Swimmers from four different local schools will compete at the MIAA Division 2 Girls Swimming and Diving Championship Saturday evening at Boston University. The meet will start at approximately 6:45 p.m.

Amherst, fresh off of winning its first Western Mass. title since 1999, will send seven swimmers to the competition, the most of any area school. Both Northampton and Belchertown will send six swimmers apiece, and Natalia Robak will be Easthampton’s lone representative. 

Northampton and Amherst will send all three of their relay teams to the event, and Belchertown will send two relays of their own.

The relay teams may represent some of the Hurricanes best performances at the event – they go into Saturday seeded No. 3 in both the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:44.46) and 400 free relay (3:45.07) and have the top ranking in the 200 medley relay (1:49.94) by nearly two seconds. 

Both Belchertown’s 400 free relay (3:54.08) and 200 medley relay (1:57.73) enter with the tenth-fastest time going into the event. Northampton’s 200 medley relay (1:58.38), 200 free relay (1:48.77) and 400 free relay (3:59.75) will also compete. 

There are a number of swimmers who should be in contention for an individual title, starting with Northampton’s Sydney Abild, who holds the No. 1 ranking in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:04.61) by over a full second. Abild swam her personal best time at the recent Western Mass. championships, the first time she’d ever broken the 1:05 mark.

Abild is also the No. 3 seed in the 200 IM (2:13.30) and will swim in the same heat as friend and competitor Natalie Robak from Easthampton, who’s ranked No. 7 (2:13.69). Robak will also compete in the 200 free, where she’s seeded No. 2 with a time of 1:54.99. 

Lucy Smith from Amherst is also seeded in the top three of her two individual events. Smith is the No. 2 seed in the 50 free (24.80), just 0.12 seconds behind top seed Anna Coleman from Marblehead, and is the No. 3 ranked swimmer in the 100 free (55.57).

Ranked just behind Smith in the 100 free is teammate Adda Hennessey, who sits at the No. 4 spot (56.07) and will also compete in the second heat of the 50 free (25.81). 

Amherst’s Sarah Baxter is ranked No. 4 in the 100 backstroke (59.79), one of just four swimmers under the one minute mark, and will also swim in the 200 IM (2:19.48). Teammate Deborah Wells will also compete in the 100 back and is ranked No. 5 (1:00.39), just behind Baxter, and Wells will also compete in the 200 IM (2:17.78).

Also competing for the Hurricanes is Rowan Albertson in the 50 free (25.49) and the 100 back (1:02.12) and Sophie Ziomek in the 500 free (5:38.19)

Belchertown has three swimmers competing in individual events. Alannah Lavoie will compete in the 100 butterfly (1:01.08) and the 100 breaststroke (1:13.91), Allyson Linkenhoker will swim in the 200 IM and Aubrey Harrington will race in the 200 free (2:05.32) and 100 back (1:02.61).