DURHAM — Madison Dinsmore knew what it would take to win the 500-yard freestyle at the New England Championships.

That’s because she saw her older sister Brooke do it just a year ago.

During the three postseason meets last season, Madison watched as Brooke stood on the blocks at the top of Division II, the state’s best at Meet of Champions and number one in New England.

Madison was third, second and second respectively in the three races in the 500-yard freestyle, but she was also only a freshman.

“I’ve matured a lot in swimming over the last year and I’ve sort of realized that it’s not the failures you have to focus on because in swimming, 90 percent of what you swim is going to be a failure,” she said.

And now as a sophomore at Mascenic, Dinsmore has matched her sister’s postseason sweep and even one-upped it.

Dinsmore won the 20-lap race in a time of five minutes and 10.33 seconds, keeping the title of New England’s best in the family.

“It’s really an accomplishment that I’m No. 1 in all of New Hampshire and then I came to this meet and was No. 1, too,” said Dinsmore.

She dominated the field at the DII meet on Feb. 13, beating second place Brooke by over five seconds and then set a new Meet of Champions record the following day, with a time of 5:10.78, to be seeded first in Saturday’s New England Championships at the University of New Hampshire.

“It does put a lot of pressure on you,” said Dinsmore of the top seeding. “I was standing behind the blocks and they announced that I was seeded with the meet [of champions] record. One thing I’ve learned when I’m swimming with that pressure on me is that’s when I focus the best and have some of my best races.”

Going into the race, Dinsmore wanted to reach new heights in the event, and while she was unable to reach one of her goals, there was no disappointment on Saturday.

“I sort of wanted to go in and break 5:10, but even though I didn’t, I’m really happy overall with the way I swam,” Dinsmore said.

Her time was not only the best on Saturday, giving her a New England Championship of her own, but it also shattered Brooke’s mark set last year by almost seven full seconds.

“Sure I’ve been to a lot bigger meets, but the difference is that not a lot of people can say, ‘I’m a state champion and a New England champion’,” Dinsmore said. “Not everyone can say they have a New England record and that’s a big accomplishment for any swimmer.”

The rivalry between the sisters is one described as friendly. They both have that competitive edge, especially against one another, but when one doesn’t win, they hope the other does.

“We’ve always been like ‘If you’re up on the blocks and you beat me this time, then next time I’ll beat you,’” said Dinsmore. “I could win this, but in a week, we could go to another meet and there’s no saying which one of us is going to win.”

In the last two weeks, the younger one has had the upper hand much like the older one did last year.

But there was no indication that Dinsmore was going to dominate the three postseason races like she did. During the school season she only swam the 500-yard freestyle on one occasion and that came on Jan. 22 at Keene. And she finished with a time of 5:22.33, but while it was good enough to qualify for the Division II meet, it showed no signs of things to come.

Dinsmore is in the minority amongst high school swimmers. She swims all year, practicing twice a day on most days and is well versed in many different disciplines.

“I train on a year-round team, so I’m not taking a season off and I use that as an advantage,” she said.

She not only qualified and swam the 500-free at the New England Championships, but also did so in the 200-individual medley.

And if it wasn’t for the rule of only allowing swimmers to compete in two individual races at the Division II meet, Dinsmore could have been swimming all day long at the three postseason meets.

Of the eight individual events offered by the NHIAA, she qualified for six of them and the reason why she didn’t reach the standard time for the 50-freestyle and the 100-backstroke, is because Dinsmore never swam them this season, and four of the six she swam just once.
Dinsmore took second in the 200-IM at the DIIs and was third at Meet of Champions. She then finished fifth at New Englands.

Dinsmore, like her older sister, will have a lot to live up to next year.

But seeing that she shaved over 14 seconds off her time since the 2009 New England Championships, it should be pretty exciting to see what she can do for an encore.