Sophomore David Lombardi. Photo submitted by David Lombardi.
Sophomore David Lombardi has been on the Malden High School swim team for two years now. Lombardi started swimming from a young age, and has been participating in swim competitions for twelve years in total.
Lombardi was motivated to start swimming by his sisters, who both swam in the MHS swim team and introduced him to the sport.
In freshman year, Lombardi made it to states, and sectionals along with four other members of the swim team. He states that ¨Sectionals and States are extremely competitive, filled to the brim with high-level athletes all at a caliber unlike any other¨ and being able to represent Malden was something that he would ¨never forget¨.
One of Lombardi´s favorite moments on the swim team this season ¨would have to be the competing against Danvers swim.¨ He was very proud of the team for being able to beat Danvers this year after losing to them the previous year, even after losing some of their ¨key swimmers.¨ He personally was able to accomplish beating a backstroke swimmer from Danvers that had ¨out-touched [him] at the Northeastern Conference League meet.¨
Lombardi mentions one of the challenges that the team and himself have been facing since entering the NEC league is that, often times there are diving teams in opponent teams which gives other teams the advantage since MHS swim team does not train for a diving team.
The diving gained the points from diving meets and ¨that would be contributing toward the total score for the meet setting us up with an immediate deficit.¨
As of this season, something that Lombardi hopes to improve on is his “strokes so [that he] can be more versatile in all events to fill in wherever the team needs me.¨
For future goals, Lombardi says that his ¨ultimate goal is to ensure that Malden continues its reputation as a highly competitive and successful swim program.¨
Senior and Captain Sebastian Romani said that Lombardi is a good asset to the swim team, ¨which means that Lombardi is able to compete in different swim evens and the team will always get great results from that.¨
