SALEM — The Northeastern Conference swim meet kicked off Tuesday night at Salem State with the Marblehead boys scoring 296 points to come out on top for the conference crown.
“This meet is always fun,” Marblehead coach Susan Guertin said. “You never know who’s going to come out on top and a lot of the kids put their 100 percent effort in. For us it was really tough because last week was midterms so a lot of the kids didn’t get in the water much. We had a great meet and that’s what it is all about.”
First place finishers for the Magicians included Brian Coleman (22.84) in the 50-yard freestyle. The group of Theo Chemel, Nate Pulido, Lucas Perez and Coleman took first in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
English may have not come out on top in boys swimming but junior Hannah Trahant set a new milestone with a first place finish in the girls’ one-meter diving.
“It was really exciting,” Bulldogs coach Lisa Trahant, Hannah’s mother, said. “I didn’t even know until right before the results were read. It’s big being a Northeast Conference all-star in first place. She had a great meet. She landed a lot of dives, her last two dives were really high. This year she had a lot of firsts in diving. She improved a lot this year. Her hard work paid off and I’m proud of her as her mom too.”
English tied with Salem for 12th overall.
“We had a great season,” Trahant said. “Our overall record was 3-4 so I’m really proud of that. I have three seniors that are competing today that have been with me for four years, Andy Nhiv, Peter Phelan and Erik Whittier. It’s bittersweet because it’s their last meet before the City Meet (Saturday). Overall I’m really proud of the team. They worked hard all year long and because of that we had great results.”
Classical finished with 88 points to take 11th place but coach Denise Silva was looking for individual improvements in the NEC meet.
“We wound up 3-5,” Silva said. “We had a good season with a big team. Individually, we were improving every single meet we had and that is so encouraging. We had a Moynihan Lumber Student Athlete of the Month in Carly Mendonca which was also great encouragement. This is a fun group to be with. I got 100 percent from everybody, we practice five days a week and we probably had a good 95 percent of the team everyday. We were just looking to get personal bests today.”
Peabody also had some impressive performances coming in eighth place (160 points). Senior William Connolly placed fifth in the 50-yard freestyle and second in the 100-yard breaststroke.
“Will always does good in the 50 freestyle and the 100 breast,” Peabody coach Maureen Shea said. “There are a lot of real good teams at this meet. We had lost to Malden in a crossover meet by one point and beat Revere by three points. It’s been neck-and-neck. We have been up there and can hold our own.”
Other first place finishes included Danvers (who placed second as a team with 278 points) in the 200-yard medley relay and the 100-yard backstroke (Jared Casey, 57.18). Matthew Brown of Swampscott (5:08.79) took first place in the 500-yard freestyle.
“Matthew Brown wound up winning the 500 freestyle, which was awesome,” Swampscott coach Christopher Havens said. “We had a lot of times drop tonight which is what we like to see overall.
“Overall we had a really good season. It was better than last year’s so we’re on the way up. We had a lot of really close meets and were able to come out 3-5. Tonight we had a lot of fast swimmers.”
The conference meet will wrap up Wednesday with the girls’ swimming events.