Splash! The swimmers explode off the block and hit the water, ready to begin their race. The girls’ swimming and diving team had an outstanding season where they broke school records and proved they were the best in the South Coast Conference. The sport of swimming is not a sport that many people know about. The Dighton-Rehoboth part of the team has two sophomores: Bonnie Arrigo and Olivia James. They are both a part of the co-op team with Seekonk, Case, and Somerset Berkley. They practice right after school at the Seekonk High School pool. The coaches of this team this season are Emily O’Conner and Matt Wills. O’Conner is new and is in her first year as the high school team but has coached swimming for many years before. Wills is a teacher at Seekonk and uses his background in swimming to help the team, and he also manages the team and makes sure everything runs well.

This season the girls’ team won all but one home meet and won all of their away meets, ending with a record of 7-1 in the regular season. The SCC Championship meet was between Seekonk, Old Rochester, and Apponequet. The girls’ and boys’ teams both won, winning the SCC overall. Bonnie Arrigo won the 100 butterfly and set a meet record with a time of 1:00.40. She also won the 100 breaststroke with the time of 1:13.40. Olivia James swam the 200 individual medley for the first time and placed 9th and the 100 freestyle, where she placed 11th.

The MIAA South Sectional Meet required swimmers to make certain cut times during the season in order to attend. The team placed second overall out of 40 teams with only four girls. This was a huge accomplishment for the team because the majority of the other schools had 10 or more people competing. All 4 girls scored points and contributed to the runner-up placement. They won both the 200 Medley Relay and the 400 Free Relay. They set a school record in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:52.30 and a school record in the 400 Free Relay with a time of 3:42.60. Bonnie took 3rd in the 200 Individual Medley and took 5th in the 100 Backstroke.

The following weekend at the MIAA Division 2 State Championships, the team placed 3rd out of 33 teams. Bonnie swam the 100 butterfly and placed 3d with a time of 59.72. She became the first person to break a minute for Dighton-Rehoboth in this race. She also swam the 100 backstroke and placed 5th with a time of 1:01.25. The team swam the 200 medley relay and got 2nd with a time of 1:50.93, which also lowered the school record that they set in the last meet by 1.37 seconds. They also swam the 400 freestyle relay and placed 1st with a time of 3:41.25 and also lowered the school record that was set at the last meet by 1.35 seconds.

Overall the season was a huge success for the team, and the swimmers at Dighton-Rehoboth hope to continue the team winning streak next year and break even more school records.