swimmers.
