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By Molly McLeod
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
On December 26, the Needham High School boys swimming and diving team beat Holliston to capture their third win of the season. The previous meets were close, but the Rockets managed to score wins on both counts and have won three straight to enter the new year still unbeaten. Needham swam against Belmont on December 11 for their first meet of the season, prevailing narrowly by a mere one point, and were victorious during their home opener on December 17 against Boston College High School.
A bit of adversity the Rockets were forced to face this season was taking on the challenge of graduating so many seniors from last year. Without this major point-scoring group, the team has had to rearrange what events swimmers are placed in, as well as relying more heavily on their class of freshman. Despite this challenge, the team still sports a 3-0 record and appears well prepared for future meets.
Sophomore Martin Barbera (pictured) shots off the starting block for the Individual Medley.
The meet against Holliston opened with diving, and the four Needham participants all did extremely well. Diving was followed immediately by the 200 medley relay.
During the 200 freestyle, junior Henry Keegan came in first by a large margin, scoring big points for the team. Senior co-captain Serge Sonkin won the 50 freestyle, coming in with a time of 22.67 seconds. Other notable swims included Lucas Pirner and Eric Zhu in the 100 freestyle, Andrei Treil in the 500 freestyle, Zach Lu in the 100 backstroke, and Henry Keegan in the 100 breaststroke.
The last event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay, was extremely close to begin with. Eventually, however, Needham’s “A” relay unit, composed of Serge Sonkin, Martin Block, David Lee, and Zach Lu, came in far ahead of the competition to conclude the meet and launch the Rockets to their third straight win to begin the season.
