Despite the challenges that they were faced with this season, the Ipswich High School swim team managed to finish their season strong with many exciting achievements. Although the girls’ team record of 1-7 and the boys’ team record of 0-7 might not express this, the team accomplished many goals over the past few months. While discussing this past season, Mackenzie Greenleaf, one of the co-captains of the swim team, stated, “I was so impressed by all the swimmers this season. Everyone stepped up to the challenge and put in an amazing effort”.

One of the major challenges that the team faced this season was their small size. The Ipswich swim team is the smallest swim team in the Cape Ann League, which caused many problems with creating the lineups for meets. The team’s coach, Alex Beauvais, stated in an interview with the Ipswich Chronicle that “it’s pretty tricky because we don’t have enough swimmers to compete in every event.” The boys’ team was made up of only five swimmers this season; three of the five members are seniors who will no longer be on the team next year. Not only is the Ipswich swim team the smallest team in the Cape Ann Leauge, but they are also the only team in the league that is made up of only one town. Beauvais explained that “several of the teams are co-op teams with another school or, we face teams like Masconomet and Triton that have several towns that go to their schools.” Sandy Colameta, a sophomore on the swim team, mentioned that “I just wish more people would join the swim team because it really is so much fun!”

Colameta is one of the many swimmers who had several tremendous achievements this past season. This season, she qualified for both the sectional and state meet in several different events. “My biggest achievements this season were at sectionals,” she stated, “I broke 2 minutes in the 200-yard freestyle which has been my goal for a very long time”. In addition to Colameta’s solo achievements, she mentioned that “our 200-yard freestyle relay broke the record we made last year”. This relay team was made up of sophomore Sandy Colameta, senior Joanna Mullen, senior Mackenzie Greenleaf, and sophomore Madeline Cormier.

Despite some of the setbacks that the team faced, they managed to keep a great attitude throughout the season and put up a strong fight at every meet. Due to their optimism and incredible efforts this season, the team received the Cape Ann Leauge Sportsmanship Award at the Cape Ann Leauge championship meet. “Swim is just so fun, and I love the team,” Colameta mentioned, “everyone is so supportive and works so hard.” Greenleaf agreed, adding on that she was “especially impressed by the freshmen.” Colameta added, “my favorite thing about swim is seeing the swimmers who don’t even know how to swim at the beginning of the season competitively, but by the end, they are racing hard in every event.” The swim team is already looking forward to next season, where they plan to recruit many new swimmers and have another strong and exciting season.