Boys' Swimming coming off historic season

Wilbraham & Monson Academy Boys’ Swimming Coach Dan Moran said this year’s team is very similar to last year’s group, and that’s good news for the Titans.

WMA, which placed second at the New England Division III Championship Meet last season, begins its 2012-13 schedule Saturday with a meet against Kingswood Oxford at Miss Porter’s School at 3 p.m.

“I think the boys’ team is probably right about where we were last year,” Coach Moran said. “Other than the top six we’re pretty raw, with a lot of guys learning the sport and the ins and outs. We can probably hang onto our spot from last year but it’s going to be tighter.”

Kevin Lambert ’13, who won a pair of events at the New England meet last season, leads this year’s team. Garfield Ding ’14 and Austin Fabbo ’15 are also proven swimmers, and Coach Moran said Michael Caine ’14 and Zach Meunier ’15 look very promising.

“We have a good team this year,” said Garfield, who finished second at the New England meet last season. “The top seven players from water polo are swimming and we’ve prepared for this for a long time. We have a big team, and most of the new swimmers have the potential to be very good.”

The runner-up finish at the New England meet was the best by a WMA team in 40 seasons, and this year’s team still feels the excitement of that great accomplishment.

“It was a huge thing for us,” Kevin said. “It hadn’t been done in 40 years. We feel we should be able to carry that through this year.

“We started practice this year with a lot of raw talent and it needed to be refined further than what we had. We’ve put our minds to it and have made a lot of progress. These two weeks, I’ve seen so much progress. Our team is incredible and completely forming. I think we’re going to be pretty powerful in our first meet.”