The Mt. Hope boys and girls swim teams broke school records as they competed at the state championships at Brown University on Saturday. The boys placed 14th out of 25 teams. The girls placed 18th.

Sophomore Finn Pansa smashed the Mt. Hope school record in the 100 freestyle butterfly with a time of 56.23 seconds. The sophomore also placed 8th in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute, 53.91 seconds.

“Finn swam extremely well,” said senior co-captain Sean Cummings. “As a team, we all showed up. It was a good day.”

The 400-freestyle relay team of Liam Gagner, Cohen Ferreira, Chris Sousa and Pansa also broke a Mt. Hope school record at states with a time of 3 minutes, 53.96 seconds, good enough for 11th place in the state.

“Our hard work ethic, our team spirit and the close bonds that we formed, helped us do well and succeed this season,” said senior co-captain Aidan Devine.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Gagner, Ferreira, Cummings and Devine placed 16th in the state with a time of 2 minutes 9.96 seconds and Sousa, Devine, Ferreira, and Pansa placed 10th in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1 minute, 42.58 seconds.

Devine placed 33rd in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.67 seconds. Sousa placed 23rd in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 59.14 seconds. He placed 38th in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.06 seconds.

“The season went as well as we could have accomplished for ourselves,” said Cummings. “This season we did a lot of recruiting and it helped us tremendously. We place second at the divisional meet which we haven’t done in years. We had a great team mentality this season. It’s been a good year for us.”

The girls 400-freestyle relay team of Bridget Courtney, Hazel Bradley, Lindy Cobery and Jessica Deal also broke a Huskies’ school record with a time of 4 minutes, 21.32 seconds, good enough for 14th place at states.

“This year we’re all really good and we are really united this season,” said Cobery, a junior. “The team works really hard and we’ve pushed ourselves like no other. We’re proud of ourselves for that.”

The 200-medley relay team of Emma Quigley, Courtney, Bradley and Deal placed 20th in the medley relay with a time of 2 minutes 17.63 seconds. The 200-freestyle relay team of Quigley, Courtney, Bradley and Cobery placed 19th in state with a time of 2 minutes 1.46 seconds.

Deal swam two individual events back to back, placing 14th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute, .16 seconds. The sophomore, who is also a distance runner and ran indoor track this winter, also placed 15th with a time of 6 minutes, 0.64 seconds in the 500-yard freestyle.

“It’s been going really well,” Deal said. “I really enjoy swim, so it’s not really hard to fit it in.” 

Deal makes every practice for both teams.

“Swim is a full body workout. I’m getting some exercise off the track. It’s good for my breathing. Controlling my breath is really important in swim and it helps with track too. And my leg strength from running helps with kicking in the pool and with endurance too,” she said.

Deal doesn’t taper her work outs unless she has a meet. She plans on running outdoor track in the spring.