Swim strokes to success

Courtesy of Jeff Slovin

Senior Jonathan Batista swims toward the finish line at the Mid-Wach league championships on January 29.

Brianna Burns and John Leach
February 24, 2015

The swim team has put together a 55 meet winning streak in their fourth straight undefeated regular season.
Jean Fedak has been coaching the swim program since its establishment eighteen years ago. She has won three Midland Wachusett League Championships and trained sectional and state qualifying swimmers on her team each season.
This year’s team is led by senior co-captains Drew Beland and Brooke Ward, along with a strong force of upperclassmen including Jonathan Batista, Dorian McMenemy, Kevin Shi, Peter Byrne, Isabelle Seppa, and Ethan McRae. Batista, McMenemy, and Beland have already committed to colleges for swimming.
“The team knows the benefits of having many strong swimmers on the team, but they also understand how important their own roles are in supporting their team leaders,” Fedak said.
According to Batista and Ward, this year’s team has a great amount of depth compared to those of past seasons.
“In the past years, people have been relying on the top swimmers to get things done,” Ward said. “This year, people are realizing that every swim counts in a meet in order to win.”


Fedak believes that the swimmers who might not be the fastest sometimes make the difference in close matchups.
“Without the second, third, fourth, and fifth place finishes behind those firsts, we could not win meets,” Fedak said.
Although a long term win streak suggests the swim team has conquered opponents effortlessly in the regular season, they had close matchups with Westboro, Bromfield and Tyngsboro.
Batista and Beland felt the pressure as they headed towards their fourth straight undefeated season.
“We feel like we have to win every meet,” Batista said. “I feel that everyone else feels the same way just because we’ve won so many meets and we don’t want to lose that streak.”
“We’re a team that does well under pressure,” Beland said. “We take every meet one at a time. Every meet is serious to us, no matter how strong the team that we face is.”
Junior Mackenzie Hostage, who specializes in the 50 meter freestyle, emphasized that the pressure of winning has helped unify the team. With this team chemistry, she stressed that the team set a goal of winning leagues.
“We have our sights set on leagues,” Hostage said. “Nobody’s worried but we always have to work. It doesn’t come easy.”

Unfortunately, the team finished second place at leagues behind Tyngsboro, failing to achieve their main goal. However, the team did not let that loss impact how they felt about their strong season. The program’s swimmers have earned their individual achievements, but their success has been rooted within teamwork and camaraderie.
“[Swimming] is kind of an individual sport, but we make it a team sport,” Batista said. “Everyone’s cheering for each other, everyone supports each other, everyone wants everyone to do well.”
Eight individuals and five relays qualified for the state tournament.
The team and especially the senior members hope to finish strong and, despite the outcome of leagues, enjoy their final races of the season.
“I hope that twenty years from now they will look back on their time on the Algonquin swim team and remember the fun and the good friends that they had,” Fedak said.