The Reading Girls Swim Team pulls a Three-Peat!

The Reading Girls Swim Team is definitely one of the stronger teams that competes for the Reading Memorial High School as shown through their records. For the past three seasons (2015, 2016, 2017), the girls swim team held a 9-0 record for all of their dual meets in the Middlesex League. The team has also won the League Meet throughout all three seasons as well. This made the Reading Memorial High School Girls Swim Team the Middlesex League and League Meet Champions for three years in a row.

The girls swim team works as a unit. One note that the coaches, Neil Gillis and Lois Margeson emphasize, is that “All places matter”. No matter how you are seeded, try your hardest. Of course coming in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd is amazing, but 4th and 5th count a lot in the long run. What makes this team so special is it’s variety, which allows the team to collect so many points. The team has swimmers who are guaranteed to place in the top 3, and has swimmers to place for either 4-6th. The top places earn the team a lot of points but when all of the 4th and 5th place points are added up, the team rises to the top.

After dual meet season the Reading Girls Swim Team headed to League Meet, Sectionals and then States. The Reading Rockets won League Meet, came in second at Sectionals, and brought the first place trophy home at State.

At sectionals the Reading Girls Team faced all of the Massachusetts North high school swim teams. Their biggest rival being Andover. At sectionals everyone improved their times and 5 new team records were made. The 200 Medley Relay of Molly Jones, Anna Roberts, Jillian Rhodes and Alana Loughman came in first with a new team record time of 1:49.72. Molly Hamlin dominated the 100 fly and broke the team record with a 3rd place finish at a time of 57.70. Molly Hamlin also dominated the 100 free by breaking the team record and coming in first overall with a time of 55.07. She was followed by Alana Loughman who placed in 3rd with a time of 53.74. The 200 Free Relay of Kayla Loughman, Anna Roberts, Maura Letendre, and Alana Loughman placed a new team record and came in first with a time of 1:37.70. Anna Roberts broke the 100 Breaststroke team record by finishing 1st overall with a time of 1:05.20. She was followed by Kayla Loughman who placed 7th with a time of 1:09.46. During this meet, Maddie Doyle was diving in another pool adjacent to the main pool. Maddie Doyle broke the team diving record with a score of 434.10 for eleven dives, and she finished 2nd overall. Maura Letendre summarized this experience, “We came in second at the sectional meet which was really cool because we went up against teams much larger than us. Then, we won states which was our ultimate goal and it was so cool to be back to back state champions!”

As stated by Alana Loughman, “We work our hardest and it all finally paid off when states came around.” The Reading Memorial High School Girls Swim Team’s contributions to the school's athletics has definitely altered other town’s thoughts on the sportsmanship, skill, communication, trust, and commitment of Reading sports. Captains Kirsten Stevens and Jillian Rhodes lead this once in a blue moon team to an absolute victory this past season, and no one could disagree.