Congratulations on all of the hardware we took home last night! The tradition of excellence continues.
Our girl’s juggernaut won the conference championship outright with dominating victories in both the regular season and the Championship Meet. The boys split the conference championship with a very strong Fredericksburg Academy Team. We won the regular season and they won the final meet.
Out of 24 events, we beat 8 DAC Meet records!
The final score for the girls was 2 points shy of doubling the second place team, and that was after spotting them 32 points when our medley relay was disqualified in the very first event. The conclusion was never in doubt. The final score was 386-194, with Fredericksburg Academy and Fredericksburg Christian tied at 194.
We knew the boy’s meet was going to be very close with Fredericksburg Academy. We beat them twice in the regular season and they beat us once. Their one victory happened when we had numerous sick swimmers the week before the DAC Champs. That’s what got me worried for the Championship meet. We had to turn in the meet sheet over a week ago and were unable to make changes after that. With the sickness that has been going around Seton, we showed up at the meet missing 4 swimmers that could not be replaced.
The boys ended up losing to Fredericksburg Academy by only 36 points, with a score of 314-278. The difference would have easily been made up in 50 and 100 Free. In 50 Free, we were missing two swimmers that would have placed 6th and 7th. Instead, two FA swimmers got 6th and 7th. That was a 24- point swing. The point swing in 100 Free was similar.
Out of 4 swimmers entered, only Ray swam. His victory (and DAC record) wasn’t enough. With our missing swimmers, we would have added a 4th and 8th place finish. That also would have pushed 2 FA swimmers to lower scoring places. The result was a swing of another 19 points.
In just those two events, we lost 43 points – more than enough to ensure victory. With all of the lost points in other events, we could have won by at least 40 points. Would o’, should o’, could o’ – that’s why they swim the meet.
We can take nothing away from FA however. Their boys were outstanding! Believe me, I was watching the times very closely. We had many PRs, but so did they. For instance, our boys medley relay dropped more than one second off of their best time! Kevin’s backstroke split was 30 seconds and Ray’s free split was 25 seconds. That’s fast for a meter pool! Faster than FA had ever swum. But they responded, and won the race anyway. Give them credit – they definitely brought their “A” game to the meet.
I was really proud of our whole team. There were many outstanding swims:
- Here are the folks that won DAC Championships individually:
- Jessica Dunn – 200 Free
- Ray Bennett – 50 Free (DAC Meet record)
- Katie Planchak – 50 Free (DAC Meet record)
- Caitlyn Harris – 100 Fly
- Ray Bennett – 100 Free (DAC Meet record)
- Meg Seale – 100 Free (threatened Katie Shipko’s record – next year?)
- Men’s 200 Free Relay – Rafter, Morch, Mann, Bennett (DAC Meet record and Metro qualifying time)
- Girl’s 200 Free Relay – Dunn sisters and Planchak sisters (DAC Meet record)
- Girl’s 400 Free Relay – Jessica Dunn, Kimberley Melnyk, Katie Planchak, Meg Seale (DAC Meet record)
- We had several folks that took home 2nd Place in the conference:
- Men’s 200 Medley – Koehr, Rafter, Morch, Bennett (beat DAC record by over 6 seconds and still got second! FA was tough in this one.)
- Jenn Planchak – 200 Free
- Joanie Pretz – 100 Fly
- Kimberley Melnyk – 500 Free (dropped 12 seconds to surprise the field)
- Jessica Dunn – 100 Free
- Kevin Koehr – 100 Back (beat DAC record and qualified for the Junior Olympics, but lost to DAC Conference boys MVP from FA. Fortunately for our boys medley relay and Kevin, this guy’s a senior!)
- Joanie Pretz – 100 Back
- Meg Seale – 100 Breast (second to DAC Conference girls MVP)
- Men’s 400 Free relay – Koehr, Nevin Cook, Ben Mann, John Pretz
- Third place medals went to:
- Benn Mann – 200 Free
- Bryan Morch – 100 Fly
- Kevin Koehr – 200 IM
- Laura Shaw – 100 Fly
- Melissa Dunn – 100 Free
- Jennifer Planchak – 500 Free
- Casey Rafter – 100 Breast
- For those of you reading closely, you may have noticed that our girls got first, second and third in both 100 Fly and 100 Free. Add an 8th in 100 Fly by Kristin Mullarkey and a 6th in 100 Free by Monica Vice, and we scored 96 points in those two events alone! Most of the teams at the meet didn’t even score 96 points.
- Notice also how many of the folks in the lists above are underclassmen. Most are 10th grade or below. I don’t think we will be sharing conference titles with anyone again in the near future.
- If we had any chance to win this meet on the boys side, it was going to be through the efforts of people like Brad Hoffer. In two events, he dropped a total of 14 seconds and scored 4 more points than he should have. You know what he swam? 200 Free and 100 Fly. Someone had to do it – he stepped up and made a difference.
- Geoff Ross and Nick Yirak also came through in the clutch. They both took the 500 freestyle head-on. Nick was sick and dropped 12 seconds. Geoff dropped 27 seconds. He has had similar improvements during several meets this year. I think Geoff has dropped at least 2 minutes off of his 500 free this year. Not everyone is willing to do 500 free for the good of the team, but these two also stepped up and made a difference.
- Stephanie Melnyk, Megan Morch, Melissa Dunn and Gina Garzione did their part. They all dropped time and scored more points than they were supposed to. Stephanie came within .1 seconds of qualifying for states. Fortunately, she is only a freshman so she has three more years to go.
- Laura Shaw finished her senior season with a bang. She improved in both 100 Fly and 500 free. In the 500, she dropped 9 seconds.
- Thank you for winning Coach of Year for US. How could they not give it to Seton the way you guys performed! I had a group of parents from Fredericksburg Academy come up to me after the awards ceremony to tell me what a “class act” the Seton swimmers were. You guys were fine examples of what Catholic men and women should be. You carried yourselves well – in both victory and defeat. It was particularly excellent how the boys team stayed out on the floor after receiving the runner up trophy so that they could shake the hands of the FA swimmers.
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God has given all of us many gifts – they come in different amounts for different things. No matter how much we get and what the gifts are, it is our responsibility to make the most of them. Every one of you have been given some level of gift to swim. You met your responsibility by improving yourself for the His glory. That is what swimming is about. That is what life is about.
I’m very proud,
Coach Koehr