READING, MA — The Reading Boys Swim Team had a strong showing in the Middlesex League Championship meet, racking up several personal bests. On January 31, the Middlesex League’s seven swim teams met at Bentley College, with Reading placing third in the league meet overall, being edged out for second place by the combined Arlington/Watertown team. Belmont won the meet overall.
Starting the meet for the Rockets was the 200-yard medley relay squad of Aidan Herlihy, Liam Green, Andrew McCarthy, and David McCann, who finished third in 1:49.90, improving their previous sectional-qualifying cut time.
Reading scored again with back-to-back second and third-place finishes in the 200-yard Freestyle with Rory O’Neil and Aidan Herlihy respectively finishing in 1:56.37 and 1:56.59. In the 200-yard Individual Medley, Andrew McCarthy completed in 2:13.37, good for fourth place. In the 50-yard Freestyle sprint, Liam Green captured second place with a 23.13 and David McCann placed sixth overall with a 24.93. Flying in the 100-yard Butterfly was Rory O’Neil with a 1:00.62, good for fifth place in the league.
Aidan Herlihy earned 3rd place in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:16.62 time, improving his Sectional-qualifying cut time. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, David McCann, Leo Diedrich, Thomas Cockrell, and Rory O’Neil earned 5th place with a 1:41.30.
Tapping the wall first in the 100-yard breaststroke was Liam Green with a 1:02.38 League winning time, with Andrew McCarthy in third with a 1:04.02, both earning spots in that race at the State championship.
Lastly, the 4 X 100 Yard freestyle relay swum by Aidan Herlihy, Andrew McCarthy, Rory O’Neil, and Liam Green in 3:35.62 finished third, just missing a state cut time. However, these same four relay swimmers punched their ticket to the State Championship meet in a last-chance meet a few days later, smashing the cut time by 3 seconds with a 3:31.63.
The Rockets’ League record for the regular season was 5-1, losing only to eventual champion Belmont. A total of 27 personal bests happened at the league meet. Thomas Cockrell, Leo Deidrich, Liam Green, Aidan Herlihy, Andrew McCarthy, Rory O’Neil, Kai Richardson, and Will Strack move on to sectionals on February 11 at Worcester Polytechnical Institute with the State Championship the following weekend at MIT.
