WMA swimmers Mia Konstantakos '13, Meg Harrington '15 qualify for Bay State Games
WMA swimmers Mia Konstantakos '13, Meg Harrington '15 qualify for Bay State Games
Wilbraham & Monson Academy swimmers Mia Konstantakos '13 and Meg Harrington '15 will compete in the 2012 Bay State Games July 13-15 at Harvard University in Cambridge.
Mia and Meg both won a pair of events at the West Qualifier at Smith College in Northampton Friday and Saturday to advance to the annual all-state competition.
“I'm really excited to represent WMA and Western Mass.,” Mia said. “It should be great. There should be some great competition, and by that time I should be in good shape because the meet isn't until mid-July. I'm excited to compete against some really great swimmers.”
“I was really excited about moving on,” Meg added. “I wasn't sure I was going to because I haven't been training much. I'm really excited to go to Bay State Games.”
Mia and Meg have good reason to be excited. Mia won the 100 backstroke and 50 freestyle in the 16-18 division, and also placed second in the 100 free.
“I really didn't know what to expect,” Mia said. “There was some good competition so it was good to do a meet outside the regular season. There usually aren't competitions like that outside the team.
“I was definitely surprised to win. I just got back into training. With school I had to do lacrosse in the spring, but for just getting back into shape my times weren't too bad. They were typical beginning of the season times so I was pretty happy I placed high in my age group. I was proud of that.”
In the 13-15 age group, Meg won the 50 free and 100 free. She narrowly missed qualifying for the Bay State Games in a third event, placing fifth in the 100 butterfly.
“I thought it would be more crowded and intimidating but it wasn't,” said Meg, who trained for a week prior to the qualifier. “It was a fun experience.”
