CHS swim teams fall to league powerhouse KP

By Jeffrey Cattel

After a week with no meets because of inclement weather, the CHS girls’ and boys’ swim teams faced one of the league’s toughest competitors, King Philip. Despite losing the meet 105-59 on the boys’ side and 96-69 on the girls’ side, the Bulldogs showed dramatic improvement.

“What I’m looking at is a tough, powerhouse team [KP],” coach Lori Mooney said. “But our swimmers swam fantastically, with many dropping their time considerably.”

On the girls’ side, Isobel Heck and Rachel McHugh dropped their times significantly in the 500-yard freestyle. Heck swam a 7:16:83, a 32-second drop from the start of the season, while McHugh swam a 7:51:56, an 18-second drop from just the previous meet. In the 100-yard butterfly, Canton’s top three finishers — Felicia Lee, Christa Corkham and Olivia Kenyon — all had personal bests.

The boys showed similar marked improvement. Eric Newton dropped his time in the 200-yard individual medley by seven seconds to finish 2:21:49, and Scott Rosenblatt shaved off 10 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke to finish 1:26:35. Other strong performances on the boys’ side came from captain Evan Leibovitz, who finished the 50-yard freestyle in 25:70 seconds, and Eddie El Massih, who stepped up to swim the 200-yard free and finished in 3:08:80.

Mooney attributed the swimmers’ continued drop in times to a focus on the finer points in races.

“They really have become more aware of their bodies in the pool,” she said.

But more than drops in times, Mooney said she and coach Chris Murtagh were impressed by the Bulldogs’ performance against a strong team like King Philip.

“Two swimmers on [KP] have Olympic trial times, and that’s unheard of in the Hockomock League,” Mooney said. “It could have been intimidating, could have taken the wind out of their sails, but [the Bulldogs] rose to the occasion.”

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