Credit: Courtesy of WSPN staff, Brandon Hill and Marcia Irwin

The swim and dive team had a successful run this last season, with the boys swim and dive team securing a state championship.

The swim and dive team ended its 2024-2025 winter season with a splash on Feb. 22, when the boys team placed first in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Division II State Championships. Over 50 high schools from around the Dual County League (DCL) attend this annual meet. The DCL features schools from the Greater Boston area. For the first time in three years, Wayland claimed victory over Weston.

Rankings are determined based on the cumulative amount of points scored during a meet, with the boy’s team earning 296 points at the championships. During the last event, the 400 yard freestyle, the boys’ won the race and broke a state record with a time of 3:16.29. Overall, the boy’s team ranked the fourth best team in the Massachusetts region, and the girl’s team was ranked No. 25 in the region.

“The boys winning states was huge since it has been years,” team manager and senior Aidan Shapley said.

The girls and boys teams combined scored over 10,000 points during the season, with the top point scorer being Peter Morris. Additionally, both seniors Aiden Huang and Morris earned an award for 1,000 career points, which is a rare accomplishment. Points can be earned by each swimmer in their individual events by scoring first, second or third. Additionally, relays offer a way for a group of swimmers to earn more points than in an individual race. This season, several individual, state and team records were broken, including freshmen swimmers such as freshman Evan Giang, who broke the 100 yard backstroke record.

Some freshmen reflected that swimming for the high school team for the first time was a different experience from swimming for the Junior Warriors, the middle school level team.

“I think it was a lot harder,” freshman Kiyoshi Niimi said. “We had higher expectations, practices were really hard and we had to do lots of preparation for states. It was taken very seriously.”

Others reflected that they had to do dryland workouts which proved to be more challenging than they had expected. Dryland are usually body weight workouts on the pool deck that the team does to stay physically fit for the season.

“During practices we often did dryland, which was hard sometimes,” freshman Sam Katz said.

During the regular season, the boys and girls teams both went undefeated. The diving team also welcomed new members, including freshman Cash Bradford.

“We found Cash because we were low on divers, and one of his peers said to us ‘one of my friends knows how to do flips,’ and ever since then Cash has worked very hard and learned quickly how to be an amazing diver,” diving team coach Mellisa Pond said. “He played a very important role in the team this year.”

“Some of the highlights from years always include team dinners,” Shapley said. “They are a great chance for the team to bond and they are a ton of fun.”

Overall, this year’s season is defined by the numerous records broken, an undefeated record and a victory at the state championship. Some team members called it a season to remember.

“This year’s season was one that will always be remembered by me and all the other coaches,” head coach Mike Foley said. “The kids worked extremely hard and I saw an amazing amount of improvement within all of our swimmers.”