Walking into the Cranford Memorial Pool, the boys and girls swim teams both arrived with something to prove.
Already tasting victory, captains Hudson Wilcomes and Danny Pierce stood above the eager sea of their teammates, delivering their pre-meet speech. With Westfield ranking 1st overall in Union County Conference and Cranford ranking 6th, the boys were confident the meet would end in celebration for Westfield.
“Use this as an opportunity to prove yourselves,” Pierce told the underclassmen.
Holding a strong lead for the duration of the meet, Westfield was presented with the perfect circumstance for new members of the team to show their capabilities and allowed seniors to swim in different events. Head coach Jeff Knight said, “This was a meet that gave us an opportunity to mix things up a bit and some guys really stepped up. I couldn’t be prouder of the guys, and some of them even put themselves into consideration for spots at counties.”
Crushing Cranford with a final score of 125-45, Westfield was successful in “caging the Cougars”, according to senior Owen Waibel. Although predictable, this win was still important for the team, continuing their undefeated record and making them all the more intimidating.
Wilcomes said, “We have some big meets coming up, and counties on the way. We’re obviously looking to win, but also to get in our opponents head. Beat them before we even get in the water. We want to show everyone why we’re the No. 1 team in the state.”
Junior Logan Welsh had a memorable performance, placing third in the 50 free with a time of 24.44 seconds, and placing first in the 100 Breast, with a time of 1:07.50. “He had a fantastic day and even got named Bubbakoos swimmer of the meet,” said Knight.
Senior Logan Swenson, was responsible for the success in the 4×100 freestyle relay, placing first and adding eight points to Westfield’s score. The relay consisted of sophomore Ben Lane, junior Max Laskow, junior Alex Fu with Swenson solidifying their win as the anchor. With the help of his teammates, Swenson finished the relay at 3:42.57, beating his competitors by an upward of 10 seconds. Swenson said, “It’s about racing the person next to you, not racing the clock. We’re not going for time as much as we are to beat the guy next to us.”
Waibel and Wilcomes also contributed greatly to Westfield’s victory, placing first and second in the 100 backstroke, respectively; Waibel with a time of 56.03 and Wilcomes with a time of 58.31.
The meet was not as celebratory for the girls team, losing to Cranford with a final score of 90-80. Senior captains Sophia Fussman and Emily Kapuscinski knew Cranford would be a tough fight, especially when missing key swimmers senior Brooke McAndrew, junior CeCe Wiggins and sophomore Jane Kavanagh.
Head coach Steve Whittington said, “We were put in a position that in order to stay competitive we needed to place 2nd, 3rd and 4th in our events. We did this for the majority of the meet, but at the end of the day their final breaststroke was too much for us.”
While the absence of three swimmers is not ideal, the meet was not all melancholy. Fussman said, “We’re very proud of Avery. When Brooke and Jane, our two freestyle swimmers, were sick she really stepped up.” Freshman Avery Levitt swam four events: the 200 medley relay, 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle relay. Placing 2nd in both her relays and 3rd in her individual events, Levitt had a notable meet.
“We have a tough group of girls who fought every bit of the way,” Whittington said. “To win as a team we need every little piece of the puzzle. Every swim counts and we saw that today, we were right there till the very end.”
Despite the girls’ loss, they are not discouraged and look forward to the rest of the season.
However the different outcomes, the boys and girls are still supporting the same team, and their cheers throughout the meet were proof of this. Wilcomes said, “We’re always on the sidelines cheering our boys and girls on. We want to get loud for every event no matter who’s swimming it.”
The Blue Devils will continue their cheers on Jan. 14 at 2:30 p.m., facing New Providence at the Westfield YMCA.
