Hawks’ team title special for standout Miranda

By Matt Metcalf
Posted 2/23/16

Max Miranda has proven in his three high school seasons that he shines brightest when the stakes are at their peak.

But on Saturday, the junior set a new standard even for himself.

Miranda set …

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Hawks’ team title special for standout Miranda

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Max Miranda has proven in his three high school seasons that he shines brightest when the stakes are at their peak.

But on Saturday, the junior set a new standard even for himself.

Miranda set two individual state records in the 200 individual medley and the 100 fly, earning All-American consideration for both. In the IM, he finished with a time of 1:49.45, and in the fly, Miranda posted an unprecedented time of 49.52 seconds.

He didn’t stop there, though.

Miranda, along with Lucas Stencel, Connor Levine and Marc Andrews, broke the state record in the 200 medley relay to open the meet. The only problem was that Barrington outpaced the Hawks’ quartet as the Eagles took first, also breaking the previous record in a quicker time than the Hawks.

Motivated by that second-place finish, Miranda and his teammates would finish the meet in a more ideal fashion in the 400 free relay.

Miranda, Stencel, Alex Vessella and Dillane Wehbe blew out the competition and the previously-held state record, finishing with a time of 3:16.52.

Miranda saved his three state records for a good time too, as the Hawks needed those points to create separation on the scoreboard, with Hendricken outlasting Barrington, 373-319, for the team title.

“This is my first year to get more than one record at the state meet, so it’s great,” Miranda said. “I broke 50 in the fly, I broke 1:50 in the IM, I was really happy with both of those. And then the last relay was the most fun race that I swam in all day.”

It’s a team title for a reason, and Miranda couldn’t have been prouder of his teammates for putting together a strong all-around performance.

After somewhat of a letdown in the opening relay, with Barrington simply out-swimming Hendricken, the Hawks bounced back in a big way, placing three swimmers in five individual events.

“Our coach just said that if we win the first race, it’s over, we’ll win the meet,” Miranda said. “We all, obviously, had a really good swim, but Barrington just had a better race. But then we just focused on the next race, we didn’t get down. I feel like maybe some other teams would’ve gotten down after that, but we kind of rebounded and everyone did a really good job. We moved on from that pretty easily.”

And now Miranda will move on to bigger things, individually.

He will compete in sectionals in Florida in March, before heading to Omaha, Neb., for the Olympic Trials in June.

Miranda has already achieved some great things on the national level, and I’m sure those accolades will only become greater over the next few years.

But on Saturday, he helped the Hawks to their second straight state championship and 29th overall.

For Miranda, team titles are special – something he doesn’t get to experience with his club team.

“This is all about team,” Miranda said. “There’s nothing that can compare to that with club swimming. Winning a team championship is a unique experience that I can’t get anywhere else. This is definitely special to me.”

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