Second To One: Belmont Girls' Swimming Runners Up in State Championships

You usually don't see coaches enjoying the moment after their team finishes a close second.

But no one could have taken the smile off of Belmont High School Head Coach Ev Crosscup's face after his Girls' Swimming team finished a solid second to Attleboro's Bishop Feehan High School in the Division 2 state championships held Sunday afternoon, Nov. 17 at Harvard University's Blodgett Pool. 

I couldn't be more proud of this team, how they pulled together and all the hard work they did to get to this," said Crosscup, whose team finished second with 287.5 points, exactly 30 points behind Feehan and well ahead of Natick High with 159.5.

"They worked together hard, they have a tremendous spirit about everything they did. This was a total team win and that included the entire support system we had with everyone on the team," he said.

Leading the Marauders was sophomore sensation Jessie Blake-West who came home carrying two state championships; her specialty the 100 yard butterfly and a part of the 4x100 medley relay with teammates fellow sophomore Emily Quinn and seniors Anastasia Pulak and Jiaqi Li. 

In addition to the wins, Blake-West placed second in the 100 individual medley (2:11.27 behind Feehan's junior Mari Reidemeister who also won the 100 breast stroke) and the 4x200 freestyle relay (which she anchored, finishing behind Feehan) behind to end an active afternoon.

"It was amazing. It was a great day but I'm gonna go home and sleep," said an excited Blake-West.

In the 100 butterfly, unlike eight days ago when she trailed runner-up Mackenzie Niness of Notre Dame Academy-Worcester in the North Sectionals in the first half of the race, Blake-West powered to an opening 26.45 seconds 50 yards and expanded her margin to win in 56.87, nearly a second in front of Niness.

"I was hoping to get it but I wasn't sure. I'm really surprised," she said.

"I did the exact same time I went last weekend [at the North Sectionals which she won] so I was really happy to get back down to that level because that was my best time all season," she said. 

The medley relay win validated the team's victory in the North Sectionals as the first three kept the team up near the front and then allowed senior Pulak to swim away for a commanding win over Feehan, 1:51.87 to 1:52.97. Belmont's time would have also defeated the Division 1 winner, Chelmsford, by two one-hundredth of a second. 

There were some surprises for Belmont Sunday, the biggest was the exceptional diving put on by sophomore Cynthia Kelsey. Ranked 10th coming into the meet, Kelsey nailed dive after dive – including one that received 9s and 9.5s out of 10 – to push favorite Hannah Phelan of Walpole High (who won with 483.25 points) with every dive to finish in second with 432.05 points, well in front of the field.

"It's probably not my best meet but it's up there," said Kelsey. 

"What made the difference today is that my dives were more consistent from the beginning to the end," she said.

Another surprise came in Belmont's best event, the 100 breaststroke, where one of Crosscup's most dependable swimmers came through on the big stage. Swimming in an earlier heat, senior Taylor Coutinho swam the race of the season, going four seconds faster then her previous best to finish in 6th with a 1:11.77 (and earning a medal)  and earning 13 points. Each of the four Belmont swimmers took home points with Quinn taking 3rd in 1:09.28 followed closely by junior Klaudia Nagrabska in 1:09.42 with Sarah Osborn in tied 10th with 1:13.48. The quartet took home 50.5 points for Belmont. 

Senior Haruka Uchida took third in the grueling 500 free in 5:22.28 and fourth in the 200 free in 2:00.97. Coutinho finished in sixth in the 500 (5:34.59) with Sara Noorouzi scoring in 15th (5:45.59) while junior Eunice Lee finished in 13th (2:08.17) and Solvay Melelmann earned a point in 16th (2:09.35) in the 200 free.

Junior Maya Nagashima finished in fourth in her speciality, the 100 backstroke in 1:02.15 with Li 15th in 1:05.24. 

A senior-filled relay – Nagashima, Pulak, Uchida and 10th grader Melemann – captured seventh in the 4x200 freestyle in 1:46.33 24. 

Just before the relay, Pulak finished in 8th in the 50 free style in 25.84.

Saying that Bishop Feehan's swimmers were "excellent" and well coached, "that's not taking anything away from our kids. I couldn't have asked any more," said Crosscup.