Over the past few weeks, we have continued to see tremendous improvement from swimmers at all levels. From our first practice in early November to our last practice before Christmas, we have methodically worked through every stroke and every wall and the results of that approach to the first half of the season bore much fruit.
At last weekend’s Christmas Spirit Homecoming Invitational, we had another 49 PRs. That means that, so far this season, we have had 289 personal records – an astounding number for after only four (4) meets. Congratulations to all of our swimmers. If we keep this up, we’ll be back to competing on the State level before we know it!
It was also particularly fun to see so many of our alumni back at the meet – especially the ones that jumped in the water to race. On the boy’s side, we had Kevin, Sean, Daniel and Brendan Koehr plus Ray Bennett, Bryan Morch, Pat Kenna, Jonathan Rosato, Tony Minarik and Luke Marrazzo. Ray Bennett came with his own family to cheer him and split 23.86 at the end of the medley. Then, in the 200 Free relay, our seminarian, Sean Koehr, split 23.75! I was really pleased to learn that Bryan Morch, who split 25.48 in the Fly leg of the medley, is heading off the Navy SEAL training in March!
On the girls side, Carolyn Claybrooks, Alex Doonis, Bridget Wunderly, Laura Talbott and Lauren “the Machine” Donohoe carried the water and whipped all comers. I think it helped that several of them are current college swimmers 😉 How about Carolyn’s 25.69 lead-off split for the 200 Free Relay! Her St. Vincent coach had to be proud. And of course we had to have the “Machine” back to anchor our relays. Even though she’s been out of the water for a year, she still split 25.72. And nice job Leslie Zapiain with that National Anthem!
As for the real competition, here is the way the final results shook out. It was exciting to see that three of the boys meets, with Collegiate, John Paul and Flint Hill, all were decided in the last few events:
Boys
Seton 208 Highland 30
Collegiate 143 Seton 132
John Paul the Great 147 Seton 128
Flint Hill 154 Seton 125
Patriot High School 223 Seton 63
Girls
Seton 210 Highland 41
Seton 176 John Paul the Great 87
Seton 154 Flint Hill 125
Collegiate 203 Seton 83
Patriot High School 206 Seton 80
Top Performances
Once again, there were many special performances over the past two weekends, but here are some of the ones that struck me the most:
- Matthew Fioramonti is making tremendous progress – he just continues to blow me away. How about a 6:31 500 Free – a swim 43.27 seconds faster than ever before. And how about another huge 4.75 second PR in 100 Back? If fact, I just looked back at the results of our meets this year, and Matt has swum a PR in every event for which he had a previous time. Marvelous work Matt!
- Dani Flook is another one who is really impressing me. In the 200 Free, she cut 18.14 seconds from an already pretty good time. Even more impressive, she lowered her 100 Fly PR by a remarkable 12.50 seconds – I don’t think that I’ve ever seen her stroke look any better. And even in the sprint freestyle, she cut .60 seconds from her 50 Free to go 28.20., a time that is now the 6th fastest on the team! Dani is only a freshman – I can already see that she has a big future on the team!
- James Kosten, you are really getting the hang of this sport! You looked really long and strong in the 200 Free, and it showed with a drop of 8.34 seconds! And in the 100 Free, you dropped another 2.27 seconds – I can’t wait to see you break 1:00 in that event!
- Emily Lowell had a PR in every time that she hit the water on Saturday. She started off with a .98 second PR in 50 Back leading off the medley relay. I knew it was going to be a good day for her after that. Then in the 200 Free, she cut 3.95 seconds from her lifetime best – and she did it in an event that she has swum many times before. But she wasn’t even done after that. In 100 Back, she managed yet another huge PR in 100 Back, this time by 2.51 seconds. It was a very impressive day, Emily.
- Andrew Quinan had a pair of very fine individual swims that showed his ability to compete is wide range of events. In the 100 Fly, Andrew dropped 28.01 seconds from his previous best – that’s huge! Andrew also dropped 15.37 seconds from his 200 Free PR. Very impressive swims Andrew!
- Kimberly Rector’s work on her butterfly technique this week paid some pretty big dividends. She cut 4.38 seconds from her PR and took a 6th place finish overall. That’s a big drop – big enough to get her a state cut in the event! Kimberly also cut another .27 seconds from her 50 Free PR which now has her 4th on the list of the team’s fastest sprinters, and the 3rd fastest if I use times from this season only.
- Brendan Santschi has really caught my eye with his swimming so far this season, particularly his freestyle. I put him in the 200 Free this week to see what he could do, and he repaid me with a 7.59 second PR. Brendan also cut .29 seconds from his 100 Free PR with a stroke that former Coach Pat Mulhern used to describe as “long and strong”!
- Madeline Snider is new to the team, but I couldn’t be happier that she joined us. I remember at the pre-season information meeting she told me that she couldn’t swim the 500. I chuckled inside – and that was before I actually saw her swim. Well how about a 7:16.70 – an improvement of 81.17 seconds! That’s almost 1.5 minutes! Yep, I think we all know that Madeline can swim the 500 now. Madeline, you are going to be one good swimmer for us at Seton.
49 More Personal Records!
Below is an enumeration of the great performances not already mentioned that made up this total:
- Ashley Cackett had a .62 second PR in 100 Free and a .21 second PR in 50 Free. She’s starting to get pretty close to that :30 second barrier in 50 Free
- Mary Camarca swam well, particularly in the 100 Free where she swam a lifetime best by .13 seconds.
- Leslie Chang continues to get better. On Saturday, she cut another 7.36 seconds from her 100 Free PR and another 2.18 second PR from her 50 Free PR.
- Kalli Dalrymple cut nearly a whole second (.96 seconds) from her PR in 50 Free.
- Patrick Dealey had a good day with the backstroke. In the 50 leading off a medley, he cut his PR by 1.97 seconds and in the 100, he cut his PR by 1.02 seconds.
- Mark Fioramonti swam really well, even with a big gash in his foot. That gash certainly didn’t stop him from lowering his 100 Breaststroke PR by 15.16 seconds and his 50 Free PR by .36 seconds. I’m really enjoy the way that he approaches athletics.
- Tommy Flook had a .11 second PR swim in the 200 IM. I was also pleased with his fly. While it wasn’t the PR he was hoping for, I really liked what I saw in his stroke – trust me Tommy, the PRs will follow from an improved stroke.
- Rosie Hall continues to improve. That was a huge 5.61 second PR in 50 Free for her. She also cut 1.14 seconds from her 100 Free PR.
- Sean Kellogg, that was a really great job in the 50 Free. That 3.87 second PR was a nice piece of work.
- Anna Kenna has come off a couple very strong performances and still managed yet another PR this week also. In the 100 Free, leading off a relay at the very end of the meet, she swam a new lifetime best by .31 seconds. :59.29 is very fast for an 8th grade girl! Anna was also responsible for our team’s highest placed individual finishes with a 3rd in 100 Back and a 5th in 100 Fly.
- Claire Kenna rocked in some events that are not normally her preferences. In the 200 Free, she cut 3.02 seconds and in the 500 Free, she cut 5.76 seconds. She is already swimming times in these events that are pretty competitive – in fact, in the 200 Free, she qualified for States!
- Seamus Koehr had a really nice swim in 100 Breast, lowering his PR by .39 seconds. His Butterfly during his first attempt at the 200 IM was better than I’ve ever seen it. Can’t wait to give him a shot at the 100 Fly!
- Colette Kosten had PRs in both of her individual events on Saturday. In 100 Free, she swam her best time by .79 seconds and in 50 Free, she swam her best time by .40 seconds.
- Tommy Moore hit a couple of really solid PRs. In 50 Back leading off the medley, he cut 6.07 seconds and in 50 Free, he cut .43 seconds. Tommy is getting really close to breaking that :30 second barrier in the 50!
- John O’Donohue now has the 10th fastest 50 Free time on the team after his .68 second PR.
- Mark O’Donohue showed some versatility with a really nice swim in the 500 Free, lowering his PR by 10.39 seconds.
- Meghan O’Malley is now .04 seconds from breaking :30 seconds in 50 Free after another .30 second PR.
- Cat Pechie never looked better in 100 Fly. How about an 8.32 second PR! She also cut more than a half a second (.52 seconds) in 50 Free and is now only .12 seconds from that :30 second barrier.
- Paul Pechie got that pulse up during the 500 and the result was a 6.87 second personal record!
- Ryan Pugh had a nice swim in the 50 Free dropping 1.39 seconds!
- Meridyth Rosato had a huge drop in 100 Fly with a 2.70 second PR. She also cut .35 seconds from her 50 Free PR.
Lots of Great Butterfly
We spent the four (4) practices prior to last week’s meet learning (or re-learning) how to swim butterfly. It was great to see so many PRs in the event, but most of the swimmers who swam the event couldn’t get a PR because it was their first attempt ever.\
Here are the swimmers who attempted 100 Fly for the first time:
- John O’Donohue
- Ryan Pugh
- Stephen Smith
- Josh Miller
- Peter O’Donohue
- Martin Quinan
- Joe Fioramonti
- Sean Kellogg
- Patrick Hall
- Tommy Moore
- Ben Dealey
- Therese Pechie
- Mary Heim
- Edith Barvick
- Georgine Irving
- Kalli Dalrymple
New Qualifiers for the VISAA State Championship Meet
No new qualifiers over the past two weeks, but we did have a number of current qualifiers hit the cut in additional events:
- Alex Sinner added 200 IM and 100 Free
- Anna Kenna added 50 Free
- Claire Kenna added 200 Free
- Kimberly Rector added 50 Free
- We also added a Girls 200 “B” Medley Relay
Here are the swimmers who have qualified individually so far – the new qualifications are in bold:
| Meet | Girls | Boys |
| States | Kimberly Rector
· 200 IM · 500 Free · 100 Free · 100 Breast · 50 Free Claire Kenna · 50 Free · 100 Free · 200 Free Anna Kenna · 100 Fly · 100 Back · 50 Free · 200 IM · 500 Free · 50 Free Alex Sinner · 100 Fly · 100 Back · 200 IM · 100 Free Emily Heim · 100 Breast 200 Medley Relay “A” 200 Medley Relay “B” 200 Free Relay “A” 400 Free Relay “A” 400 Free Relay “B” |
200 Medley Relay
200 Free Relay |
I’m sad to report that National Catholics has been cancelled for this season. They hope to bring it back for 2015.
Upcoming Events
Over the Christmas break we have two important events:
- Christmas Practices on December 23rd, 26th and 30th at the Central Park:
- Swimmers should be stretching before 9:19 a.m.
- Not everyone is required to attend this practice:
- Mandatory for swimmers that have been entered as scoring swimmers (non-exhibition) in any of the previous meets
- Optional for other swimmers
- Swimmers with Coach Irving are excused
- The 2nd Annual Cystic Fibrosis Swim-a-Thon on December 31st at the Central Park
- Swimmers should be on deck stretching by 9:39 a.m.
- We start swimming at 10:00 a.m.
- It is my hope that everyone on the team make it 200 lengths of the pool.
- 200 lengths is just a touch under 3 miles
- Coach Irving’s swimmers should plan on doing at least 100 lengths
- Trust me when I say that you will all be amazed at the high percentage of the team that will make it all 200 lengths.
- The captains are providing fellow Seton students who are not swimming to be lap counters.
- And after you swim, you can enjoy the free pizza courtesy of Papa John’s!
- Here’s all you have to do to help us raise money for a great cause:
- Hit this link
- Click on “Join Our Team”
- Click on “I Agree”
- Set up a User Name and Password and hit continue
- Once you are signed up, you’ll have your own custom fundraising page. From there, you can send e-mails directly from the site to encourage people to support you in your effort.
- You can go to the Event Details to see the prizes that the Given’s have arranged for us:
- Level 1 ($100): Splash for CF Silicone Swim Cap
- Level 2 ($300): Splash, for CF Silicone Swim, Shammy Towel
- Level 3 ($500): Splash for CF Silicone Swim Cap, Shammy Towel, Lap Counter
- Level 4 ($1,500+): Splash for CF Silicone Swim Cap, Shammy Towel, Lap Counter, Swim Backpack
- It would be great if at least one member of every family can set up a page for the cause.
- And after Christmas break, we’ll get another crack at Fredericksburg Christian at our January 4th meet at St. Michael the Archangel. Our boys really need to make the most of this one!
Merry Christmas,
Coach Jim Koehr