Wayland Swimming and Diving faced the Concord-Carlisle Patriots at home on Wednesday, winning 168-137 on the girls’ side and 167-143 on the boys’. On Friday, the team swam against Dover-Sherborn-Medfield, and senior captain Emily Wright made Wayland history by finally earning enough points to top the team’s the all-time top scorers list. The girl’s team also traveled to the University of Rhode Island for the annual Bay View Invitational, where they took home first place for the third year in a row.

On Wednesday, Wayland started the meet by winning medley relays both on the boys and girls sides. For the boys, Bobby Dresser, Michael Ren, Ian Stack, and Travis Downs raced to just out-touch Concord-Carlisle and earn first.

After the relay, senior captain Travis Downs went out to win the 200-yard freestyle, with freshman Matt Devlin coming in third. For the girls, freshmen Meghan Pierce and Allie Weurfl also swam strong, earning first and third.

[adrotate group="2"]

The boys finished 1-2-3 in the Individual Medley with senior Andy Gusev, junior Michael Ren, and freshman Sasha Parfenov respectively. The girls finished 1-2-3 in the 50-yard free with sprinters Emily Wright, Emily Downs, and Michelle Cunningham. Freshman Elizabeth Place also dropped time to swim her lifetime best in the event.

In the butterfly event, Stack continues to improve, and Pierce qualified for States. Junior Graham Mellen won the 100-yard breaststroke for the boys to seal the win. The boys took the meet 167-143, and the girls won 168-137.

On Friday, Stack and senior captain Charlie D’Orlando started the meet well for the boys by getting first and third place. Freshmen successes followed when Pierce, Pippa Edwards, Ellen Barber, and Kristina Barakov, won the girls medley relay  and broke the freshmen record, and Mark Karlson, Scott Becker, and Brian Murtagh dropped time in their 100-yard freestyles for season bests.

The girls 100-yard freestyle marked a historic event for senior captain Emily Wright. Wright not only scored first, and broke her own pool record from last year, but also surpassed her sister, Priscilla Wright, in the list of all-time top scorers for Wayland. Wright now reigns as the highest scorer in Wayland Swimming and Diving history, with weeks left in her season to score more.

“I was very proud of her,” said swimming head coach Mike Foley. “She has worked really hard in each of the four years that she has been here, and she is not one who has a lot of individual goals like that: her goal is to win another state title as a team. [These things are] special when it happens to kids like her.”

Wright finished her race without knowing that she had broken the point barrier. “For it to just happen was really cool because she wasn’t expecting it,” explained Foley.

“I was really shocked,” said Wright, “I didn’t even know how many points I had at that point; I wasn’t thinking about it.”

Wright has been a key swimmer for the Warriors over the past four years due to her teamwork and leadership, said Foley. She plans to swim in college and is hopeful for her high school team.

“I would really like to continue to improve [personally],” said Wright. “But I hope our team continues to do well because I know everyone has been working so hard.”

Wright used her momentum on Sunday at the Bay View Invitational where she took home first place in the 50-yard and 100-yard free events. She also swam in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, which placed first with swimmers Emily Downs, Emily Nuss, Pierce, and Michelle Cunningham dropping time. Downs and Cunningham also scored third and fourth, respectively, in both freestyle events. Freshman Allie Weurfl also qualified for states in the 100 free.

The girls also took a first place finish in the medley relay, with the team of Liz Doyon, Valerie Eisenson, Barakov, and Cunningham.

“Doyon got us well out there in the relay. That event really kicked off the meet and we ended up out-touching Weston,” explained Foley. “This really set the tone for the meet. That one leg with Doyon hanging with one of Weston’s big swimmers really got that relay and meet off the a great start for us.”

Freshmen Pierce, Weurfl, Isabel Schwartz, and Catherine Barber showed strong in the 200-yard freestyle event at their first high-school championship-style meet. Pierce earned third, Weurfl took tenth, and Schwartz took 16th. Barber dropped substantial time to earn her season best.

Sophomore Hallie Cramer came in 11th for the Warriors in the 200-yard individual medley, with juniors Nuss and Jaime Reichlin right behind earning their best times.

In the butterfly, Barakov took fourth, and in the 500-yard freestyle Pierce took second. Senior captain Susan Cunningham earned a lifetime best and junior Jenny Huber also dropped time in the event. In the backstroke, senior captain Doyon swam to eighth place, with Barakov, Edwards, and C. Barber behind her. Barber again dropped time to score 14th place.

Wayland showed strong in the breaststroke, with juniors Eisenson and Reichlin leading earning fourth and fifth, followed by Nuss and freshman E. Barber who dropped time for 14th place.

The Warriors took home the trophy for first, while Pierce earned the title of “Freshman of the Meet.”

“[I was] very impressed with how we swam that day,” said Foley, “ Everyone looked really strong. Our goal was to just go down there and swim well, but to beat Weston was icing on top of the cake. We still have a lot of work to do, and we need to stay where we are in terms of battling them.”

Coming up for the Warriors this week will be the always-tight battle of the Warriors on Tuesday, when Wayland will swim against the Lincoln-Sudbury Warriors.