Last Saturday, February 6th, Seton Swimming traveled to Fredericksburg Academy for the DAC Conference Championship Meet. After securing our 16th straight conference championship based on our regular season conference record, Seton won the DAC Champs handily:
- Our boys and girls won every single individual event, including 37 of the available 48 individual medals
- We won every relay except for one that was DQ’d (more on that later)
- Jameson Hill and Bridget Wunderly were voted by the coaches as Swimmers of the Meet
- We set 9 new DAC Championship Meet records!
- There were 30 swimmers designated as All-Conference and 22 of them were from Seton!
The final scores for the top 3 finishers looked like this:
Boys
Seton 457
Randolph-Macon Academy 211.5
Fredericksburg Christian 149.5
Girls
Seton 404
Fredericksburg Christian 209
Fredericksburg Academy 206
The Trend is Positive
One thing that is interesting to look at is the history of the scores of this meet for the past 8 years.
In 2003, both the boys and girls won the conference, which is based on the regular season, but our boys actually lost the conference meet to Fredericksburg Academy. That was the year that Casey Rafter was a junior, Ray Bennett was a sophomore, Kevin Koehr and Bryan Morch were freshman and Nevin Cook was in 7th grade. The trend is certainly favorable for our boy’s team with the gap widening each year– and that is when we compare ourselves to whoever is the 2nd best team in the DAC, which has changed a few times. This year, we’ll be graduating 3 key senior boys, but with the middle school boys we currently have on the team, I don’t see us missing much of a beat over the next 5 years.
The girl’s story is a bit different, reflecting strong teams since the beginning of the decade. In 2003, I recall a young team with the Planchak sisters, Meg Seale, the Dunn sisters, Caitlin Harris, the Melnyk Sisters and Megan Morch – many of them in middle school. Obviously, we’ve continued the strong tradition of girls swimming from those days.
The Swimmers of the Meet
Swimmer of the Meet is an honor for which all of the coaches vote – and the coaches in our conference recognized two Seton Swimmers:
- Bridget Wunderly had a remarkable meet, and was certainly deserving of DAC Champs Swimmer of the Meet honors. She won two individual gold medals in 200 IM and 100 Fly and set a new conference short-course meters record in 100 Fly, breaking the old record set back in 2004. With her performance Saturday, Bridget proved that she is our strongest 4 stroke swimmer.
- Jameson Hill, not surprisingly, was the boys Swimmer of the Meet. Jamo won gold in the 200 and 400 Free (in meters, we swim 400 rather than 500) as well as gold in the 200 Medley and 400 Free Relays. In the process, he set five (5) new DAC short-course meter records, including the 100 Free leading of the 400 Free relay. Two of the records that he broke were held by Seton great Nevin Cook. In the 400 Free, he lapped the entire field.
All-Conference Swimmers
Swimmers who finish in the top 3 in an individual event in the DAC Championship meet are designated “All-Conference”. There were 30 swimmers who earned this designation and 22 of them came from Seton:
- Lauren “the Machine” Donohoe won two individual gold medals in the 50 and 100 Free, breaking the conference record in the 50 formerly held by FCS’s great sprinter Keri Jones. Lauren also earned a gold medal and part of a new conference record in the 200 Free Relay.
- Carolyn Claybrooks, last year’s Swimmer of the Meet along with Mary Kate Kenna, also won two individual gold medals and set an individual conference record. Her gold medals came in the 200 and 400 Free events, and her new record came in the 400 after she broke the record she set at last year’s meet. Carolyn was also part of the gold medal winning 400 Free relay.
- David Basinger won gold medals in 200 IM and 100 Fly as well as the 200 Medley and 400 Free relays. Both relays set records.
- Vincent “Catfish” Dunn equaled David’s 4 gold medals, winning 200 Free and 100 Back by wide margins, and sharing in the gold medals for the 200 Free and record-setting 400 Free relays
- Connor Cook took gold in a very fast heat of 100 Free and silver in the 200 Free. He also won two gold medals and was part of two new conference records in the 200 Medley relay and the 400 Free relay.
- Alex Doonis won gold in 100 Back and silver in the 200 IM. She also helped set the new conference record for the 200 Free relay,
- Cat Rogers took gold in 100 Breaststroke, took silver in 50 Free and helped set the new 200 Free relay record
- Daniel Koehr won 3 gold medals and a bronze. His gold medals came in 100 Breaststroke, the record-setting 200 Medley relay and the 200 Free relay (a record of which he is already a part).
- Laura Talbott took silver in both 100 Free and 100 Back and gold in the 400 Free relay and the record setting 200 Free relay.
- Steven Shaw, a freshman, showed his future potential with a silver in 100 Back and a bronze in 100 Fly.
- 8th grader Jamie Smith won two bronze medals in the 200 IM and the 400 Free.
- Monica Byers took bronze in both the 200 IM and 100 Back.
- Keeley Cook also took two bronze medals, in the 200 and 400 Freestyle.
- Michael Hill won a silver medal in 100 Breaststroke.
- Patrick Kenna followed an awesome start to the silver medal in 100 Free.
- And Brendan Koehr followed Patrick Kenna to the bronze in 100 Free
- Rachel Lambrecht took silver in 100 Breast behind another Seton swimmer
- Leslie Zapiain was very strong in the 400 Free, taking the silver
- And Sarah Zapiain took silver in 100 Fly.
- Lucy Bennett won the bronze medal in 100 Fly.
The State Championship is Upon Us
Looks like this weekend is going to be a lot of fun! Check out the psych sheet under Meet & Team Information. We have many very high seeds:
- Jameson Hill is seeded 1st in the 200 and 500 Free
- Our Girls 200 Free Relay is seeded 1st!
- Our Girls 400 Free Relay is seeded 2nd!
- Alex Doonis and Lauren Donohoe are seeded 1st and 2nd in the 50 Free
- Lauren Donohoe is seeded 1st in 100 Free
- Alex Doonis is seeded 2nd in 100 Back
- Cat Rogers is seeded 6th in 100 Breaststroke
- Bridget Wunderly is seeded 8th in 100 Fly
- Our Boys 200 Medley and 400 Free relay are seeded in the top 8, and so is our Girls 200 Medley
- Can we line it up to get all 6 relays in the top 8? I’m discussing it off line with Jamo, Connor, Dan, David and Catfish.
- And we have lots of other top 16 seeds
With the new way that VISAA has determined that schools are assigned to Divisions (up to 160 students is Division II), it looks like our new competitor for the girls this year will be Cape Henry Collegiate (CHCS). For the boys, it looks like Covenant (COV) will be the closest challenger.
This is what we’ve been waiting for. Have you ever heard that old expression that luck is when opportunity meets preparation? I’m feeling very lucky this weekend!
Coach Koehr