By:  Marisa Papagelis

Last Wednesday, the Rangers’ swim and dive team competed at the Midland Wachusett League meet held at Tantasqua Regional High School. The league meet serves as the final meet of the regular season. On this day, all 12 teams in the Midland Wachusett League come to compete in one final meet where swimmers who have achieved certain times during the season, are given the opportunity to race against everyone in the league. The meet is scored separately for boys and for girls.

The Rangers placed extremely well considering the size of their rather small team (13 boys, 14 girls). The boys’ team annihilated their competition, taking first place and scoring 409 points (126 points more than the second place team). This completed their second undefeated season in a row. The girls’ team placed fourth in the meet, ending their season with a record of 7-4.

Senior captain Ryan Shufflebarger and freshman Justin Papagelis were both quad winners, placing first in all of their events. Individually, Shufflebarger won the 200 freestyle (1:51.02) and the 500 freestyle (5:02.42), while Papagelis won the 200 individual medley (2:03.81) and the 100 freestyle (49.77). Additionally, junior Spencer Brownewell won the 100 backstroke (55.13).

“I couldn’t have imagined a better end for the Leagues meet. It was a real battle against Algonquin swimmer Matt Beland who beat me earlier in the season. When it came to leagues, I surprised him in the 500 freestyle with a time that was four seconds faster than any of my times all season,” explains Shufflebarger. “Looking forward, I hope our game and the guys team can take our momentum from the league meet and use it to win our first sectionals championship.” The Rangers placed second in the Central/South Sectional Championship last year.

As a freshman, Papagelis is one of the youngest swimmers on the team. However, age was not an obstacle for him in winning all of his events. “As a freshman, it was very exciting to go to my first league meet,” Papagelis remarks. “Because there was so many people on deck cheering for each other, it really created a fun team atmosphere. The meet itself had a large amount of competition and in some events, such as the 100 free, the main competition was from our own team.” The Rangers placed first, second, and third in the 100 freestyle. “It was exhilarating that we won the whole meet because we all had swum our best and worked very hard.”

On the boys’ side, the Rangers swept all three relays, setting school and meet records along the way. In the 200 medley relay, the team of junior Savant Liu, junior Aaron Wong, Brownewell, and junior Louis Gencarelli came in first and set a meet record of 1:14.19. This record replaced the record of 1:43.53 that was set by the Rangers at last year’s league meet. In the 200 freestyle relay, the team of Gencarelli, Shufflebarger, Liu, and Papagelis replaced another Ranger record from last year, moving the time from 1:34.32 to 1:33.93. In the final relay of the evening, Shufflebarger, Brownewell, Wong, and Papagelis teamed up to set a meet and school record of 3:22.78. The previous school record was 3:24.57 and the previous meet record, 3:28.41, was held by Algonquin Regional High School.

On the girls’ side, junior Marisa Papagelis won the 100 backstroke (1:02.02) to help the team grab their fourth place finish. Papagelis was also a member of the Rangers two winning relays.

Papagelis, senior captain Rachel Shufflebarger, sophomore Nishka Pant, and sophomore Emma Kudej teamed up to win the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:43.24. The team also secured a win, by over five seconds, in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:45.42, breaking the previous school record (3:45.42) by over three seconds.

“We are all fueled by our desire to win and our determine to make each other proud,” Shufflebarger explains when recalling her two relay victories. “In a relay setting, the other person’s success and happiness everyone’s success and happiness as well. Even though swimming may seem more like an individual sport, it definitely is not. Winning two of the relays and placing fourth overall was a huge accomplishment considering the fact that the Westborough swim team is one of the smaller teams in the league.”

During the next month, the Rangers Swim and Dive team will be competing in the MIAA Central/South Sectional Championships and the MIAA Division II State Championships. Rangers who have qualified for these meets will compete in Sectionals on February 11 (girls) and 12 (boys) at 4 pm and in States on February 18 (girls) and 19 (boys) at 7pm.

NOTE:  A version of this article was also published in Westborough News.