The Wayland Warriors Swimming and Diving team had their first official meets last week after battling for pool time throughout the beginning of the season. On Wednesday, December 2nd, the Wayland Town Pool was closed for cleaning after numerous swimmers had breathing difficulties. Because of this, the Warriors had to compromise practice times and find other pools to swim in.

Despite the challenge, Wayland was successful in both meets. On Thursday, they swam against Ashland, a new non-league opponent. The girls won 74 to 60. The boys also won, but only faced three swimmers from the young Ashland team.

“Everyone did an awesome job putting up with limited pool time and crowded lanes,” said senior captain Travis Downs. “[A lot] of people are already swimming lifetime bests, which is awesome. There is still room for improvement, but the team definitely has a lot of potential.”

The next day Wayland traveled to the University of Massachusetts – Lowell pool to swim against Westford Academy. “Westford is always an exciting meet for us,” said Wayland Coach Keith Meliones, “Last year our boys won in the very last relay.”

Freshman Doug Curtin stepped up to dive for Wayland for the first time, and he earned fourth place for the Warriors. In swimming, fellow freshman Meghan Pierce was “the star of the day,” said Meliones, after Pierce set a new freshman record in the 500-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle. She also broke the freshmen 400 freestyle relay record along with teammates Isabel Schwartz, Allie Weurfl, and Christina Barakov. They beat the previous record by four seconds set last year by Meta Surjaputra, Saya Higano, Erin Curtin, and Hallie Cramer.

“Both the boys and the girls got off to a slow start, and it’s not that we underestimated Westford Academy, but they came out really strong,” Meliones explained. “Both meets were close until diving.”

In the 100-yard freestyle event, sprinters Emily Wright, Michelle Cunningham, and Saya Higano swept the event for first, second, and third place.

Said Meliones, “Our female sprinters always do really well. They pulled away from Westford to help finish the meet.”

Other notable swimmers included senior captain Travis Downs, senior captain Charlie D’Orlando, and junior Ian Stack in the 50-yard freestyle. Stack also performed well in the butterfly. Junior Emily Downs qualified for States in the Individual Medley, and 100-yard butterfly, sophomore Mark Crisafulli swam the 100-yard fly better than his best time last year. Sophomore Hallie Cramer and junior Emily Nuss also had strong races in the individual medley.

“Whitney Fletcher gave a solid performance scoring a state-qualifying score,” said Wayland coach Mike Foley of the senior captain. Foley said he was proud of the improvement he saw in the girl divers.

New to the high school swimming team, senior Andy Gusev scored well for Wayland. “[He] had some great swims this week,” exclaimed Meliones. The boys ended up winning the meet 98-85, and the girls won 92-88. This week, the boys and girls will have separate meets. “[It] is going to be different because the girls team and boys team usually support each other and cheer each other on,” said Meliones, but he still expressed high hopes.

The boys swam away against Boston Latin on Tuesday, and the girls were at home, against Bedford. Today, the boys will travel to Acton Boxboro, and the girls will swim at home again, against Arlington.