The Bayside YMCA Stingrays competed at the YMCA New England Championship held recently at MIT in Cambridge, Mass.  

There were more than 60 YMCA teams from across New England that competed at this meet, and the Stingrays' combined girls and boys finish was sixth place overall, which is the highest finish ever for a Bayside YMCA team.  

Coaches Jen and Ray Baker said: “We really are very proud of this team. We had a total of 60 swimmers qualify for this meet and they all swam well. We have never cracked the top 10 as a team and this year to place sixth overall is just amazing.”

New Englands began with the 8 & unders, who started the weekend off strong.  

The 100 medley relay team of Smila Renaud, Kahlan Renaud, Addison Lesk and Molly DiGiacomo placed fourth overall and the 100 freestyle relay of Molly, Smila, Grace Deubel and Kahlan took home third place. They also broke a team record which had been standing since 1984.  

The girls didn’t stop at the relays, Addison added a 10th place finish in the 25 fly, Smila was ninth in the 25 breaststroke and 12th in the 25 free, while Kahlan placed eighth in the 50 free. These girls combined with Lily O’Neill, Margaret Pelkey, Anvita Rastogi and Olivia Taylor placed fifth overall. Leo Katz was the only 8 & under male qualifier for the Stingrays.

Bayside's 9 & 10 boys had an equally strong showing by finishing seventh overall. The boys were led by Ben McClelland who placed second in 100 backstroke, third in 50 backstroke, and sixth in 50 free, along with Jared Lesk who placed fourth in 100 IM and 10th in 100 backstroke. 

 The boys 200 medley relay made up of Ben McClelland, Ben Choi-Schattle, Jared, and Connor Curran placed fifth while the 200 free relay made up of Jared, Connor, Graham Bennett, and Ben McClelland placed eighth overall. Other 9 & 10 qualifiers were Noah Worth, Dahlia Weller, Ava Webster, Gianna Vigliotti, Selina Kao, and Tea Barrus.

The second weekend of the meet saw the 11 & 12 girls finish 12th overall while the boys were equally impressive finishing 13th overall. The girls 200 medley relay took an 11th place finish with Nellie Peecher, Kristen Baker, Laurie Garcia, and Abby Butlin leading the way.  

Kristen led the girls individually with an eighth place finish in both the 50 backstroke and 50 breaststroke. The boys did not want to be outdone by the girls so their 200 free relay made up of Colin Keough, Gavin Nelson, Ronan Maddock, and Alex McClelland placed 11th overall. The boys were led by Alex who finished fifth in the 100 free, sixth in the 50 free, and eighth in the 50 backstroke. 

The next day saw impressive swims by the 13 & 14 age group. The girls placed fourth overall just missing the team podium while the boys had a strong finish placing ninth overall.  

The girls 200 free relay took home the NE crown by winning the relay. The first place relay included Rachel Baker, Emma DiGiacomo, Garin Stone, and Zoe Webster. 

The girls were so excited to win the relay, it powered them through their individual events. Garin, who scored the most individual points, placed second in the 100 fly, fifth in the 200 IM and seventh in the 100 back. Rachel placed sixth in the 50 & 100 free and eighth in the 100 back. Emma placed seventh in the 50 free and ninth in the 100 free.  

The sole 13-year-old girl to qualify for the Stingrays, Zoe Webster, had a strong meet finishing fourth in the 100 free, and eighth in the 50 free and 200 free. The same four girls placed fourth in the 200 medley relay. 

The boys also had a strong meet with the 200 medley relay of Kellan Lane, Will Sanchez, David McMillian and William McClelland placing seventh. The same four boys placed sixth in the 200 free relay. 

Top individual swimmers for the boys were Kellan placing 10th in the 100 backstroke, David placing fifth in the 500 free, Zack O’Connor placing ninth in the 500 free and Will Sanchez was fifth in the 50 free. These swimmers were joined by other qualifiers Luke Gorham, Thomas Henderson, Lucas Jauregui, Meagan Mungovan, and Soren Renaud. 

The final age group to compete were the 15 & overs, who had one of the strongest showings by finishing third overall for the boys and eighth overall for the girls.  

The Stingrays were led by Aidan Lane who took first in the 100 breaststroke, second in the 50 free and fifth in the 100 free. He was also part of the 400 free relay which included Ben Vesey, Andrew Mungovan and Blake Anderson that took second place overall. The men’s 200 medley relay made up of Jeff Tran, Aidan, Ben and Andrew placed fourth overall. Some other notable swims came from Juliana Goncalves, who placed fourth in the 100 breaststroke, Ben Vesey, who placed sixth in the 200 free, Ariana Liceaga, who placed eighth in 200 IM, Jeff Tran, who was eighth in 100 fly, and Henry Ciannavei, who was ninth in the 500 free. These swimmers were joined by other individual qualifiers including Stella Alexandre, Gabe Arriagada, Melanie Baker, Andrew Barton, Jackson Bennett, Sam Chavez, Harry Martin, Liza Zhukov, and Julia Zulker.

Juliana, Aidan and Andrew Mungovan also qualified for the YMCA National Championship.