Bayside YMCA team wins second straight swim championship

Stingrays shine at SENECY meet

Posted 3/29/17

The Bayside YMCA Stingrays swim team continued its winning streak as the SENECY league champions for a second year in a row.

The SENECY league is made up of 19 YMCAs in the Rhode Island and …

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Bayside YMCA team wins second straight swim championship

Stingrays shine at SENECY meet

Posted

The Bayside YMCA Stingrays swim team continued its winning streak as the SENECY league champions for a second year in a row.

The SENECY league is made up of 19 YMCAs in the Rhode Island and Massachusetts area. The championship meet was held at Boston University in late February and early March. There were more than 1,500 swimmers from ages 6 through 18, splitting the meet into two weekends. Bayside finished well ahead of the second place finisher.

The 8 & under boys and girls competed first. The girls placed second overall while the boys placed fourth.

The girls were led by Molly DiGiacomo who captured fourth in the 25 free (18.47). The 100 freestyle relay which was made up of Lily O’Neill, Molly DiGiacomo, Vivian Wen, and Eve Tolley placed fourth overall.  

Despite having only six boys, all of them contributed points. The boys were led by George Zhukov, who placed third in the 25 free (17.27) and fourth in the 25 back (21.02) and Luke Li who won the 25 breaststroke (22.87).  The boys medley relay, which consisted of Justin Kuo, Luke, George, and Becket Capizzo, placed third while the free relay of Luke, George, Aydin Duru, and Becket placed fourth.

Next, both 9 & 10 girls and boys each finished third overall for their age groups.  

The girls were led by Laurie Garcia who finished second in 50 fly (35.07) and sixth in 100 free (1:14.07) and Lilly Swintak placed fourth in the 50 back (38.92). The 200 medley relay of Lilly, Laurie, Ava Webster, and Lydia Whiteley placed third while the 200 free of Lilly, Laurie, Lydia and Maude Smith-Montross also placed third. 

The boys held their own with Jared Lesk placing third in the 50 fly (38.41) and fifth in the 50 backstroke (39.27), Ronan Maddock placed fifth in the 50 breaststroke (47.15) and Hunter Hughes finished in sixth in the 50 breaststroke (47.30). The boys' 200 medley relay placed third which was made up of Graham Bennett, Hunter Hughes, Jared and Connor Curran, while the 200 free relay also placed third, consisting of Connor, Hunter, Ronan, and Jared.

With the first weekend of swimming over, Bayside swimmers had their work cut out for them. The Stingrays found themselves 300 points down but they had their strongest age groups yet to swim.  

The 11 & 12 boys and girls started the second weekend off with a strong start. Both boys and girls finished in first place and picked up an additional 200 points. 

The 11 & 12 girls were led by Zoe Webster, who won the 50 free (26.15) and broke a 26-year old SENECY record and a Bayside team record. Zoe also broke the team record in the 100 free (57.99) and took second overall. The relay team of Zoe Webster, Kristen Baker, Reilly Curran and Meagan Mungovan captured first place in the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay.  

Not to be outdone by the girls, the 11 & 12 boys relay team of Lucas Jauregui, Kellan Lane, Georgie Alexandre, and Zack O’Connor, also won both the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay. The boys were led by Kellan Lane who won the 200 IM (2:21.31) and tied for first in 50 breaststroke (33.95). Lucas Jauregui won the 50 back (30.74) and Zack O’Connor placed second in the 200 free (2:10.68)

The 13 & 14 girls and boys continued the winning ways by both capturing first place. 

The 13 & 14 year old swimmers were led by Juliana Goncalves who finished first in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.49) and broke a SENECY record. Juliana also finished first in the 200 IM (2:21.46) and set a new team record. Rachel Baker broke two team records in both the 50 backstroke (30.01) and 100 backstroke (1:04.69) where she finished first and second, respectively.  

The 200 free relay team of Rachel, Ellie Wind, Noelle Robinson and Juliana captured first at SENECY and also broke another team record with the winning time of 1:59.29. The 13 & 14 boys kept right up with their girl counterparts by also capturing first place overall.  

The boys were led by Andrew Barton who took home first place in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.98) and second in the 200 IM (2:17.46). Other top finishers were David McMillan who placed third in both the 200 free (2:01.82) and 500 freestyle (5:20.33), Jackson Bennett took second in the 100 backstroke (1:02.07), Will Sanchez who took third in the 50 free (24.75) and fourth in the 100 back (1:04.74). This was truly a team effort where every male 13 & 14 swimmer scored points for the team.

Both 15 & over girls and boys also captured first place overall. The girls 200 free relay team of Wanqing Li, Melanie Baker, Julia Zulker, and Madison Paine broke a team record and finished first overall with a winning time of 1:42.34. 

The boys 400 free relay, made up of Andrew Mungovan, Aidan Lane, Ben Vesey, and Ethan O’Connor, broke a SENECY record with a time of 3:18.96. The 15 & over girls were led by Madison Payne who placed second in both the 200 free (2:01.29) and 100 freestyle (55.32). Wanqing Li placed second in the 100 backstroke and third in the 200 IM (2:19.67).  

The 15 & over boys were led by Aidan Lane who was first in the 200 IM (1:59.95) and second in the 100 Breaststroke (1:02.46), Harry Martin who was first in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.08) and second in the 200 IM (2:06.82), Ethan O’Connor was first in the 200 free (1:46.66) and second in the 100 backstroke (53.31), Ben Vesey was first in the 500 free (4.54.44) and third in the 200 free (1:49.08), Andrew Mungovan was second in the 100 free (49.65) and third in the 50 free (22.56) and Henry Ciannavei placed second in the 500 free (5:16.18) and third in the 100 fly (57.11), Jeff Tran was second in 100 fly (55.80).

“We are very proud of what this team has accomplished,” said head coaches Jen and Ray Baker, “every swimmer contributed to this victory, most importantly those who were seated outside of the top 20 moved up into scoring position with their strong performances."  

Bayside YMCA had 98 out of 120 swimmers swim at least one personal best time at this SENECY Championship meet.  

What is next for the Bayside Stingrays? 

The team will be going onto the New England YMCA Championships which are held at M.I.T. The team had 42 swimmers who qualified for this meet which is the largest group in recent years. The following are the list of New England qualifiers: Georgie Alexandre, Stella Alexandre, Kristen Baker, Melanie Baker, Rachel Baker, Emily Baker, Andrew Barton, Jackson Bennett, Sam Chavez, Henry Ciannavei, Reilly Curran, Emma DiGiacomo, Laurie Garcia, Juliana Goncalves, Luke Gorham, Hunter Hughes, Lucas Jauregui, Aidan Lane, Kellan Lane, Jared Lesk, Luke Li, Wanqing Li, Harry Martin, David McMillan, Andrew Mungovan, Meagan Mungovan, Ethan O’Connor, Zack O’Connor, Maddy Paine, Ainsley Rose, Will Sanchez, Maude Smith-Montross, Lilly Swintak, Olivia Tine, Jeff Tran, Amanda Vesey, Ben Vesey, Zoe Webster, Ellie Wind, George Zhukov, Julia Zulker, Natalie Zulker.

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