Junior Igor Souza standing in the pool. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Freshman Kyle Lee turning around after reaching the end. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Freshman Nathen Nguyen touching the end of the pool. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Sophomore Molly Sewell performing a front stroke. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Junior Sohalia Ammar performing a front stroke. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Junior Samantha Tang performing a front stroke. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Junior Kenny Ngyuen turning around after reaching the end. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Freshman Nathen Ngyuen performing a front stroke. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Freshman Ryan Li performing a breast stroke. Photo by Brandon Wong. 
Freshman Ryan Li performing a backstroke. Photo by Brandon Wong.
Brandon Wong also contributed to this article.
The swim team dived into the season with high hopes and not only floated but swam the full lap. They went through the season undefeated, and despite the fact that they lost several top swimmers who graduated last year, this season ended up being amazing for the team.
According to Coach Jessica Bisson, the season was quite the ride. Along with the fact that 15 seniors were graduated last year, this was also the first year where Bisson was head coach, which “[brought] changes and challenges that need to be dealt with.” Luckily, the change went smoothly, and the new swimmers had a lot of success.
Throughout the season, Bisson’s goals were to see unity throughout the team and to see the swimmers improve. Bisson stated that “It was such a joy to see [the goals] being surpassed on a daily basis.” Bisson elaborated, stating that one of her favorite moments of the season was seeing one of the new swimmers finally start to improve his diving skills. She stated that “He never stopped working to fix his starts and he even came to our Saturday Swim Clinic to get more one-on-one support with starts.” When he finally did get it right, she stated that she was incredibly proud of him and that it showed “how important hard work and determination are.”
Junior David Lombardi, one of the team’s captains, stated that his expectations were “beyond surpassed” as many of the swimmers stepped up to take the spot of the departing seniors from last year. Lombardi stated that one of his favorite moments of the season was the meet at Watertown. He commented on the tension in the meet stating that it was” such a close meet and it came solely down to the final relay” however in the end, Malden came out victorious, with an extremely close final score of 87-83.
The team continued this winning trend at States, with Haoxi Wang finishing his career with a great time for freestyle, and the team performing the Medley Relay to set a new best time. Lombardi commented on his own performance saying that he “got a new best time in 50 free.” These wins were constant the entire season, with the team going undefeated this year. Lombardi believes that “chemistry and the amount of hard work and dedication” the swimmers put in helped make the winning streak attainable.
“The team felt like a family to me” explained Sophomore Molly Sewell, a new member of the Swim Team. Sewell continued, explaining that “because [they] were so close to each other and everyone encouraged one another to do their best.” Sewell found her first season to be an “amazing season.” Sewell continued, explaining that “coming back after not swimming for a while, [she] definitely succeeded [her] goals and it felt really good to be back.”
