The Belchertown boys swimming team finished in third place at the MIAA Western/Central Sectional boys meet as the best area squad on Saturday at Springfield College. 

The Orioles produced 199 team points, thanks in large part due to the foursome of JR Zlogar, Ryan Shea, Ryan Gould and Drake Dragon.

The quartet picked up a majority of Belchertown’s points and they all competed on its pair of second-place overall relay teams. The Orioles’ 200-yard medley relay team (1:40.04) and 400-yard free relay team (3:23.26) helped them land among the three best team scores.

Zlogar was fourth place in both the 200-yard individual medley (2:06.52) and 100-yard butterfly (53.46 seconds), Shea secured third place in the 50-yard freestyle (22.18 seconds), Gould grabbed fourth place in the 100-yard backstroke (54.82 seconds) and Dragon was fifth place in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:14.31.

The Holyoke boys cracked the top-10 with 117 team points.

Brady Pijar and Ibrahim Salloum were factors in the Purple Knights’ second-place finishing 200-yard free relay team with a time of 1:33.90.

Pijar was strong in the 100-yard freestyle, picking up third in 49.40 seconds, while Salloum’s seventh-place finish in the 500 free at 5:18.91 highlighted the duo’s individual events.

Cole Mattison-Gulotta led the Northampton boys with top-20 finishes in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500 free, while the Amherst boys’ 400 relay team of Joe Hazlip, Archer Young, Rhys Prindle and Lewin Halasz improved upon their seed position (18th place, 4:05.23).