Bulldog swimmer wins double gold at D2 state meet
By Jay Turner
Sebastian Melendez poses with one of his two gold medals. (CHS Swim Team on Twitter)
Canton High junior swimmer Sebastian Melendez further etched his name into the school record books on Saturday, capturing double gold in a dazzling performance at the MIAA Division 2 Boys Swimming and Diving Championships at Boston University.
Competing in his two strongest events, Melendez swam with poise and purpose, shattering his seed times in both the 200 and 500 freestyle en route to a pair of first-place finishes.
“Sebastian’s worked at this for a long time,” head coach Cheryl Cavanaugh said of her star swimmer, who took second and third at last year’s state meet. “He swims almost 12 months out of the year. He puts a lot of time, a lot of hard work, and a lot of effort into the sport.”
Amazingly, Melendez had not swam in two weeks after missing the sectional meet in order to attend a class trip to Italy. “But it looks like the pasta in Italy did him well,” Cavanaugh quipped.
In the 200 free, Melendez led wire to wire and set a new personal-best time of 1:41.99, topping the second-place swimmer, Belchertown’s Benjamin LaClair, by almost two full seconds.
His win in the 500 free was closer, but it was just as sweet as he again edged LaClair to claim his second gold medal of the day.
Cavanaugh said Melendez went “all out” in last year’s state final but lost steam as the race wore on. This year, he decided to pace himself, and the strategy worked to perfection as he overtook LaClair over the final 200 yards, finishing with a time of 4:41.58.
Besides the two gold medals, Melendez also competed in two relay events and helped lead the 200 free relay to a fifth-place medal in a field of 29 teams. The same quartet, featuring Diego Ferstler, Owen Guerini, and Sean Mitchell, placed 18th in the 400 free relay, while the CHS team of Ferstler, Guerini, Mitchell and Dan Nadeau placed 28th in the 200 medley relay.
Mitchell also competed individually in the 50-yard freestyle and placed an impressive 10th out of 31 competitors with a personal-best time of 22.56. Combined with Melendez’s two wins and the performance of the relays, the boys ended up with 75 points and placed 11th overall out of more than 50 teams.
The Canton girls, meanwhile, also sent a contingent to states, placing 30th as a team behind a stellar performance from senior captain Tiffany Ha. A previous state qualifier, Ha earned a seventh-place medal in the 100 backstroke with a personal-best time of 1:00.54. She also ribboned in the 100 free and competed in the 200 medley relay along with Briana Murphy, Maddie Nourse, and Dasol Lee.
Overall, Cavanaugh said she was thrilled by the Canton swimmers’ performance at states and characterized the season as a great success for both squads.
“I was nervous going in,” said Cavanaugh, a veteran swim coach who was nonetheless new to Canton. “I just wanted them to do better than what they had done before, and when they all started hitting their times and doing better times toward the end of the season, then I knew that it was a success.”
“They really are a great bunch of kids,” she added. “They were fun and exciting. They worked hard and there was a lot of camaraderie, so I’d have to say it was a very good year.”
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=32598
Posted by Jay Turner
on Feb 25 2016. Filed under High School, Sports.
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