WHS swimming team holds own in tri-meet against Gorham, Greely

By Matt Pascarella

Windham High School’s swimming team hit the road on Friday, Jan. 24 to compete in a tri-meet with Gorham and Greely at the Westbrook Community Center. Windham’s boys finished second with a score of 50 and their girls finished third with a score of 32.

Windham freshman Stephanie Roghelia showcases her
speed during a prep swimming tri-meet at the Westbrook
Community Center against Gorham and Greely on
Friday, Jan. 24. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

“We’re in the middle, it’s the heart of the season, we’re swimming tired at this point,” said Windham High School swim coach Peter Small. “Even their first races when they were sluggish, when they came back their second and third races they broke through that sluggish barrier and came out with a lot of best times, which was awesome to see. If you can do that and break through when you’re tired, it’s a good sign for the future. Kids were able to not let the psychology of ‘I’m sluggish’ consume them and they broke through.”

Windham junior Pascal Hentsch qualified for the state championship and dropped 1.5 seconds off his time in the 100-yard breaststroke. He finished second in that event with a time of 1:16.84 minutes.

Also, in the 100 breaststroke, Windham freshman Mahiro Hammond finished fifth with a time of 1:30.98.

Windham Sophomore Sullivan Scharf finished first in the 100 backstroke with a time of 58.55 seconds. He finished second in the 200 freestyle with a 1:58.30 time.

Windham freshman Peter Funk had a first-place finish in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:11.15. In the 500 freestyle he finished second with a 5:12.59 time.

In the 50 freestyle, Windham freshman Beckett Bragdon had a 27.86 time and a fourth-place finish.

Windham freshman Rocco DiDonato finished sixth in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:21.33.

“I think we swam pretty good as a team,” said DiDonato. “I got better at my form in backstroke, because I don’t usually do backstroke. The team, I think we just swam faster and pushed ourselves harder. (We need) a bit more work on form and flip turns a little bit. I think we did pretty good.”

Windham freshman Stephanie Roghelia placed first in the 100 freestyle with a 1:00.19 time and the 50 freestyle with a time of 27.22.

“I think we did amazing,” said Roghelia. “I’m super happy with how everyone has improved, we did really good with teamwork and stuff. I think I did a good job with my flip turns and my breakouts, which I’ve been working on. We did really good cheering on each other, and I’m really impressed with our sportsmanship. I think one thing we can really improve on is to help lift up other teams as well and really bring the energy.”

In the 200-freestyle Windham senior Sarah Inman finished second with a 2:16.93 time. She also finished fourth in the 100-butterfly with a time of 1:16.03.

Windham senior Morgan Farley finished fifth in the 200 medley with a time of 2:46.88. Farley finished third in the 500-freestyle with a 6:26.67 time.

Windham sophomore Maya Fitts had a 4:19.35 time in the 200 medley and finished sixth. She also finished sixth in the 500 freestyle with a 9:00.09 time.

“We need to have more snap in our stroke and when we’re tired,” said Small. “Our turns really start to fall apart ... we just got to make sure that when we’re tired some of the technical aspect of those turns are still there. These guys are working so hard, so impressed with them, they’ll come through with that.” <

Swimming team excels in Class A State Swimming and Diving Championships

By Matt Pascarella

The Windham High School’s boys’ and girls’ swim team competed in back-to-back Class A State Swimming and Diving Championships at Bowdoin College in Brunswick against schools from all over the state with the boys’ meet held on Monday, Feb. 19 and the girls’ meet on Tuesday, Feb. 20.

Windham junior Lukas Hammond competes
during the Class A Swimming and Diving
State Championships on Monday, Feb. 19
at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.
PHOTO BY
SU-ANNE STIMPSON HANMOND

“The kids swam really well,” said Windham swim coach Peter Small. “Even in some cases where we didn’t see fast times, we saw a lot of personal best times across the board and that’s what you want. The big takeaway for me is even in those races where we didn’t, we saw technical improvement. The beauty of a sport like swimming is we can actually quantify improvement from day one to the end. We were turning over really quickly ... we were riding high in the water; we were grabbing the water better than we ever have; all those things we kind of put an emphasis on we saw come today. I love the way this group bonds, they’re a group that works hard together ... they’ve jelled all year and I love that.”

Boys

Windham finished in 13th place.

Junior Lukas Hammond finished 26th in the 50-yard freestyle with a 26.58 second time.

“To qualify for states was exciting,” said Hammond. “It meant one more race for us to swim. We swam great, the focus was to just go have fun and show everyone what we’d been practicing for weeks. During the 200-free relay we placed two places higher than expected from our preliminary rankings which was amazing.”

The team of senior Joey Somma, junior David Daignault, sophomore Wyatt Washburn and Hammond placed 13th in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:53.48.

In the 400 freestyle relay Somma, freshman Sawyer Stone, Washburn and Hammond finished 11th with a time of 4:34.86 minutes.

Girls

Windham finished 16th with a score of 44.

Junior Sarah Inman came in fifth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:51.83. She also finished ninth in the 200 freestyle with a 2:12.86 time.

“This is my third year [qualifying for states],” said Inman. “To me it doesn’t matter about qualifying, it just matters how much hard work I put in.”

Inman is satisfied overall with how she did.

“I did what coach Small and Simonson wanted,” said Inman. “They wanted me to start off fast and get faster – see the competition, beat the competition and that’s what I did.”

Junior Morgan Farley finished 13th in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:12.30 and 14th in the 50 freestyle with a time of 28.31.

In the 100 freestyle, senior Grace Theriault finished 18th with a 1:04.30 time.

Sophomore Martina Jefferson finished 18th in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:14.47.

The relay team of senior Riley Small, Jefferson, senior Mackenzie Gaudette and junior Diletta Galloni finished 18th in the 200 relay with a 2:17.04 time.

“I think it went really well,” said Riley Small. “We came together as a team for our last meet, and we all have worked so hard, we all deserved to be here. Our sportsmanship was good, we had a number of new best times and I think everyone’s mindset has improved throughout the season. We all had confidence in ourselves, and it showed in the pool.” <

Powerful finish lifts Windham swimmers over Bonny Eagle

By Matt Pascarella

To close out 2022, Windham’s swim team had a spectacular showing during a home meet at St. Joseph’s College on Dec. 28 against Bonny Eagle where four Windham swimmers qualified for the state meet including sophomore Morgan Farley, senior Hannah Heanssler, junior Grace Theriault and sophomore Sarah Inman.

Windham junior Riley Small swims during a meet against
Bonny Eagle on Dec. 28 at St. Joseph's College in Standish.
Small was competing in the 500-freestyle race and cut 30
seconds off her time in just a week.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA  

The girls’ team beat Bonny Eagle, 80-65, and the boys’ team turned in a strong performance but lost to the Scots, 29-10.

Windham was coming off a home win against Cheverus on Dec. 21, so spirits were high going into this swim meet.

“I decided to think more positively instead of negatively,” said Farley who qualified for the state meet in the 100-yard backstroke, where she came in first with a time of 1:16.30 minutes and finished second in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:44.58. “Mindset has a really big part in every event you swim because if you have that mental blockage that ‘I can’t do it’ you’re not going to be able to do it.”

Farley said that maintaining a positive mindset allows you to have fun and swim the time you want to swim. She had a tech suit on for the first time and told herself she was going to swim faster. She wasn’t sure if it was the suit or the change in attitude, but something definitely helped her make this meet a good one and she thought the team did great against Bonny Eagle as Windham continues to make progress; headed for a strong finish at the end of the season.

Heanssler finished first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.96 seconds. She also finished first in the 100 with a time of 1:02.34.

“I was excited, I was feeling good,” said Heanssler. “We’ve been working really hard in practices, all of our team’s just coming together. Everyone swam really well with a lot of confidence; our hard work’s been paying off.”

Windham freshman Seamus McDougall earned his first win in the 50-freestyle event with a time of 31.72. He came in second in the 100-yard freestyle with a 1:13.64 time.

“It felt pretty good [to get my first win],” said McDougal. “We improved a lot over this week ... our flip turns really improved. I think our team has done really well this year; I’m hoping to make states.”

Inman finished first in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:44.29 time and in the 200 IM with a 2:25.26 time.

Theriault came in first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:14.70 and third in the 500 with a time of 6:04.57.

Windham senior Reagan McDougall finished second with a 30.42 time in the 50-yard freestyle.

“We always try to build off the previous meet,” said Windham swim team coach Peter Small. “We’re always looking to peak in February. They have such a hard work ethic and a great mindset. If you looked at all of our swims tempo was key.”

Small said that tempo and streamline form went really well during the meet. They increased training over break and kids were tired going into the meet. However, their strokes didn’t fall apart; their stroke technique held up and if you can hold technique when you’re sluggish, when you’re rested it’s going to be very strong.

Team spirit for Windham swimmers has been great this year and the team motivates each other with a positive mindset, Small said. <

Windham swim team defeats Lincoln, falls to Bonny Eagle in tri-team meet

Windham sophomore Grace Theriault swims in the 100-yard
breatstroke event at St. Joseph's College during Windham
High's final home swim meet of 2021 against Lincoln Academy
and Bonny Eagle on Wednesday, Dec. 29. Windham defeated
Lincoln Academy 72-31, but fell to Bonny Eagle, 65-62
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA  

By Matt Pascarella

In their second home meet of the season and the final meet of 2021, the Windham swim team showed nothing but ambition and determination as they hit the water in a tri-team meet with Lincoln and Bonny Eagle.

Last year, the swim team graduated a lot of athletes, so while team numbers are lower than normal this year, they are a competitive squad who are having fun and pushing each other to compete.

That push to compete and swim faster was visible in the final scores of the meet held at St. Joseph’s College in Standish on Wednesday, Dec. 29. The Windham boys beat Lincoln Academy 26-10 and were defeated by Bonny Eagle 48-20.

Windham girls trounced Lincoln Academy 72-31 and narrowly lost to Bonny Eagle 65-62.

Windham senior Nate Fitzgerald came in first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:29.08 minutes. He also finished first in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:08.96.

“Today, I felt pretty good coming in, and I think I performed very well. I won both my races; they gave me some good competition,” said Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said a lot of the team has improved and dropped times since the start of the season. He said what’s great about the team is they are always very supportive of one another.

Windham freshman Morgan Farley finished first in the 200-yard Individual Medley with a time of 2:53.68.

Sophomore Grace Theriault finished first with a time of 1:27.88 in the 100-yard breaststroke. She also placed second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:04.33.

In the boys 50-yard Freestyle, senior Shantanu Mayfield placed second with a time of 33.99 seconds. Senior Nour Humaid came in fourth with a time of 51.66.

In the 100-yard backstroke freshman Sarah Inman finished first with a time of 1:09.35.

Senior Chloe Desmond was close behind Inman and placed second with a time of 1:17.31.

Desmond said the start of the season has been a lot slower coming out of – and still dealing with – the obstacles of Covid, but it’s starting to pick up the pace and that’s exciting.

“I think they did a great job today,” said Windham swim coach Peter Small. “We had kids doing best times, their technique is clicking in. We saw great strides from last week. If week to week you can just get that technique and hopefully things will click even more so come Southwesterns. While they said they were sluggish, their strokes didn’t show it and they were riding high in the water.” <