The Duxbury girls’ swimming and diving team placed second behind perennial powerhouse Gardner High School at the  MIAA Central and South Sectional Championships at MIT on Sunday.  The Lady Dragons had twelve swimmers and two divers qualify for  the Sectionals.
The girls started with a fourth-place finish in the 200 medley relay, as Shelby Rader, Ellie Johnson, Katie Eagan, and Hannah Hutchinson posted a season-low time of 1:56:32.  Senior co-captain Sarah Goldberg followed with a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle (1:58:51), followed by freshman sister Jessie Goldberg (2:06:99), senior co-captain Emily Hutchinson (2:07:71), and junior Laura Husted (2:13:96.)  Johnson had a personal best of 2:15:89 in the 200-yard IM to finish in seventh place.

Junior Avery Riddle and Rader tied for eighth place overall in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26:11.  Freshman Hannah Hutchinson was close behind with a time of 26:56, followed by Laura Husted.  Freshman ruled the 100-yard butterfly with Eagan finishing ninth in 1:03:18, followed by Michaela Morris (1:05:31) and junior Abby Mullen with 1:06:11.
Duxbury had four swimmers competing in the 100-yard freestyle, as Sarah Goldberg came in with a personal-best time 54:22, good enough for a fourth-place finish. Riddle came in at a season-low of 57:84 and just out-touched  Emily Hutchinson (57:86). Eagan came in at 1:00:46. Freshman Jessie Goldberg came in at a 5:37:59 in the 500-yard freestyle, not only crushing her previous time, but placing 11th overall. Abby Mullen also swam a personal best at 5:48:33 and was followed by junior Kassie Sweeney.
In the most exciting race of the night, Riddle, the Hutchinsons and Sarah Goldberg finished first in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a scorching time of 1:43:04 (less than half a second off the meet record.)  Rader followed with a sixth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke (1:02:24), followed by freshman Olivia Zelvis and junior Krista Librett.  Johnson had her second top-ten finish of the night in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:12:47.
In the last event of the night, Duxbury was  just out touched at the wall in the 400-yard freestyle relay to finish in second place behind Gardner. Rader, Riddle, Emily Hutchinson, and Sarah Goldberg had a season-low time of 3:44:34.
Duxbury girls diving finished with a fifth-place finish by freshman Kelsey Golden and a sixth-place finish by junior Sam Tougas. 
Duxbury competes at the MIAA State Championships at Harvard on Sunday with a team of nine swimmers and two divers.