Last weekend, the boys and girls swimming and diving teams wrapped up their 2017-2018 seasons at the New England Prep School Swimming & Diving Association Division I Swimming Championship hosted by Exeter Academy. The championships took place over two days with the preliminary races taking place on Saturday and were followed by the finals on Sunday. At the end of the championship, the girls earned 251.5 points to secure 3rd place and the boys totaled 241 points and finished as the 5th best Division I team in New England.
Big Green swimmers earned points in all of the meet’s 24 events with the girls and boys squads each winning an event apiece. Kevin Gu ’18 won the boys 100 yard breastroke with a time of 56.78 which set an Exeter Pool record, shattering the previous record of 57.28. In her rookie season for the Big Green, Sydney Bluestein ’21 captured the girls 1 meter diving title at the Diving Championships which took place at Deerfield earlier in the week on Wednesday.
The girls also posted three more top-3 finishes at the championship meet; Bailey Smith ’18 finished 3rd in the girls 200 yard freestyle (1:53.74), Niki Pelletier ’20 raced to 2nd place in a close 100 yard butterfly race which saw both Niki and the 1st place finisher break the Division I swimming record in the 100 yard butterfly which was set on March 7th, 2015 by Pure Maleenont from Suffield (56.35). And, the 400 yard freestyle relay team of Mina Liang, Jordan Coan, Bailey Smith, and Niki Pelletier earned the silver with a time of 3:34.22.
Shaun Kronenwetter was a top performer for the boys team, capturing bronze in the 50 yard freestyle race (21.19). Shaun, also, led off the 200 yard medley relay team that featured legs from Kevin Gu, Simon Lam, and Thatcher Smith. The relay team swam to a come-from-behind 3rd place finish to earn 32 points in the event toward the team total.
The top sixteen finishers in each race were awarded points toward the team scoring. Points were awarded as follows;
| Place | Relay | Individual |
| 1st | 40 | 20 |
| 2nd | 34 | 17 |
| 3rd | 32 | 16 |
| 4th | 30 | 15 |
| 5th | 28 | 14 |
| 6th | 26 | 13 |
| 7th | 24 | 12 |
| 8th | 22 | 11 |
| 9th | 18 | 9 |
| 10th | 14 | 7 |
| 11th | 12 | 6 |
| 12th | 10 | 5 |
| 13th | 8 | 4 |
| 14th | 6 | 3 |
| 15th | 4 | 2 |
| 16th | 2 | 1 |
Last season, the girls finished as the 2nd best Division I team in New England scoring 263 points and the boys team was ranked 5th with a total of 225.5 points. The Big Green swimming and diving teams both concluded the season with 7-3 records.
Congratulations to all the swimmers and divers on the season! Go Big Green!
View all of the Deerfield top-16 performances below.
Event 1 – Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay
#4 – Bailey Smith, Shenika Shai, Niki Pelletier, and Katie Zaslaw (1:49.47)
Event 2 – Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay
#3 – Shaun Kronenwetter, Kevin Gu, Simon Lam, Thatcher Smith (1:35.65)
Event 3 – Girls 200 Yard Freestyle
#3 – Bailey Smith (1:53.74)
#7 – Jordan Coan (1:58.36)
#11 – Bailyn Pritchett (1:59.75)
Event 4 – Boys 200 Yard Freestyle
#11 – Alex San Martin (1:47.04)
#16 – Mason Zhao (1:52.95)
Event 5 – Girls 200 Yard IM
#14 – Mina Liang (2:15.94)
Event 6 – Boys 200 Yard IM
#4 – Kevin Gu (1:53.21)
Event 7 – Girls 50 Yard Freestyle
#5 – Niki Pelletier (24.21)
Event 8 – Boys 50 Yard Freestyle
#3 – Shaun Kronenwetter (21.19)
Event 9 – Girls 1M Diving
#1 – Sydney Bluestein (434.35)
#6 – Monet Meyer (369.65)
Event 10 – Boys 1M Diving
#4 – Teddy McCarthy (376.85)
#7 – Ossie Heard (340.40)
#8 – Julian O’Donnell (315.10)
Event 11 – Girls 100 Yard Butterfly
#2 – Niki Pelletier (56.29)
#14 – Arden Anderson (1:01.26)
Event 12 – Boys 100 Yard Butterfly
#5 – Simon Lam (50.99)
Event 13 – Girls 100 Yard Freestyle
#13 – Mina Liang (54.86)
#14 – Katie Zaslaw (55.05)
Event 14 – Boys 100 Yard Freestyle
#11 – Thatcher Smith (48.59)
Event 15 – Girls 500 Yard Freestyle
#4 – Bailyn Pritchett (5:13.88)
#9 – Jordan Coan (5:22.73)
Event 16 – Boys 500 Yard Freestyle
#13 – Alex San Martin (4:56.04)
Event 17 – Girls 200 Yard Freestyle Relay
#7 – Shenika Shi, Taylor Coan, Katie Zaslaw, Mina Liang (1:40.78)
Event 18 – Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay
#6 – Shaun Kronenwetter, John O’Loughlin, Griffin McDowell, Mason Zhao (1:30.51)
Event 19 – Girls 100 Yard Backstroke
#5 – Bailey Smith (57.82)
#9 – Izzy Hamlen (59.85)
#12 – Arden Anderson (1:00.29)
Event 20 – Boys 100 Yard Backstroke
#4 – Simon Lam (53.23)
#5 – Shaun Kronenwetter (53.51)
Event 21 – Girls 100 Yard Breaststroke
#16 – Shenika Shi (1:13.61)
Event 22 – Boys 100 Yard Breaststroke
#1 – Kevin Gu (56.78)
#11 – JJ Siritantikorn (1:01.94)
Event 23 – Girls 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
#2 – Mina Liang, Jordan Coan, Bailey Smith, Niki Pelletier (3:34.22)
Event 24 – Boys 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
#5 – Thatcher Smith, Mason Zhao, Simon Lam, Kevin Gu (3:12.95)
Final Team Rankings
Girls:
#1 – Greenwich Academy (395 points)
#2 – Phillips Academy (275 points)
#3 – Deerfield Academy (251.5 points)
#4 – Choate Rosemary Hall (238 points)
#5 – Suffield Academy (235 points)
Boys:
#1 – Phillips Academy (434 points)
#2 – Phillips Exeter Academy (335 Points)
#3 – Brunswick (312.5 points)
#4 – Suffield Academy (283 points)
#5 – Deerfield Academy (241 points)
Visit the NEPSSA site for complete championship results.