The Acton-Boxborough Girls Swim and Dive Team is currently 1-2 for its 2022 fall season. Coming off last season’s State Championship, the team looks to rebuild from the departure of the deep graduated class of 2022 with several returning and new underclassmen. The team’s Senior Captains — Emma Lent, Hilary Zhang, and Camille Robbe – remain committed to continuing the winning chemistry and strong work ethic necessary to return to the state swim meet in November.
Despite these challenges, AB won its first meet of the season against Framingham High School on September 8th. In total, five girls qualified for States including Sophomore Isabela Teixeira who qualified in the 200 and 50 freestyle events, and Senior Captain Lent who qualified in the 200 IM and 100 breast events. Sophomores Caroline Tyrrell and Olivia Sater also had strong races and Junior Chelsea Zhou had a fast race in the 100 back finishing second to Tyrrell both of which finished with State qualifying times. AB also won all three team relays, and Senior Captain Robbe helped the team secure its win by placing first in diving.
The following week, AB traveled to Needham High School to face a historically strong opponent. “Needham is always an exciting meet,” said Senior Captain Lent, “they have a talented team and we have to swim our best to be competitive with them.” The team scores went back and forth throughout the night with Needham finishing first when all was said and done. Notable swims included Teixeira who won both her 200 and 100 freestyle events. Senior Bella Jiang swam a season-best time in her 50 and 100 freestyle events. Sophomore Katie Baxter also had two very solid performances in her 100 freestyle and lead-off leg of the 400 freestyle relay. Freshman Kira Kozhemiakina continued to improve on her 500 freestyle time dropping over nine seconds from the previous week. In the 100 breaststroke event, Senior Captain Lent, Junior Katie Crowley, and Sophomore Emily Zhou swept the event for first, second, and third place. Senior Captain Robbe demonstrated poise and experience and led the two new members of the diving team Senior Jennifer Baum and Senior Nicole Raguin to finish second, fourth, and sixth respectively. “Jenny and Nicole continue to improve, “said Senior Captain Robbe, “it is exciting to see the progress they have made in just a few weeks of starting to dive.”
Finally, AB traveled to an away meet and swam against Lexington at the Atkinson pool in Sudbury last Friday. The meet was once again extremely close and came down to the last relay where Lexington overcame AB by taking first and third in the 400 freestyle relay. “The girls had some great swims against Lexington,” recalled Coach Gretchen Turner, “Lexington came out really strong and it was an exciting meet to be a part of.” AB began the meet by taking first in the 200-yard medley relay with Tyrrell, Lent, Teixeira and Baxter swimming a season-best time. The talented sophomore class also showed its depth by earning points for the team in several events throughout the meet. Tyrrell swam state qualifying times in the 200 IM and 100 breast events, taking second and third place respectively. Baxter took second in the 50 free, Teixeira took first in the 500 free and 100 breast, Sater took third in both the 200 and 100 freestyle and Alice Hui took third in the 200 free and second in the 100 back.