Harney, Thompson win gold at league meet
By Jay Turner
The Canton girls swim team placed 4th at the league championships. (CHS Swim photo)
Shauna Harney and Matt Thompson both brought home the gold and another relay team qualified for states as the Canton High swim program continued its late-season surge with an impressive showing at last weekend’s Hockomock League Championship meet in Milford.
The girls team, fresh off winning its second consecutive Davenport Division title with a perfect 5-0 record, combined for 235 points to finish fourth overall behind three Kelley-Rex Division teams: Oliver Ames, Franklin and King Philip. The boys, meanwhile, racked up 191 points to place a respectable sixth out of 12 schools (and third best in the Davenport).
Harney, the freshman phenom who has qualified for states in five different events, shined in her first league meet — winning the 200IM by more than two full seconds and placing sixth in the 100-yard butterfly. She was also a key member of two top-five relays: the 200 free along with Maddie Rousseau, Brianna Gilchrist and Jessie Hart, and the 400 free along with Rousseau, Gilchrist and Matigan O’Brien.
The latter relay smashed their previous best time with a mark of 4:04.75, which puts them within striking distance of qualifying for states with one more shot this weekend at the MIAA south sectionals at MIT. The 200 free relay will also aim to qualify for states while the 200 medley relay has already locked up a spot in both postseason tournaments. (The medley team of Tema Mazonson, Hart, O’Brien and Amy Coe took sixth at the league meet.)
The other standout for the lady Bulldogs at the Hock Championships was Hart, who took second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:13.95. The junior improved on her third-place finish from last season and enters sectionals with the eighth-best time out of 28 qualified swimmers.
On the boys’ side, Thompson was one of several Bulldog swimmers to post a personal-best, improving on his state-qualifying time in the 200 free to win the event in 1:55.29. Canton’s other postseason qualifier, Javier Ferstler, scored a pair of sixth-place finishes in both the 50 free and 100 backstroke, while Brendan Mitchell took sixth in the 200IM — knocking four seconds off his previous best time — and fifth in the 500 free.
Canton also placed in the top six in all three relays, led by the 400 freestyle team of Thompson, Ben Guerini, Mitchell and Ferstler, who placed fifth and qualified for states with a season-best time of 3:42.36.
The 200 free relay team, which has also qualified for states, finished sixth behind Devin Kelly, Guerini, Ethan Nguyen and Eric Pham, while the sectional-qualifying 200 medley relay also took sixth behind Ferstler, Thompson, Mitchell and Pham.
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Posted by Jay Turner
on Feb 7 2020. Filed under High School, Sports.
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