Malden High coed swim team splashes out of the gate with two GBL victories

Hailey Tran qualifies for States in three events, leading to wins over Lynn Classical and Medford

By Steve Freker

It certainly looks like the five-straight league champion Malden High swim team has no intention of letting go of the crown too quickly. Led by some impressive individual and relay performances, Head Coach Jess Bisson’s Golden Tornados squad splashed out of the gate with two Greater Boston League wins to get their season off to a perfect, 2-0 (2-0 GBL) start.

Hailey Tran was the star of the week for Malden with a win in the 100-yard freestyle (58.55 seconds) and swimming a leg of the winning 200-yard medley relay (2:03.67) against Lynn Classical in an 89-67 Malden win on December 21. She also swam a first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:15.20) in an 85-77 win over Medford on December 19 in Malden. All three of Tran’s times qualified her to compete in those events in the MIAA Division 1 State Swim Tournament in March. The members of the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay both qualified for the North Sectional Meet with their finishing times in the win over Lynn Classical.

Tran, her sister Sophie Tran, Tiffany Pham and Joslyn Nguyen combined for the States-qualifying win in the 200-yard medley relay to kick off the meet (2:03.67). Yinje Wang, Kevin Lin, Xiaode “David” Xu and Joao Santos swam a 2:12.57 for second place. Sophia Huynh, Stanley Yip, Joyce Zhou and Larissa Retamero swam fifth at 2:33.86.

Joslyn Nguyen (2:28.05) won the 200-yard freestyle as part of a 1-2-3 sweep in that event, with James Zhou (2:39.22) second and Yingyan Xia third (2:48.71). David Xu won the 200-yard individual medley (2:26.52) and Tiffany Pham finished second (2:59.91). Joao Santos won the 50-yard freestyle (27.07 seconds) with Yinje Wang fifth (32.97) and Yingyan Xia sixth (36.13). Xu won his second event of the meet with a 1:08.93 finish in the 100-yard butterfly. James Zhou (1:24.09) was third and Ian Ian Ho was fourth at 1:36.87. Hailey Tran won the 100-yard freestyle (58.33) and Santos was second at 1:09.33 and Stanley Yip third (1:09.28). Malden’s Sophie Tran won the 500-yard freestyle (6:28.19) with Danielle Harrington third (7:08.82) and Gordon Zeng fourth (8:55.34).

Malden finished 1-2 in the 200 freestyle relay. Hailey Tran, Tiffany Pham, Joslyn Nguyen and Sophie Tran won it with a time of 1:54.16, and second-place – just three seconds later (1:54.19) – went to Joao Santos, James Zhou, Stanley Yip and David Xu.

With Malden way out in front, the last three events were graciously competed unofficially by the hosts. The Tornados would have had 1-3-4 in the 100-yard backstroke with Ian Ian Ho (1:19.70), Tiffany Pham (1:22.97) and Yinje Zhou (1:25.37). Malden would have gone 1-2-4 in the 100-yard breaststroke: Danielle Harrington (1:27.97), Kevin Lin (1:36.21) and Christina Mui (1:48.11). The Tornados would have finished 1-3-4 in the 400-yard freestyle relay: Hailey Tran, Joslyn Nguyen, Danielle Harrington, Sophie Tran first at 4:23.35; Yingyan Wang, Gordon Zeng, Stanley Yip and Yinje Wang third (5:05.39); and Larissa Retamero, Sophia Huynh, Ian Ian Ho and Kevin Lin fourth with a time of 5:41.33.

Malden opens season with 85-77 win over Medford

The Tornado coed swim team opened the season with an 85-77 win over GBL rival Medford on December 19 at the Malden High School Pool. Joslyn Nguyen, Xiaode “David” Xu and Sophie Tran led the way, each placing first in two events.

The key event came midway through the meet when Sophie Tran (1:15.30), Joyce Zhou (1:20.27) and James Zhou (1:21.09) pulled off a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100-yard butterfly to push Malden to a commanding 49-29 lead in an eventual 85-77 win.

Malden went 1-3 in the first event, the 200-yard medley relay, with Joslyn Nguyen, Kevin Lin, Xiaode “David” Xu and Joao Santos winning it (2:06.11) and the foursome of Tiffany Pham, Hailey Tran, Sophie Tran and Danielle Harrington third (2:08.36).

David Xu won his first event, the 200-yard freestyle, at 2:11.68. Hailey Tran was second (2:13.85) and Yinje Wang fifth (2:46.11). Malden followed that with a win by Sophie Tran in the 200-yard individual medley (2:32.34) as well as a third-place finish by Danielle Harrington (2:55.70).

Joao Santos was second in the 50-yard freestyle (27.20 seconds) and Stanley Yip (28.11) was fourth. Malden junior Joslyn Nguyen won the 100-yard freestyle (1:03.22) with Joao Santos third (1:08.83) and Sarahy Escobar fifth (1:22.41). David Xu won his second event of the meet with a 6:20.97 in the 10-lap, 500-yard freestyle. Tiffany Pham was third (7:25.22) and Gordon Zeng sixth (9:00.69).

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Joslyn Nguyen, Joyce Zhou, Stanley Yip and Sophie Tran finished first at 1:58.06; second were Hailey Tran, Ian Ian Ho, Tiffany Pham and Joao Santos. Malden also took third place as Weigi Du, Sofia Evaras, Daisa Valentine and Jasmin Diaz Gomez swam a 2:34.88.

Joslyn Nguyen won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:12.31. Joyce Zhou was second (1:25.07) and Yinji Wang fourth (1:25.20). Hailey Tran placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:15.01. Kevin Lin and Ian Ian Ho finished in a dead heat for fourth and fifth places with the exact finish of 1:37.08.

Stanley Yip, Danielle Harrington, Yinje Wang and David Xu won the 400 freestyle relay at 4:39.14. Gordon Zeng, Sarahy Escobar, Joyce Zhou and James Zhou were third (5:05.05), and Sophia Huynh, Dasia Valentine, Christina Mui and Kevin Lin were fifth (6:02.16).

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TORNADO POOLSIDE – Malden High Swimming now takes a week off from competition, until it takes on non-league opponent Melrose High on Friday, January 5 at 4:00 p.m…. After that it is on the road at Somerville High on Tuesday, January 9 at 4:00 p.m.; hosting Lynn English on Thursday, January 11 at 4:00 p.m.; and on the road to close out the regular season at 4:15 p.m. to take on Revere High at the Garfield School in Revere… Coincidentally, Malden’s meet with Revere will be a “double” home meet, since Melrose High uses the Malden HS Pool as its home venue… Malden had some Tornado swim “royalty” on hand for its meets last week when two former, highly successful MHS swimmers, David Lombardi and Tony Giech, were on hand and helping out with the meets.

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