Pat Gott came up to me after our warm-up and told me that he overheard the FA coach telling her team to watch the way we were warming up. Right before we hit the water, I told you they were watching, and now we know they were. I guarantee you it had the desired affect – they knew right then how the meet would turn out.
Brittany Rosato spoke up and said, “I guess this means it’s the ‘best of times’ again?”. Yes it does Brittany. We did a much better job this week of getting focused and having fun at the same time. I was very pleased.
FA is no longer undefeated which leaves both the Seton boys and girls alone in first place in the conference. Here were the final scores:
Women
SST 200 FA 85
SST 175 FCS 84
Men
SST 157 FA 128
SST 175 FCS 85
Once again, the girls more than doubled their opponent’s score – only North Stafford has come closer. We made the boys meet versus FA closer than necessary with a 16 point swing when our 400 Free relay was DQ’d for jewelry. I don’t like the rule, but it’s the rule so we’d better learn to deal with it before it actually costs us a meet.
We had two new Seton records:
1) Katie Planchak dropped her own 50 Free record to 26.12. She’s been trying to break the 26 second barrier – I think it will happen soon. This was the 2nd fastest 50 free swum in Prince William County this season – public or private.
2) Kevin Koehr lowered his own 200 Free record to 1:55.90. He went out in 54.90, so I think there’s a 1:53 in him this season.
Other top times in Prince William County according to the Journal Messenger:
– Our boys medley is the 2nd fastest in the County by a couple tenths of a second. Only Stonewall can beat us
– Kevin Koehr’s 100 back was the 2nd fastest in the County this season behind a kid from Stonewall. He’s also in the top 4 in 200 IM, 200 Free and 100 Free.
– Nevin’s 100 Brst is also 2nd, behind the same kid from Stonewall.
We had 4 new National times achieved on the last weekend before the meet sheet is due to Villanova:
1) Kimberley Melnyk – 50 Free at 28.38
2) Mary-Kate Kenna – 100 Breast at 1:18.00, the fastest time on the team this year
3) Nevin Cook – 200 IM at 2:11.71
4) Kevin Koehr – 200 Free
Of course these swimmers were just a few of the 32 PRs that the team set this weekend:
– Connor Cook – 200 Free by 4 seconds and 100 Fly by 4.5 seconds!
– Kevin Koehr – 200 Free
– Joe Ross – 200 Free
– Jessica Dunn – 200 Free by 2 seconds and 100 Free
– Katie Corkery – 200 Free
– Nevin Cook – 200 IM by 6.5 seconds and 100 Fly by 4 seconds!
– Billy Corkery – 200 IM by 14 seconds!
– Lea Mazzoccoli – 200 IM
– Amanda Byers – 200 IM by 9 seconds!
– Tyler Hood – 50 Free (I just knew he could go faster!)
– Andrew Davis – 50 Free and 100 Brst
– James Zambrana – 50 Free and 100 Free by 14 seconds!
– Katie Planchak – 50 Free and 100 Fly
– Kimberley Melnyk – 50 Free
– Angela Hassan – 50 Free
– Virginia Hagen-Gates – 50 Free
– David Basinger – 100 Fly by 3 seconds
– Mary-Kate Kenna – 100 Fly by 6 seconds, plus 100 Brst
– Melissa Dunn – 100 Free
– Gina Garzione – 100 Free
– David Harris – 500 Free by 7 seconds
– Danielle Smith – 500 Free
– Kristin Rafter – 500 Free by 11 seconds
– Megan Hoffer – 100 Back
– Kelsey Kleb – 100 Back
Did you all see Pat Gott swimming 500 free with his knee injury? He went up to the blocks on crutches, did his flip turns with a straight leg, and still did close to his best time. He even sprinted the last 25 yards. Best of all, he asked to swim the event! It reminded me of the heart that Jack Murphy showed while he recovered from his broken arm last season. Our course, Pat wasn’t the only one with an exceptional swim this weekend:
– Billy Corkery had a great race in the 200 IM, catching FA’s top man on the final freestyle leg. In a race of heart, I’m betting on Billy.
– Dan Quinan repeated Billy’s race in the next heat of 200 IM, blowing away his FA opponent on the final freestyle leg.
– Lea Mazzoccoli just missed the national cut in 200 IM – it was a great effort.
– I never knew that Whitney Hood could swim butterfly so well. I looked up and saw her way out in front of her heat and had to ask the other coaches who it was – I just wasn’t expecting it. What a great first swim in this event – it definitely won’t be her last.
– We had several good swims in the 500 Free including David Harris, who really pushed it at the end to finish 2nd, and Andryiko Villhauer, who wants to swim it again after doing well on his very first attempt ever. Eileen Corkery, Kirstin Kleb, and Virginia Hagen-Gates also did very well in their very first attempts at this challenging event. The common theme from all of them after the race was that “it wasn’t as hard as I thought”. One hint for all of you: it almost never is – don’t psych yourself out.
– No one cheered more intently than Betsy Mooney. What a great example for all of us.
– I spread the wealth a bit when I did the line-up for the boys relays – I was trying to win all three, but the boys 200 free relay was closer than I’d planned. Sean Koehr actually used that relay start we learned in practice to propel himself ahead of the FA boys and Nevin used an outstanding turn to finish them off. I was getting nervous.
– Andrew Davis had a big meet. Two PRs and a 1st place in 100 Brststroke. Great job!
Didn’t Mr. Planchak sound like those starters at the Olympics? He did a really fine job making swimmers stand up when someone was moving. Every start was fair. I don’t think anyone will be slipping anything past Mr. Planchak at DAC champs.
The meet sheet for Catholic Nationals is due on Wednesday. I hope to have a draft tonight. Here are the swimmers who have swum qualifying times for the meet:
Girls:
1) Jessie Dunn – 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free, 100 Fly and 200 IM
2) Melissa Dunn – 50 Free, 100 Brststroke
3) Caitlin Harris – 100 Fly
4) Mary-Kate Kenna – 100 Brststroke
5) Lea Mazzoccoli – 100 Fly
6) Kimberley Melnyk – 50 Free
7) Hailey Moya – 50 Free
8) Katie Planchak – 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free, 100 Fly and 200 IM
9) Meg Seale – 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free, 100 Breast and 200 IM
Boys:
1) Nevin Cook – 100 Brststroke and 200 IM
2) Kevin Koehr – 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free, 100 Back and 200 IM
3) Bryan Morch – 100 Fly
Last year, we only had 5 girls and 3 boys in individual events so this the largest list of qualifiers yet! More on this meet very shortly.
Thank you all for a much better meet. Not only did we win, but we looked and acted like the class team of the DAC. I like it, I really like it.
Coach Koehr