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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
The Needham High School boys varsity swim and dive team started their season off with a strong performance against Boston College High School on Thursday, winning all three relay events (200 Medley, 200 Freestyle, 400 Freestyle) as well as multiple standout individual performances.
Veteran swimmers Eric Zhu, Henry Keegan, Nick Lombardo, Serge Sonkin, Alex Ektov, Grishka Barboy, and Andrei Treil, all contributed greatly in Needham’s success in these relay victories for the Rockets. This large group of Rockets also had state qualifying times in each of the three relay events.
Notable individual state qualifying times for the Rockets include Andrei Treil (Sectionals for 200 Individual Medley), Serge Sonkin (Sectionals for 100 Butterfly and States for 50 Freestyle), Ben Shapiro (Sectionals for 1m diving), Henry Keegan (Sectionals for 200 Freestyle and States for 500 Freestyle), and Eric Zhu (Sectionals for 100 Freestyle).
Needham head coach Adam Cole praised his team following the strong collective performance against the Eagles on Thursday.
"The boys have been working hard since the first day of practice,” said Cole. They are enthusiastic about the team and motivated to meet their individual and team goals. We are off to an exciting start and we look forward to our next meet and seeing what even more of our guys are capable of."
At the time of print, the Rockets are set to return to the pool on Wednesday, December 21 against Belmont High School.
