4-PEAT! Malden High swim wins 4th straight GBL Championship by topping Revere

Santos, Tran, Xu, Yip and Relay Teams rally Tornados, clinching title with 88-79 win on road

By Steve Freker

Over the past two decades-plus, they have consistently been the most successful team of all the Malden High Athletics program hosts. Since 2020, with teams coaches by former pool bosses Coach Barry Fitzpatrick, Mark Gagnon and now, Jess Bisson, Malden High coed swim has won – remarkably – nearly 90 percent if its regular season meets. The Golden Tornadoes swim team have been Greater Boston League (and for two years, Northeastern Conference South) champions a whopping 19 times in 25 seasons.

The latest stretch of excellence has come with Coach Bisson at the helm. With an 88-79 win over Revere on the road at the Garfield School in Revere on January 18, Malden High clinched its 4th straight GBL title and 6th straight league championship overall. Finishing with another unbeaten league mark (5-0), Malden used a few first-place finishes, a wheelbarrow-full of seconds and thirds and a dominating sweep of the three relays run officially that day to seal another championship.

“It certainly was not a given or something we thought we could do easily,” Coach Bisson said of this year’s title shot. “We knew we would have to focus and put in the work.”

“We also knew we would have to rely on some new people to be able to compete for the [GBL] title,” Coach Bisson said, “and that’s exactly what we did.”

Malden’s strength in the relay events is what truly carried the team to the meet win. In the 200-yard medley relay, the foursome of Joslyn Nguyen, Hailey Tran, Sophie Tran and Tiffany Pham rolled to a first-place time of 2:04.93. Second-place was Ian Ian Ho, Stanley Yip, James Zhou and Joao Victor Santos (2:13.66).

Revere’s Jannet Sehli, Harrison Rua, Vilson Lipa and Leah Zuniga were third at 2:26.43. Malden’s Sophia Huynh, Christina Mui, Yingyan Xia and Weigi Du were fourth (2:48.23).

Malden also went 1-3-5 in the 200 Yard Freestyle later in the afternoon to put the meet out of reach. First place went to Joao Victor Santos, James Zhou, Stanley Yip and Xiaode “David” Xu at 1:58.62. Revere got second place by time, but was disqualified by an error. Malden took third with Pham, Larissa Retanero Granja, Gorden Zeng and Danielle Harrington (2:08.65) and fifth with Jasmin Diaz Gomez, Sabrina Daforsega, Dasia Valentine and Sofia Euorog (2:42.18). Revere was second at 1:56.14 with Matthew Terrell, Wilson Feng, Harrison Rua and Nathaniel Hill.

Here’s how the other events finished:

200 Individual Freestyle

1. (Revere) Juan Cano, 2:00.41; 2. (Malden) David Xu, 2:06.65; 3. (Revere) Terrell, 2:23.12; 4. (Malden) Joslyn Nguyen, 2:33.16; 5. (Malden) Danielle Harrington (2:38.33).

200 Individual Medley

1. (R) Alem Casir, 2:23.23; 2. (M) Hailey Tran, 2:24.50; 3. (M) Pham, 2:58.97; 4. (M) Yingyan Xia, 3:10.29; 5. (R) Leah Zuniga, 3:52.9.

50 Freestyle

1. (M) Santos, 27.43; 2. (R) Wilson Feng, 28.06; 3. (M) Stanley Yip, 28.25; 4. (R) Rua, 28.36; 5. (M) Weigi Du, 38.72; 6. (R) Jannett Sehli, 33.31.

100 Butterfly

1. (M) Sophie Tran, 1:06.18; 2. (R) Matthew Terrell, 1:10.02; 3. (M) James Zhou, 1:14.26; 4.(R) Joslyn Nguyen, 1:14.2; 5. (R) Feng, 1:22.32.

100 Freestyle

1. (M) Xu, 57.36; 2. (R) Hill, 1:04.20; 3. Lipa, 1:06.10; 4. Santos, 1:09.12; 5. Gordon Zeng, 1:11.87.

100 Breaststroke

1. (R) Rua, 1:24.50; 2. (M) Stanley Yip, 1:29.50; 3. (R) Nathaniel Hill, 1:28.03; 4. (M) Kevin Lin, 1:32.29.

100 Backstroke

1. (R) Cano, 1:03.04; 2. (M) Sophie Tran, 1:09.08; 3. (R) Lipa, 1:16.27; 4. (M) Ian Ian Ho, 1:20.85; 5. (M) Yinjie Wang (1:23.98).

500 Freestyle

1. (R) Alem Cesic, 6:15.85; 2. (M) Danielle Harrington, 7:10.80; 3.(R) Jannett Sehli, 7:21.28; 4. (M) Ian Ian Ho, 7:34.51; 5. (M) James Zhou, 7:40.22; 6. (R) Leah Zuniga, 8:21.56.

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