Spartans Swim Earns Win On Senior Night

The Spartans will head into the post-season following a 51-47 win over Agawam last Tuesday afternoon.

With the girls also winning 64-37 over the Brownies, it’s safe to say the Spartans senior night was a huge success. 

The boys finished with a regular season record of 6-3, alongside the girls’ 7-2 record, demonstrating impressive coaching from Brad Mills. 

However, recalling from what Mills mentioned earlier on in the dual-meet season, the team is less focused on their overall record, rather geared more towards improving their individual performances. 

This goal was put into action in the Spartans’ final two meets of the regular season, triumphing over Chicopee Comp 113-62 prior to the Agawam meet. 

In the Agawam meet, however, there were no shortages of individual performances, highlighting first place finishes from freshman Benjamin Zhao in the 200-yard individual medley and junior captain Thomas Fitzgerald in diving.

Fitzgerald’s co-captain, senior Nick Carlone, also helped guide his relay team, consisting of junior Tyler Zalewski, sophomore Daniel Kirchner, and freshman Jeff Carlone, to a win in the 200-yard freestyle.

For Carlone, leading and being apart of the team has been something that he takes pride in.

“I am very proud of the fact that we have made sure every team member to felt included this year and was having fun,” Carlone said. “I think that if we continue to keep our attitudes up and trust the process, we will achieve an even greater level of success at the postseason meets.”

His co-captain Fitzgerald added to the pride that he too feels for his team, talking more about how much the team has had to overcome throughout the season to get to where they are.

“I am extremely proud of how this team has performed, especially with our pool being unusable and having to miss practice,” Fitzgerald said. “However, despite these challenges, everyone has performed extremely well and it’s nothing short of impressive.”

One of the reasons the Spartans swimmers were able to easily overcome those challenges was by coming together outside of the pool.

“The team spends lots of time together in and out of practice, whether it be going out to eat or eating at our own pasta parties before meets,” Fitzgerald said. “This team bonding has made all of the meets more enjoyable, provides a great medium to remove stress, and allows everyone to put in their best work while having a great time.”

While Carlone agrees with his coach, Mills, in saying that swimming is an “individual sport,” he also acknowledged that team chemistry is a “necessity.”

For both captains, team chemistry has helped motivate themselves and is a good tool to help them motivate the rest of their team. 

“There would be basically zero motivation to come and swim on a team with little team chemistry,” Carlone said.

“Nick and I have both been very encouraging before each meet, during practice, and when seeing teammates day-to-day,” Fitzgerald said. “It has been helpful in keeping everyone motivated while they are all working so strenuously and it’s allowed everyone to improve.”

The work the Spartans still need to put in, however, is going on right now as they head towards the post-season.

“The tweaks we make in between meets do little to benefit our success from meet-to-meet, but they one hundred percent are a big contributor to the time drops that occur at post-season meets,” Carlone said.  “The culmination of all the small tweaks made during the whole season is what makes the big difference.”

The Spartans swimming squad competes in their post-season meet this Saturday.