On December 14, 2016, the Choate swim teams raced against Suffield Academy and left with a fantastic win: boys at 97-89 and girls at 99-87; as a whole, our teams performed magnificently. Coach Sara Massa’s tips — such as making sure not to breathe within the flags — won the boys their first meet and the girls their second of the season. At this particular meet, six event records were broken, and nine records were broken in total.
A relay team consisting of Samantha Scott ’20, Izzy Peel ’19, Isabelle So ’20 and Josephine Mah ’18 broke the girls’ 200m Medley Relay school record, swimming a time of 2:04.39. Next, Samantha Scott ’20 broke the girls 50m Free school record, swimming a time of 27.45.
According to Samantha Scott ’20, her team came close to breaking the 200 Medley Relay at a previous meet against Andover. This time, Coach Massa adjusted the lineup to enhance their speed. Scott said, “We were just pumped and had it in our heads that we were going to get the record. We swam our hearts out. And in the end, it all worked out as we had hoped. ” She also stated that for the 50m Free record, she was not aware that she broke it or was even close to breaking it – she was solely focused on her technique and the pointers Coach Massa had given her, such as not breathing on her last stroke into the wall.
The same day, the boys’ team broke four event records, but seven including individual records.
A relay team consisting of Thomas Issa ’17, Jason Weng ’17, Tristan So ’17, and Scott Romeyn ’18 broke the school record for the 200m Medley Relay with a time of 1:47.98. They also managed to break the 400m Free Relay school record with a time of 3:35.29. They could have snagged the pool record for this 400m as well, but Suffield took first place and set a new pool record.
However, the Wild Boars also completed the 200m Free Relay with a time of 1:36.59, which set the new school record, pool record, and the biggest win of all, the New England Record. According to So, the four of them had only planned to break the school record. Finally, Scott Romeyn ’18 broke the boys’ 50m Free school record and pool record. He swam a time of 23.53, being the first to claim that record since Derek Moore ’93 set it in 1993.
With one win and one loss for the boys and two wins and zero losses for the girls, Choate’s swim teams are showing significant promise for the coming season.
