March 13, 2023 by Maggie Trautner (‘25)
On Saturday, March 4th, four members of the Saratoga Springs High School (SSHS) boys’ varsity swimming and diving team competed at the state meet: seniors Connor Baird and Mason Cartier, sophomore Anthony Sanchez, and eighth grader Kevin (Anderson) Baird. The boys medley relay team qualified for states at their sectional meet in February and Connor Baird qualified in the 100-yard butterfly and 200 individual medley earlier in the season at dual meets. This accomplishment is very impressive for both the relay team and Baird in the individual events.
New York State swimming is high-level, with competition in the form of teams from both the city and Long Island, as well as from national caliber teams. SSHS’ success at sectionals is what led them to gaining this experience. The Saratoga boys took third overall in the section and many of their swimmers dropped time or made it to finals the next day.
Teammate Casey Everett says, “sectionals was so fun, the team environment going on, everyone cheering for each other. It was really awesome being able to go as fast as possible at that meet.” This team environment led to a state qualifying time for the 200-medley relay on the first day of sectionals, in the preliminary race.
Once at the state meet, the boys relay competed the first day in the prelim race, but unfortunately did not qualify for finals the next day. Connor Baird made finals in his two events, however, and made his return the next day in the consolation final for both the 200 IM and the 100 fly. He placed 24th in the state in the former and 22nd in the latter.
The state meet is scored based on section, so the Toga boys competed with other schools in section two and contributed to placing sixth out of the eleven sections in attendance. Cartier, who swam the backstroke leg of the relay said, “states was a highly competitive, great team bonding experience.” Being the only team in the section without a pool is a big disadvantage to the team, but they proved that with hard work they can be just as fast as schools with access to their own aquatic facilities on campus.