Page 12 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, January 17, 2020 MVRCS swimmers continue to excel T he 12-time defending Commonwealth Athletic Conference (CAC) swim champions, Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, took to the water last week for a pair of meets. The Eagles dispatched of conference foes Blue Hills Tech, 8753, and came back two days later to defeat Minuteman, 85.5 to 63.5 – upping their record to 5-0 on the season. In the Blue Hills meet, junior Tracy Lam added another cut in the 100 freestyle, and sophomore Andy DiFiore continued his strong season with a pair of wins, including a lifetime best in the 100 back. Junior Joe Cirame also won twice – in both the 100 breast and 200 individual medley – and freshman sensation Jeremy Cheng added another state cut in the 100 fly. Senior Sam Lyon also won twice, showing his versatility by sprinting to victory in the 50 free and showing endurance and stamina en route to a win in the 500 free. “The team was tested mentally as we traveled down to Canton for our first away meet of the season,” first-year head coach Andrew DiGiacomo said. “Being out of their element we won all events and had some great swims after being in the bus for over an hour. The younger swimmers are doing a fantastic job of attacking every meet, and our upperclassmen are showing tremendous leadership by helping to guide them through the season. Very proud of all the effort here.” Back in familiar waters as Minuteman came to town, it was much of the same as freshman Armando Indresano notched his first state cut in the 50 freestyle and junior Bryant Nguyen did the same in the same event. Lyon continued to excel, turning in a lifetime best in the 200 individual medley, and seventh grader RJ Tayag, a future star, won the 100 butterfly. “By far our best meet of the season so far,” DiGiacomo said. “What was most surprising is the variety of different swimmers winning races and going best times while we are still training very hard. I am extremely proud of the toughness and excitement being shown by all the swimmers.” Malden High coed swim still unbeaten (5-0) with wins over Medford, Arlington By Steve Freker t’s all “Ws” so far for the Malden High coed swim team, which put up another Greater Boston League victory, this time over archrival Medford on Friday, January 10. Another full team effort lifted Malden to a 96-72 final and a perfect 4-0 record (3-0 GBL). Golden Tornadoes sophomores Chloe Akombi, who set a new school record in the 100-yard breaststroke in her previous meet, and David Lombardi led the way as each had wins in two individual events. Lombardi won the 200-yard individual medley (2:12.6) and the 100-yard backstroke (59.11 seconds), and Akombi won her signature event, the 100-yard breaststroke (1:12.53), and the 100-yard butterfly (1:04.12).Other Golden Tornadoes first-place finishers included sophomore Tony Giech in the 50-yard freestyle (24.17 seconds), senior Haoxi Wang in the 100-yard freestyle (52.00 seconds) and Nathan Nguyen in the 500-yard I freestyle (5:47.45). Malden also won the three relay events; one of them was raced unofficially. The Golden Tornadoes took first place in the 200-yard medley relay with the foursome of Lombardi, Giech, Nguyen and Wang finishing in a time of 1:58.12. Wang, Lombardi, Giech and Ryan Vasili teamed up for a win at 1:41.57 in the 200yard freestyle relay. Unofficially, the team of Nguyen, Tony Luu, Steven Leung and Vasili won the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 4:12.62. Malden also took third and fourth in the 200 free relay: third: Akombi, Samantha Tang, Abby Tang and Wara Ramirez Morales at 2:14.46; fourth: Vinicius Mendes, Molly Sewell, Gelila Lemmay and Ayman Ali at 2:19.58. Junior Tony Luu took fourth in the 200 free at 2:30.24; Steven Leung was third (2:36.02), and Wara Ramirez Morales fourth (2:53.56) in the 200 individual The Malden High swim team gets hyped up before their meet with Arlington/Watertown on Monday. (Steve Freker Photo) SWIM | SEE PAGE 14
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