NHS swimmers beat Newton North: tied for league lead

Needham High School girls swimmers had an exhilarating victory over Bay State Conference leader Newton North Oct. 17. It was an example of well-played, real-time strategy by Coach Rachel Waldstein, as coaches re-arranged lineups race by race to take the girls to a 102-84 victory.  Coach Waldstein's own play-by-play of the meet captures the high-pitched excitement that night:

Going into the meet, Newton North was the only undefeated team left in the Bay State Conference at 7-0.  I knew they were going to be an incredibly tough team – they have a lot of talent and depth.  But we were ready for this, we have taken the season one meet at a time.  

Swimming and diving are individual sports, but high school swimming is a team sport and Thursday night was a perfect example of that.  One athlete cannot win or lose a meet on their own.  

We started off incredibly strong, taking second and a surprising third in the 200-yard medley relay.  In the 200-yard freestyle, every swimmer had a season best, junior Emilie Despres won the event at 2:01.07 and sophomore Claire Hadelman had an incredible swim touching out Newton North for third place at 2:04.25 and freshman Diana Nascimben came in fifth at 2:07.45

Every event was a race for every point. Senior co-captain Katie Santaniello placed second in the 200-yard individual medley with 2:21.54, followed by freshman Elizabeth Bonvouloir third at 2:22.07 and senior co-captain Becca Phillips, fifth, at 2:22.42. 
 
Divers provided valuable points: Freshman Olivia Curran placing third, and seniors Sally Doherty and Paige Petronio placing fourth and fifth, respectively. 

The 100-yard butterfly was the turning point in the meet, when Needham swept the top three places, led by Santaniello with 1:02.27, followed by Phillips, with her personal best time of 1:04. 15 and freshman Ellen Ingwerson with her career best of 1:04.99. Needham outscored Newton North 13-3 in that event.
 
Sophomore Claire Hadelman had a gutsy, point-stacking performance throughout the meet: She was second in the 200-yard freestyle with 2:04.25. Then she took third place in the 500-yard freestyle with her season best time of 5:31.18 and then turned around to anchor the 200-yard freestyle relay in the very next event, bringing in first place. 
      
That freestyle relay was another key point in the meet: During the diving break, the coaches looked at the score and decided to split the A and B relay swimmers in an attempt to come in first and second place and outscore Newton North 12-2.  The A relay of Elizabeth Bonvouloir, Ellen Ingwerson, Katie Santaniello & Claire Hadelman took a commanding lead over Newton North's A relay and never looked back.  The B relay of Tori Budreau, Elizabeth Lively, Julia Gaitley hung close throughout the race with Newton North's A relay giving the anchor Emilie Despres – typically the anchor of the A relay –  the perfect set-up to bring it home for a 1-2 finish for the Rockets.  The Rocket girls outscoring the Tigers by 10 points in that event was HUGE.
  
In the 100-yard breaststroke, junior Julia Nascimben faced off against Newton North's incredibly strong line-up of breaststrokers and won with 1:12.49.  Monika Hedman and Grace Ward followed up with impeccable swims as well.  

Going into the 400-yard freestyle relay, all Needham needed was a legal finish to win the meet, but that's not really our style.  The A relay of  Bonvouloir, Hadelman, Santaniello and Despres put the race away handily and the B relay of Phillips, Meg Gilman, Diana Nascimben, and Hedman put together an unbelievable swim to out-touch the very talented Newton North B relay, breaking the 4-minute mark and outscoring Newton North 10-4.  The final score of 102-84 a resounding team victory.  

Needham is 7-1 in the Bay State league (currently in a three-way tie for first place). The Rockets face Wellesley next Tuesday (Oct. 22) at 7 p.m. and Brookline on Friday (Oct. 25) to close out the duel-meet season. Both meets will be at the Babson College pool.