It’s been a dozen years since the East Boston High School swim team beat Latin Academy, said Coach Dave Arinella and Monday was no different.
Again, the Aqua Jets came close to beating their arch rival the Green Dragons at the Paris Street Pool in East Boston but fell short 51-40–dropping to 3-7 on the season heading into the City Championships this Thursday at Madison Park.
Basically the entire meet cam down to one of two events. Eastie had to win either the 200 or 400 meter individual medley relay in order to have a shot of their first win against Latin Academy in 12 years.
However, the Jets fell short and at that point Eastie had to either finish first in the breast or backstroke events. However, Eastie was weak in those two competitions and lost both to the Green Dragons.
“You have to be cranking on all cylinders to beat Latin Academy,” said Coach Arinella.
The meet wasn’t a total loss with one exciting sprint that was one in the final seconds by Eastie senior Lionel Jones.
“He’s such a tremendous athlete and a very strong swimmer,” said Arinella of the swimmer the team has dubbed ‘Zeus’. “This is his first year swimming and I wish I had him all four year and wasn’t losing him.”
Arinella said this year’s group of swimmers, despite their record, were some of the hardest workers he’s seen in 30 years of coaching.
“We have a lot of seniors that are leaving but the young kids on the team are going to be great,” said Arinella. “We’ve moved into a longer distance workout and hopefully that will pay dividends in the end.”