The DHS boys’ and girls’ swim teams proved once again that Duxbury continues to churn out top swimmers. The boys competed with 32 other teams at MIT for the Central/South Sectional title just before winter break, with Duxbury’s nine super-swimmers racking up 68 points to take eighth place, while the Lady Dragons placed fourth out of 28 teams in the girls’ Central/South Sectionals the following day by scoring 120 points.

Coach Jay Craft must have sent a memo out to “swim up”, as both teams delivered by slashing times in nearly every event. The boys were up first with speedsters Hunter Chiasson and Bernardo Neves leading the team on relays and turning in top individual performances.

Neves flew to a 1:50.26 in the 200-yard freestyle, four seconds off his best time to place fourth. Art Su improved his time in the event as well with a time of 1:57.31.

It was now Chiasson’s turn, and he matched Neves with his own fourth-place in the 200-yard individual medley (2:04.53) ahead of Barry Su, who also improved his time while placing 14th.

Neves met some tough competition in the 100-yard freestyle. Despite another best time of 50.06, he settled for eighth place in the competitive field.

The 100-yard breaststroke was loaded with swimmers seeded within seconds of each other and Chiasson gave it his best, finishing seventh in 1:04.95.

In other individual events, Cam Crowell dusted a second off his 100-yard backstroke time, breaking the minute mark (59.26) for 11th, and he also raced a season-low in the 500-yard freestyle (5:20.80).

Even with strong individual events, it was the relays that accumulated the points. In the 200-yard medley relay, Chiasson, Barry Su, Crowell and Neves matched their best time (1:46.91), while Art and Barry Su, Andrew Sommer and Drew Husted finished in 1:38.22.

The 400-yard freestyle generates the most excitement because it often determines the outcome of the meet. After swimming fast all day, this event was no different, as Neves led off with a blistering 49.92 split for the first 100, motivating Crowell (53.82), Art Su (53.39) and Chiasson (51.71) to turn in their personal best times. The team set a new low of 3:28.84; a full five seconds better than any race all season.

With a week off, Art and Barry Su, Chiasson, Crowell, Neves, Husted, and Jon Ng traveled to Harvard University for the Division II State Championships on Saturday.

Chiasson almost took home the State championship in the 100-yard backstroke, but was beaten out by King Philips’ Patrick Myers, who edged the Duxbury star by two-tenths of a second.

Neves took fifth in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:48.26, while the 200-yard medley relay team finished sixth.

The boys’ performance netted them an eight-place finish.

After the boys’ performance, the girls’ team followed suit by posting season-low times in almost every race.

The meet began with the 200-yard medley relay team of Sarah Goldberg, Cassie Sweeney, Katilin Buckley and Emily Hutchinson erasing two seconds off their lowest time to take seventh in 2:00.63.

The 200-yard freestyle was next up, and with little rest, Goldberg plunged in and zoomed to fourth with a personal best 2:00.09. Buckley finished ninth (2:03.58) and Molly Davis was 23rd.

Now it was Gaby Pipp’s turn in the 200-yard individual medley, and the field was crowded with several swimmers at the same-seed time, but Pipp slashed five full seconds off her lowest time and took ninth (2:23.33). A few events later, the senior co-captain dusted two seconds off her time in the 100-yard freestyle (57.70) to place fifth, just nosing out Hutchinson (58.07).

Buckley turned in the best individual performance for the Lady Dragons when she swam a season best 1:02.11 to take second place in the 100-yard backstroke.

Husted, Pipp, Davis and Katelyn Coghlan teamed up for a seventh-place finish (1:49.98) in the 200-yard freestyle relay, and the 50-yard freestyle featured Hutchinson and Laura Husted, who splashed to seventh and 30th.  Sweeney and Coghlan turned in solid times in the 100-yard breaststroke, while freshman Sam Tougas amassed 211.25 points to take eighth in the diving competition.

The team saved their best for last with Goldberg, Pipp, Hutchinson and Buckley teaming up in the 400-yard freestyle relay. While Duxbury had maintained fourth place for the previous 11 events, they still had to perform well to best Algonquin and Hopkinton.  The fab four did not disappoint, as they erased 13 full seconds off their season low with all four swimmers improving their splits to finish second with a 3:44.84.

Pipp, Avery Riddle, Hutchinson, Tougas, Sweeney, Buckley and Goldberg all qualified for the State championships on Sunday at Harvard.