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Page 14 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, March 1, 2024 MVRCS boys swimming places 10th at MIAA D2 State Championship By Emily Brennan T he Mystic Valley Regional Charter School boys swim team recently concluded their season at the MIAA Division 2 State Championships. The Eagles faced great competition around the state and finished 10th overall with 100 points. Leading off the meet, the team of Dylan Phan, Thomas Sodeyama-Cardoso, Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso and Lucas Freitas dropped almost a full second off their 200-medley relay best time to earn an 11th place finish at 1:45.0. Sophomore Jaden Anthony followed in the 200 Freestyle scoring while placing 15th at 1:50.48. Anthony also swam the 100 freestyle later in the day but finished out of the scoring with a time of 50.6. In the next event, the 200 Individual Medley, in which the swimmer swims two lengths of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, Mystic Valley senior captain Jason Yan finished 10th in a personal best time at 2:04.05, just ahead of teammates and sophomores Shown from left to right: Christian Antonucci, Jason Yan, Jaden Anthony and Lucas Freitas. Shown from left to right: Lucas Freitas, Christian Antonucci, Jason Yan, Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso, Jaden Anthony and Thomas Sodeyama-Cardoso. Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso and Christian Antonucci finishing 11th and 12th, respectively in 2:04.44 and 2:05.62. It is rare to have three swimmers score in any event. Thomas and Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso took home 9th and 13th place, respectively, scoring valuable points in the 500-yard freestyle. Thomas finished just shy of a podium appearance Beacon Hill Roll Call By Bob Katzen GET A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO MASSTERLIST – Join more than 22,000 people, from movers and shakers to political junkies and interested citizens, who start their weekday morning with MASSterList—the popular newsletter that chronicles news and informed analysis about what’s going on up on Beacon Hill, in Massachusetts politics, policy, media and influence. The stories are drawn from major news organizations as well as specialized publications. MASSterlist will be e-mailed to you FREE every Monday through Friday morning and will give you a leg up on what’s happening in the blood sport of Bay State politics. For more information and to get your free subscription, go to: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/aPTLucK THE HOUSE AND SENATE: There were no roll calls in the House or Senate last week. Beacon Hill Roll Call’s research shows that so far there are at least eleven bills that have been approved unanimously by the Senate in 2023 but are languishing in the House Ways and Means Committee as of February 23, 2024. With no opposition in the Senate, observers question why the bills have not yet been considered and approved by the House. Under House rules, any individual representative can move to discharge any and all if these bills from the Ways and Means Committee. There is a 7-day waiting period prior to the House considering the motion to discharge. The discharge motion must receive a majority vote of the members present. If the measure is discharged from the committee, the committee has four days within which to report out the measure for placement on the House’s agenda for action. A bill may also be discharged from the Ways and Means Committee by any representative by filing a petition signed by a majority of the House. The bill would then be discharged seven days later and go onto the House agenda for the next session. A state representative who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Beacon Hill Roll Call that some bills are sometimes held up in committee because someone in a high position of power either inside or outside the Statehouse is opposed to it. “Rank and file members have little control over with a time of 5:02.13. Kevin dropped almost 5 seconds from his lifetime best to finish 13th in 5:07.61. With an 11th place time of 2:04.44, Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso slashed seconds off his 200 IM for another personal best. Sodeyama-Cardoso was followed by Christian Antonucci, who finished 12th in 2:05.62. The Eagles’ strongest swim of the bill if a powerful person wants the measure buried,” said the legislator. An ex-state representative who wished to remain anonymous said, "Although under House rules, every representative has the power to attempt to discharge a bill, hardly any attempt is made to do this out of fear of alienating the powerful speaker, his leadership team and committee chairs." Beacon Hill Roll Call’s archives show that motions to discharge a bill from a committee and bring it to the full House for debate and a vote were a common practice back in the 1970s and 1980s. Beacon Hill Roll Call contacted the House Speaker’s office and and asked why the bills are still in committee. We received this e-mail response: “Each of those bills are currently being reviewed by the House, with a continued focus on fiscal responsibility,” said Max Ratner, a spokesman for House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy). He also cited three important bills that were approved by the House in November 2023, December 2023 and January 2024 and are in the Senate Ways and Means Committee awaiting action. Beacon Hill Roll Call will report on those bills in a future report. Here are five of the important bills that were approved unanimously by the event came from senior captain Jason Yan, who added a 10th place finish to the Eagles’ score card with a time of 2:04.05. Mystic Valley’s 200 freestyle relay team of Anthony, Yan, Lucas Freitas and Antonucci turned in a solid 8th place performance and a podium appearance and medal in a time of 1:33.57. As all four are underclassmen, it points to an excellent future. After the podium appearance, sophomore Antonucci was back in the water for another fantasthe Senate and are currently in the House Ways and Means Committee: GENDER X (S 2429) On July 27, 2023, the Senate 39-0, approved and sent to the House a bill that would allow Bay Staters to choose the gender-neutral designation “X” in lieu of “male” or “female” on their birth certificates and marriage certificates. Another provision in the bill codifies into law a current practice that allows individuals to select “X” as their gender designation on their driver’s license, learner’s permit, identification card and liquor purchase identification card. In addition, current state law requires medical documentation in order to change a gender designation on a birth certificate. The bill does away with that requirement. Similar proposals were approved by the Senate during the 2018, 2020 and 2022 sessions but died from inaction in the House. “People know what gender they are,” said sponsor Sen. Jo Comerford (D-Northampton). “This bill affirms the ability of people to choose a non-binary gender option on state documents and forms, which would align the commonwealth with many other states that have adopted this designation …Together, with our partners in the House, we will continue to move tic swim and did not disappoint, dropping nearly two seconds from his previous best time and finishing 10th in the 100 breaststroke at 1:01.8. Antonucci’s time makes him the 3rd fastest in the event in Eagles history. In the final event of the day, Antonucci teamed up with Yan, Anthony and Kevin Sodeyama-Cardoso to produce a sixthplace finish, the teams highest of the day, in the 400-free relay with a time of 3:24.7. With the 2023-24 season in the rearview mirror, fifth-year Head Coach Andrew DiGiacomo has high hopes for the 2024-25 season and looks to the future of the program with great excitement and anticipation. “After coming in 3rd last year, and the number of seniors we lost to graduation, we came into this meet with expectations to set the stage for a young group of swimmers over the next couple of years,” said coach DiGiacomo. “Overall, it was a very good meet and as a team we will use this as a learning experience to continue to aim for a state championship in the coming years.” our commonwealth to embrace this basic human right.” “Giving people the opportunity to be who they are is a human right and one that we are proud to extend to every member of the commonwealth, regardless of how they identify,” said Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) who first introduced the bill in 2017. “Allowing a nonbinary option for state licenses and birth certificates is fundamental to building a society that welcomes, protects and respects all individuals … I am as hopeful as ever that Massachusetts will be able to enshrine this change into our state laws this session and continue welcoming everyone into our commonwealth with open arms.” Although no senators voted against the bill, there was opposition from some outside groups. Catholic Action League Executive Director C.J. Doyle called the bill a “malign, non-rational proposal” that will “require the state to affirm and give legal sanction to the ideologically driven delusion that gender is a subjective social construct, which can be altered arbitrarily and capriciously, rather than what it is, which is an objective and immutable biological reality." "It will make government a party BHRC| SEE PAGE 16

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