MIAA swimming: Several Hampshire County swimmers enter state meet as No. 1 seeds

Northampton’s Jack Mattison-Gulotta competes to a first place finish against Belchertown in the 200-yard individual medley during a meet earlier this season at the Chestnut Hill Community School pool in Belchertown. Mattison-Gulotta is the No. 1 seed in a pair of events at Sunday’s MIAA Division 2 Championships at MIT.

Northampton’s Jack Mattison-Gulotta competes to a first place finish against Belchertown in the 200-yard individual medley during a meet earlier this season at the Chestnut Hill Community School pool in Belchertown. Mattison-Gulotta is the No. 1 seed in a pair of events at Sunday’s MIAA Division 2 Championships at MIT. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE

CONNOR PIGNATELLO

Staff Writer

Published: 02-16-2024 5:26 PM

Hampshire County’s Division 2 swimmers will jump in the pool for one last time this weekend in the MIAA Swimming & Diving Championships held at MIT.

The girls will swim on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. with the boys meet to follow on Sunday at the same time in Boston.

Belchertown, Northampton, Holyoke and Amherst are all sending swimmers to the meet. The Belchertown girls will not be represented at the meet after a miscommunication between the school’s coaching staff resulted in only the boys swimmers’ times being submitted before deadline. Though the school reached out to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and explained its position, the MIAA upheld its deadline.

On the boys’ side for Belchertown, there are several events to watch out for. The Orioles are seeded second in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay and 20th in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Senior Luke Giguere won the state title in the 100-yard backstroke and placed third in the 100-yard butterfly two years ago as a sophomore. But even though he improved his times in both events at last year’s state meet, he placed second and third, respectively. In the 100-yard backstroke, he lost by just .02 seconds.

“I’m hoping to win states this year,” Giguere said. “Maybe take down my records over there, improve them a little more and not get out-touched again.”

Giguere is seeded first in the 100-yard backstroke and third in the 100-yard freestyle.

Elsewhere for the Orioles, James Zlogar is seeded seventh in the 100-yard butterfly and 12th in the 200-yard individual medley. Ryan Shea is seeded 11th in the 50-yard freestyle and 24th in the 100-yard freestyle. Caleb Perron is seeded 13th in the 100-yard butterfly and 21st in the 500-yard freestyle. Ryan Gould is seeded 13th in the 100-yard backstroke and 26th in the 100-yard freestyle. And Drake Dragon is seeded 16th in the 500-yard freestyle.

Northampton

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The Blue Devils come into the weekend with a pair of top-seeded swimmers. Senior captain Jack Mattison-Gulotta is the No. 1 seed in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly and junior Amalia Guerra is the No. 1 seed in the 100-yard backstroke. Guerra is also the third seed in the 200-yard individual medley.

The Northampton boys are seeded 12th in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Reed Mitchell is the fourth seed in the 100-yard breaststroke and the ninth seed in the 50-yard freestyle. Theo Bayne is the 21st seed in the 100-yard butterfly and the 28th seed in the 100-yard breaststroke.

In one-meter diving, senior Tyler Palm is seeded sixth and last week’s Central/Western Mass. champion Ursula Von Goeler is seeded seventh.

Amherst

The ‘Canes are responsible for the top two seeds in the one-meter diving competition. Springfield College commit Annabel Culbreth-Loomis is the No. 1 seed and junior Bette Sherr-Garcia is the No. 2 seed.

Finnley Chambers is the No. 7 seed in the 500-yard freestyle and the No. 10 seed in the 200-yard freestyle.

The girls 400-yard freestyle relay team is seeded 17th and the 200-yard freestyle relay team is seeded 19th.

Holyoke

Junior Brady Pijar is Holyoke’s lone representative at the state meet. He’s seeded 14th in the 100-yard freestyle and 22nd in the 100-yard butterfly.