The whole team cheers as their win is announced for the tenth year in the row. WA Girls’ Swim and Dive has won the Dual County League competition (DCLs) on Sunday, Feb. 6. Competing at Beede Center in Concord-Carlisle, they scored a total of 422 points, winning the championship and beating eight other teams.

Led by senior captains Vivian Aeder, Lizzy Durgin, Kate Edison, and Alena Svoboda, the team finished well ahead of runner-up Wayland, who finished with 377 points.

WA took first in six events: the 200 Yard Medley Relay, the 200 Yard Freestyle, the 100 Yard Breathstorke, the 500 Yard Freestyle, the 1 Meter Dive, and the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay.

In the first event, Svoboda, junior Cara Dominici, junior Elena Magri, and sophomore Eloise Andrews won the 200 Yard Medley Relay with a final time of 1:54. Dominici also took first in the 200 Yard Freestyle and the 100 Yard Breaststroke, with a final time of 1:56 and 1:07, respectively. Durgin won the fifth event, the 1 Meter Dive, with a score of 287.55. Edison won the 500 Yard Freestyle with a time of 5:16 and junior Mia Burns came in second with a time of 5:27. WA also won the final event where Edison lead her team of Andrews, Burns, and Dominici in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:42.

“Our team is a great mix of stars who won events, like Lizzy Durgin and Cara Dominici, and some great depth points from girls who have really improved throughout the season,” Coach Caitlin Klick-McHugh said.

The girls were able to improve by putting a lot of work into swim. They keep a consistent schedule and practice regularly.

“To prepare for big meets, I just train as usual. We also tapper where we’ll do hard sets and really tough workouts then as the meets get harder, you start to cut down the number of yards that you do and build up energy for the hard meets,” Edison said.

While physically getting ready is important, mental preparation is equally as vital. The DCLs allowed for this, with the entire team going to the competition and showing their support.

“I was going into DCLs being excited. Mentally I was prepared to have a fun time. I did visualize my races to help for that aspect of the meet,” Edison said.

Even with copious amounts of preparation, the team was unsure how they would perform going into the season. They had a lot of strong seniors graduate in 2021 and were left with a relatively new team. However, they succeeded despite this setback and ended 8-0 in the league this year.

“I feel really good that our team won. I was really grateful we won DCL’s. It’s always fun to win. Getting that last DCL title in my high school career was so nice. Being together and helping the other girls feel what it’s like to win is so much fun” Edison said.

The girls won’t stop training now that they’ve won the DCL’s. They will continue to practice throughout this week and next week in order to prepare for their final competitions.

“I’m now training for states which is the last weekend of February break. That’s the big, be-all-end-all meet. That’s the biggest postseason meet you can make, and that’s what I’m training for now,” Edison said.

The girls’ team has ten qualifiers who will be attending states at Boston University from Feb. 26-27.

“I’d love to win states but my goal is to just go out on a high note, ending the season, ending my high school career,” Edison said.

The seniors feel bittersweet about ending their swim careers, even though some will continue competing at the collegiate level.

“It’s really sad that this is my last year but I have made so many great memories that I will never forget,” Durgin said. “I will miss the WA dive team a lot.”