Malden High School’s swim team continues to be a strong competitor in the Greater Boston League and the state. At the time this article was written, the Golden Tornados swim team boasted a 3-0 record picking up a home win against Bishop Fenwick, resulting in a score of 84-77. Additionally, the team also emerged successful in two away meets against Medford (85-74) and Lynn Classical (77-50).
In the meet versus the Bishop Fenwick Falcons, seventh grader Sophie Tran shined, having the best time for Malden in the state 100-meter butterfly. Her sister Hailey Tran also had a strong showing, having the top time for Malden in the 200-meter Individual Medley, which is a race consisting of four styles of swim: breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle.
Senior Nimon Jusufi had the best time for the Golden Tornados in the 100-meter breaststroke, while sophomore Joslyn Nguyen and senior captain Nathan Nguyen were the best of the Malden swimmers in their individual races of 500-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke, respectively.
Joslyn is satisfied with her performance individually so far, noting that she thinks she “did pretty well, considering it’s early in the season – I think there’s definitely areas I can improve in.” Nathan shares a similar feeling, stating, “I had a couple of really strong performances out there, I was putting in 100%.”
Also a senior captain, Liam Bloom believes that he has had a good start to the season, but not great. Bloom, when recalling a moment from the first meet included that, “my goggles fell off, but I only got one second slower than my best time, but hopefully I can get a new best time sometime soon.”
There also seems to be a common goal around the locker room as much of the team seems to be very pleased with their performance as a whole, but there is still room to push for more improvement. Nathan noted that the team’s “cheering was very strong,” however, he also pointed out that there were some technical errors that will need to be “cleaned up” for future success.
Head Coach Jessica Bisson explained that the team needed to work on “consistency.” Bisson also went on to say how she “works a lot on the small details technique-wise. So they have to really make sure that they are focusing on those small details in practice.”
However, these comments did not come without praise for the team, as Bisson noted that “it’s just a really good team community. They’re very close-knit. They really support each other. I think that’s just something that really helps the team grow.”
Bloom agreed that the team is “confident to win the GBL.” He also noted that he believes that he is coming into his role as a captain quite well, despite only being a second-year swimmer. “I’ve been going to the swim clinics and helping out a lot of people there and we’ve also been communicating a lot with the team,” Bloom remarked.
Nathan said that his personal goal was to “make sectionals and state cuts, coming off pneumonia.” He is also pleased with how he has been doing well as a captain, but it is “a lot to manage, but I’m very proud of it.” Bisson is happy with the captains and recognizes the challenge that comes with the leadership role. “It’s really finding a balance between being a captain and being a teammate at the same time and finding that balance, but I think they’re doing really well working into that role.” Bisson concluded that it will be important for this year’s captains to have the same “connection with the team as last year’s captains.”
Joslyn explained that “I want to become more open to the team, someone whose teammates can reach out to, and definitely become more of a leader. My goal is to make states in my relay and hopefully try to cut some time off most of my races and possibly make sectionals in backstroke.”
Bisson described the team as “resilient” and through the pandemic, and pools closing, they were able to “go with the flow, and bounce back from everything.” Bisson also highlighted “Nimon Jusufi, I’ve seen a lot of improvement in his breaststroke.”
Malden High’s swim team of last year had a great season and when asked about the differences that can be noticed from last year, Nathan believes “The team looks way better than last year. I feel like the depth on this team feels like we can be unstoppable.” Bisson, also discussing last year’s team, stayed optimistic, saying, “I have a lot of new swimmers on the team this year. So, from last year to this year, I definitely have seen technique-wise a lot of improvement in the swimmers that I’ve seen before.”
There are high hopes for the team’s success this season. Bisson stated that she noticed “we have a lot of strength coming in and we just want to build off of that.” Joslyn also promoted the idea that it would be crucial for the team to “be more connected as a whole for the season.”
“It makes me really happy to see that we have such a strong team culture,” said, Nathan. Bloom is also eager to “show new swimmers how much fun swimming as a sport is.”
There was a common agreement among all swimmers that they wanted to be able to win the Greater Boston League and have another impressive season. It sure looks that way as the team remains confident in their personal abilities and teamwork as a whole.
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from the class of 1965 i am so impressed i don’t think we had a swim team