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Thank you, Joe Aldeguer, for turning this blog post into a short (18:33) Podcast. You can listen to it here:
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Records are made to be broken.
Or so they say. The record board in the Seton gym and I have a funny sort of relationship. To me, that Board is not simply a catalog of the top performances by Seton Swimmers and Divers for the history of our team. When I look at that board, what I see is see is a scrapbook of memories.
When I get to school in the morning to teach my girls Pre-Calculus, I often take the long way to my classroom and go into the gym to get lost is some of the highlights of my life as a swimming coach. Every record has a story for me.
Like Nevin Cook turning at the 100 in the 2008 State Championship meet on his way to a State Record in the 200 IM – “He’s gone!”, I recall Coach Pat Mulhern saying over my shoulder as Nevin completed his breaststroke pull-out.
Or, our 2010 Girls 200 Free Relay winning the gold medal in the State Finals by only .03 seconds with Lauren “the Machine” Donohoe holding off Collegiate’s Rachel Naurath who split 22.85. “No body is going to catch the Machine!”, I shouted on the video, only to go quiet right after the turn, wondering if I was going to have to eat my words.
Or, our 2011 Girls Medley Relay who broke the previous State record in Christiansburg, only to be outtouched by St. Catherine’s by .19 seconds for the Silver medal. Alex, Cat, Bridget, and Lauren were a very special group of girls to me after winning four (4) straight State Championships together.
Or, Kevin Koehr popping a 51.48 in 100 Backstroke in the Woodberry Forest pool that was only 3 feet deep on one end during an ordinary regular season meet. The week before, his brother Sean (now Fr. Sean) dove in on him during warm-ups and caused his goggles to cut into his head so badly that he needed stitches. I guess the week off was a good one, because that Woodberry pool record held up until the year before last. It is still our team record, and it would be the 3rd fastest 100 Free time on our team right now – almost two decades later.
But there is one record on that board to which I have always had a unusually close emotional tie. Maybe it’s a “you-never-forget-your-first-love” kind of thing. Maybe it is the fact that my two oldest boys were on it.
But more likely, it is because it reminds me of our very first State Championship in 2006, something I had never dreamed was possible when I first started coaching as an assistant in 2000 or first took over as the head coach in 2002.
Today, if you look on the Videos page of our website, you can see their picture under a banner that says, “Seton’s All-Time Greatest Swims”. It is there for a reason – because that night at the University of Virginia in February 2006 was the single most joyful moment in my 25-years as a coach. When you hear me yelling, “Oh crazy!” at the end of our pre-meet hype video, that was me on the video after recording that boys’ relay.
That picture of a 43-year-old me with Kevin Koehr ’06 (back), Nevin Cook ’08 (breast), Bryan Morch ’06 (fly), and Sean Koehr ’08 (free) hangs on my office wall and will forever hang in my heart.
But it will no longer hang on the Seton Record Board.
A new group of great young men – Connor Koehr ’25, Lionel Martinez ’27, Joe Borneman ’25, and Liam Halisky ’25 – have ascended to the throne.
The 2006 State Championship Meet was the first time that a separate VSIS (as it was called back then) Division II State Championship would be awarded. Our Boys Medley Relay entered the meet seeded 3rd at 1:42.38 behind Hargrave Military Academy and the top-seed, Hampton Roads Academy (HRA), who was not in Division II at that point.
Just behind us was Paul VI featuring senior Bobby Lytle, the current owner of The Bone in Manassas.
In Prelims, our boys dropped an entire second to go 1:41.38 and enter the Finals as the 2nd seed, 1.25 seconds behind the top seed Hampton Roads Academy and 1.26 seconds ahead of 3rd seed Paul VI.
We were loaded on the front end. Kevin later won the gold medal in 100 Backstroke by nearly 3-seconds, and Nevin was the defending State Champion in 100 Breaststroke.
Conversely, HRA was loaded on the backend. Their butterflier, Scott Madaras later won 100 Fly at 49.79 and their anchor leg later won the bronze medal in 50 Free at 22.32. So, the question was, could we get a big enough lead to hold them off.
In the Finals, Kevin got Seton a lead of more than 2-seconds with a blazing 24.52 50 Backstroke split, and then Nevin’s 27.05 50 Breaststroke extended our lead to 3.40 seconds. Our split after the first 100 yards was 51.57! If you look at the video at this point in the race, no other team is even in the picture.
But then came HRA’s turn. Bryan Morch split a lifetime best 25.07 in 50 Fly – but Scott Maderas split 22.37! Incredibly, Sean left the blocks with a small lead, but his 23.18 anchor split (while only a sophomore) was not enough to hold off the HRA senior’s 21.73.
We lost in the last 15 yards – but when I saw the time on the Board, that was all quickly forgotten. I simply could not believe it – 1:39.82! “Oh, crazy!” We had dropped another 1.56 seconds for a total of a 2.56 second drop from our original seed time. Our final time was just a few tenths of a second off the All-America cut.
Here is a link to the video of the 2006 Medley Relay on the Seton All-Time Greatest Swims channel. I’m still just crushed that the glare off of the pool obscures big portions of the video.
Fast forward to 2025, and you have the story of another group of boys who were continually improving and facing-off against a great competitor – The Covenant School.
We had been missing Lionel Martinez for much of the middle part of the season, and with the line-up I was using, the fastest we had gone was 1:46.25 in the middle of December. Then, when our relay missed their event entirely at the VCAC Regular Season Champs, I was starting to think that the early-season talk about beating Seton’s most cherished record was going to be just that – talk.
The breakthrough came when I was preparing our entries for National Catholics. Connor came down to my office, and asked, “Dad, did you ever think about putting Lionel in breaststroke?” I knew that Lionel was a pretty good breaststroker, so I thought it was worth a try.
At National Catholics, with the new line-up of Connor, Lionel, Joe, and Liam, they went 1:40.98. Whoa! Connor was right. Lionel’s 27.26 was almost as fast as Nevin’s split when he was a sophomore like Lionel. Everyone became a believer at this point. It was still early January, they were just a little over a second away.
Then, at National Catholics, Connor broke :26 seconds for the first time in 50 backstroke, Joe blew through the :25 second barrier in 50 Fly, and Liam split a team-best 22.16 to go 1:39.99 – only .17 seconds away. Just a matter of time Coach Palazzo told me.
The final breakthrough happened this weekend while vying for the Gold medal with a very fast Covenant School team. Both Coach Palazzo and I knew this would likely be it, so you can see me on the livestream recording struggling to find my phone to take a video – while the enter event was being videoed. Sort of silly, I know 😉
Connor Koehr (SR) took it out in an unbelievable 25.22, a time that was .70 seconds faster than his previous best, and most unbelievably to me, only about 3/4s of a second behind his brother Kevin’s (an All-American backstroker) best split.
When Lionel Martinez (SO) split 27.18, I knew the gig was likely up. That was within .13 seconds of Nevin Cook’s record relay split, and I knew these boys were faster on the backend than Bryan Morch and sophomore Sean Koehr.
Joe Borneman (SO) hit split a lifetime best 24.30 in 50 Fly, and I knew the record was ours.
But our 2006 Seton boys were not the only opponent. We still had to deal with the 2025 Covenant boys, and they were giving us all we could handle. Will Charlton (JR) led-off with an incredible 23.96 50 backstroke – I didn’t even know he could swim backstroke! And by the time Taylor Starr (JR) and Owen Cullaty (JR) got out of the water, we were .49 seconds behind.
It was now up to our anchor leg Liam Halisky (SR) to beat both the ghosts of the 2006 relay and the very real flesh and blood of Covenant’s relay. Liam delivered. His 22.56 split took the lead and finished in 1:39.26.
That time resulted in both the record, by .56 seconds and the gold medal, by .18 seconds.
Here is a link to the video of the 2025 Medley Relay on the Seton All-Time Greatest Swims channel.
The fun part here is I don’t think these boys are done. The VCAC Conference record is 1:38.85, set last year by the three (3) Wolf brothers plus Caleb Fiala from Immanuel Christian School.
Do these boys have another .51 seconds in them? See you next Saturday at the VCAC Conference Championship Meet, because I don’t think it is just going to be talk.
Clearly Superior Coaching
This is not the self-serving remark that it might appear on first read.
I’m talking about our 25-year-old Group 1 Coach Ross Palazzo who joined us in 2020 and has totally moved the needle for this team. I simply don’t know how else to explain the incredible levels of performance we have been seeing from high-school-only swimmers who practice just three (3) days per week.
Yes, we have many other superior coaches like DD Ross, Matt Schroer, Scott Kay, John Halisky, Joe Hurley, Anne Judge, and several others, but Ross has played a unique role in the making the fastest kids on our team compete like they were USA swimmers.
I’ve told this story a hundred times, but for the five (5) of six (6) of you who have never heard it, I’ll tell it again:
I remember the day Ross called me and said that he’d like to volunteer as a coach for our team. He had been working at a local engineering company called Progeny (with Coach Keapproth’s husband Nik Keapproth and John Youngblut) where Jane Pennefather was interning for the summer. Jane told him about the Seton Swim Team.
“I’ve heard about the Seton team from Jane Pennefather, and I’d love to help”, he told me.
“That would be great”, I said. “Do you have a swimming background?”
“I graduated from the University of Florida in 2019”, he replied.
“Did you swim at Florida?”, I asked. He humbly replied, “Yes.”
“So, you swam for Olympic Coaches Greg Troy and Anthony Nesty, and practiced with Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Lochte?”
“Every day”, he said, without any sense of bravado.
“Well, I guess you have a swimming background!”, I said, leaping to the chance to have a guy like this on our coaching staff.
The star of Hudson High School (I always think of the “Hudson Hornet” from the days of watching the movie “Cars” when Connor was young), he was a four-time Ohio State Champion in the 200 IM and 100 Breaststroke, eventually going 1:46.24 and 54.09, respectively, at Florida. He would probably say that his best event was the 400 IM in which he went an unbelievable 3:45.57.
I remember last year’s State Championships. Ross had to miss the first day, and our boys didn’t swim particularly well. Then on Saturday, they swam out of their minds.
I asked one of the captains, “What changed?”
He replied very simply, “Ross.”
Ross was a US Open finalist and World Championship finalist, so we are literally talking about a world-class swimmer here.
But Ross is more than a world-class athlete. Ross is also a world class person. He gives me hope for the future of the Catholic Church knowing that there are young men like him who are willing to live their faith fearlessly and sacrifice for the benefit of the young men and women on our team. He has been a tremendous example and teacher, not just for the swimmers, but also for me and the other coaches.
I am a better coach for having known Ross Palazzo.
How blessed all of us at Seton have been to share in the many gifts that Ross Palazzo has been able to offer all of us. I know his parents, Jon and Sandy Palazzo, must be very proud.
Now Let’s Talk About Another Great Swim Championship
Last Saturday, we hosted the 19th annual VISAA Division II Invitational. For the third year in a row, it was a dominating performance for both our Boys and our Girls with the boys winning by more than 100 points and the girls winning by more than 40.
Last year, our girls won by over 200 points, but Trinity Christian is back in Division II and Cape Henry Collegiate came up from Virginia Beach for the first time. That made the competition much tougher.
We created this Meet 18 years ago in 2007 so that all the Division II schools could have a chance to come together before States for a fun competition where we could all take the chance to get to know each other better. Then we could all go down to States to have a great competition for our kids also, not just the kids at the big schools.
One data point to show how well it has worked is that this year, the Meet had 28 schools and 400 Athletes – that is nearly 2/3rds the size of the VISAA State Championship meet.
The Meet has also seen some dramatic growth. Last year, we hosted 23 schools who brought 305 swimmers, and the first competition in 2007 featured only six (6), mostly local, teams, with the exception being Stonebridge who came up from Chesapeake.
Several years ago, we stole page from our NoVa Catholic playbook by creating a traveling trophy with a plaque for all the past winners on it. The idea is that the winner each year will take the trophy back to their school for the year and then return with it the next year to defend their title.
Seton Swimming appears on both the Girls and Boys trophies 13 times and 10 times, respectively. Other than a few wins by Fredericksburg Christian’s boys and Trinity Christian’s girls, and The Covenant School’s boys, it has been mostly Seton.
The boys dominated from 2007 to 2011, and the girls dominated from 2007 to 2014. Between 2015 and 2019, it was all Hampton Roads Academy, all the time.
After 2019, when Hampton Roads took the Boys championship for the 5th time and Trinity Christian took the Girl’s championship for the first time, Seton has largely returned to our winning ways. Except for one more girl’s win by Trinity Christian and one boy’s win by the Covenant School in 2022, the Seton girls have won the boys and girls have won five (5) out of the last six (6), including the last five (5) in a row for the girls.
Congratulations to our Seton Boys and Girls, the VISAA Division II Invitational Swimming and Diving Champions for 2025!
I’d also like to congratulate our Swimmers of the Meet, both of whom were selected by a vote of the coaches:
- Gabe Nunziata (SR), Stonebridge School
- Two (2) Gold medals in 200 Free and 100 Breaststroke
- Two (2) new Meet Records in 200 Free and 100 Breaststroke
- Anne Scherer (JR), The Covenant School
- Gold medal in 200 Free and Silver Medal in 100 Backstroke
For the first time, this year we also recognized a Diver of the Meet. By a vote of the coaches, our Diver of the Meet was:
- Connor Koehr (SR), Seton School
- Gold medal in Diving, 11-Dives with a score of 415.10
- That was also a new Team Record!
This meet just keeps getting faster. We had seven (7) new Meet Records set Saturday, including one relay record set by our powerhouse Seton boys:
- Boys 200 Medley Relay, 1:39.26, Seton School, Connor Koehr, Lionel Martinez, Joe Borneman, Liam Halisky
- Girls 200 Medley Relay, 1:50.73, Cape Henry Collegiate, Avery Taylor, Olivia Taylor, Joslyn Ervin, Piper Strach
- Boys 200 Free, 1:38.39, Gabe Nunziata, Stonebridge School
- Boys 50 Free, 21.74, Tyler Phillips, Trinity Christian School
- Girls Diving, 11-Dives, 360.15, Lily Ditman, Stonebridge School
- Boys 200 Free Relay, 1:30.36, The Covenant School, Samuel Roberts, Owen Cullaty, Taylor Starr, Will Charlton
- Boys 100 Breaststroke, 53.42, Gabe Nunziata, Stonebridge School
Could you believe those times by Gabe Nunziata (SR) from Stonebridge? I would not have believed 53.42 in 100 Breaststroke had I not seen it myself. It is the fastest 100 Breaststroke that I’ve ever seen in person.
Carrying the precedent from our old Delaney Athletic Conference, we have also traditionally counted this Meet for VCAC Championship Meet Records also. Yesterday, we saw three (3) new VCAC Conference Records:
- Girls 200 IM, 2:07.00, Ariana Aldeguer, Seton School
- Boys 50 Free, 21.74, Tyler Phillips, Trinity Christian School
- Boys 100 Back, 51.23, Tyler Phillips, Trinity Christian School
And nearly unbelievably to me, we also broke three (3) Seton Team Records, including the Medley Relay record that I’ve already discussed:
- Boys 200 Medley Relay, 1:39.26, Connor Koehr, Lionel Martinez, Joe Borneman, Liam Halisky
- Girls 200 IM, 2:07.00, Ariana Aldeguer (more below)
- Boys Diving, 11-Diver, 415.10, Connor Koehr (more from Coach Keapproth below)
Championship Meet Scoring
This meet was scored as a championship meet, where the top 12 places earned scores from 16 to 1.
Both our boys and girls got off to a blazing start with pre-meet points in diving and then great scoring performances in the first Medley Relay. In diving, the boys took, 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 10th and the girls took 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. That gave our boys a 43-point advantage over The Covenant School and our girls a 36-point advantage over Trinity Christian.
Then in the Medley Relays, our boy’s “A” and “B” Relays scored in 1st and 6th and the girls scored in 2nd and 5th! In both cases, both our “A” and “B” relays beat the “A” and “B” relays of our nearest competitors. I was pretty relaxed about the possible outcome of the meet for the rest of the day 😉
Relays are always the key for a championship meet, so here is a stat that will blow your mind. With 28 teams in the competition, the lowest scoring finish for an “A” or a “B” relay across both boys and girls was 6th place. Two relays in the top 6 for every relay event? Amazing – and unbeatable.
Here’s stat that will blow your mind: Our boys won by 114-points, and the only events we won outright were Diving (Connor Koehr) and the Medley Relay. It was our depth again. We had seven (7) boys’ events where we had three (3) or more swimmers score in the top 12 – there are only nine (9) individual events! That is just too many points.
The girls weren’t quite as dramatic (our girls won by 42-points), but the story was largely the same. Again, we only won two (2) individual events outright (both Ariana), and with 28 teams in the competition, we three (3) swimmers in the top 12 for five (5) of the nine (9) individual events. Three (3) other events had two (2) Seton athletes in the top 12 and in the 50 Free, we had one (1).
Depth over Dominance.
For the 28 teams involved, here’s how the meet scores looked for the top finishers when it was all over:
Girls
- Seton School 277
- Trinity Christian 235
- Cape Henry Collegiate 152
- Fredericksburg Christian 137
- Trinity Meadow View 83
- Stonebridge 77
Boys
- Seton School 315
- The Covenant School 201
- Immanuel Christian 159
- Miller School 117
- Virginia Episcopal 108
- Hampton Roads Academy 83
- Trinity Christian School 80
Just Another Saturday for Ariana
Ariana Aldeguer (SO) was the highest scoring female in the Meet for the second year in a row. This year, she was the only competitor to win both of her individual events, including a victory over the winner of the Swimmer of the Meet in 100 Back, so in my mind she should have been the Swimmer of the Meet. We do it by vote of the Coaches, but maybe we are going to have to consider a different method in the future.
Not only did she win gold medals in both the 200 IM and 100 Back, but she also won a silver medal in the 200 Medley Relay and anchored for 4th place in the 400 Free Relay. With 44 total points (counting ¼ of the relay points), no girl in the meet was responsible for more points scored than Ariana.
Previously, I had written that Ariana has made breaking records such a common occurrence that it seems like just another Saturday for her. Well, it happened again!
In 200 IM, she cut 1.57 seconds from her PR and went an incredible 2:07.00, breaking both her own Seton Team record and the VCAC Conference Record! Ariana beat a very fast Olivia Taylor from Cape Henry Collegiate by only .11 seconds and their times were the 2nd and 3rd fastest times swum in the VISAA so far this year.
Then, in 100 Back, she had what may have been her best swim of the season – and that is saying something! Incredibly, she dropped 2.36 seconds to go 57.56! That is the 4th fastest time in the VISAA so far this season and within a half second of the 2nd fastest. And I’ll repeat, she beat the eventual Swimmer of the Meet in the process.
You Just Gotta Love Diving!
Seton can rightfully say that we have the best diving team in the VISAA, and it continues to make a difference in these championship meets.
If you look at just the Diving scores, our girls beat Trinity Christian School 43-7. On the boys’ side, it was even more lopsided. Our boys beat The Covenant School and Immanuel Christian School 43-0.
Not only do we have great Diving, most of our main Division II competitors don’t have Diving at all. Since Diving counts just like any swimming event, the work we’ve done to create such a strong Diving team is really paying off at these higher-level championship meets.
The coaching our kids are getting from Coach Ashley Keapproth is simply remarkable. While other schools are struggling to get more than just a few Divers capable of competing with 11-Dives, we now have eleven! With that many capable divers, we will certainly dominate the scoring at VCAC Champs next weekend, and we will probably be the highest scoring Diving team at the State Championship Meet.
I’ve saved the rest of the details on this weekend’s performance for Coach Ashley Keapproth. Here’s an excerpt of the message she sent out to the Diving team via e-mail:
Good morning, Seton diving families —
I was incredibly proud of the team yesterday! On the whole, the team dove incredibly well, and we are well positioned at this point of the season. The effort and focus that each of you have been putting in, especially over the last few weeks, has been palpable. The depth of our team is impressive and is a testament to your willingness to put in the work this season.
3) Special Congratulations to Elizabeth Francis for qualifying for States yesterday!
5) DII Championship Recap. On the boys’ side, we had 15 competitors — the largest of any DII Championship.
- Connor Koehr (Sr.) placed 1st with 415.10 points, setting a new personal record and breaking his own Seton record from last season by over 25 points. Connor debuted two new dives that he has learned this season — a back 1.5 somersault pike (Coach Koehr’s favorite dive) and an inward double (which carries a huge DD of 2.8) and nailed both of them. Connor was also voted on by the Coaches as the Diver of the Meet.
- Gus Kohlhaas (Sr.) placed 2nd with 304.75 points — a new personal record! He had a great front double somersault and was able to compete his back double somersault for the first time this season. We had originally planned to downgrade to an easier dive in the meet, but Gus decided to go for it, and I am glad he did!
- Jacob Oswald (Sr.) placed 4th with 296.25 points (only 1 point off of 3rd) and setting a new personal record! Jacob had a consistent meet scoring the highest on front and inward category dives, especially his front double and inward 1.5 somersaults.
- Kenny Nguyen (So.) placed 10th with 211.70 points. Kenny performed an inward 1.5 for the first time, scoring the highest on that and his front double.
- Tom Waldron (Fr.) placed 11th with 201.25 points. His inward somersault and back somersault with a half twist were his highest scoring dives.
- Daniel Sokban (So.) placed 12th with 186.70 points — a new personal record for him. His inward somersault and reverse somersault were his highest scoring dives.
On the girls side, we had 8 competitors — also the largest of any DII Championship. This may seem like a small number given our other meets, but it shows how difficult it is to be able to perform a full list of 11 different dives that is required for a Championship meet.
- Rose Waldron (Sr.) placed 2nd with 280.05 points – a new personal record! Rose had a consistently solid meet, scoring the most points on her front double, reverse somersault, back 1.5 somersault, and front somersault with a full twist.
- Meghan Condon (Fr.) placed 4th with 275.10 points (only 4 points off of 3rd). Meghan performed a beautiful back dive, and scored the highest points on her front double somersault (a new dive for her this year), inward flip, and full twisting somersault.
- Maria Miller (Jr.) placed 5th with 256.50 points. Maria’s front double somersault (a new dive for her this year) and both of her twisters were her highest scoring dives. She also had a fantastic inward somersault.
- Jane Judge (Fr.) placed 6th with 223.45 points — a new personal record! Jane had an amazing inward dive, even earning her first 7! She also did a great front 1.5 somersault and reverse dive.
- Elizabeth Francis (Sr.) placed 8th with 202.10 points — qualifying for States! She performed a great front 1.5 somersault and inward dive.
Great job everyone!
Coach Ashley
Thank you, Connor for doing that back one and half pike. It’s a beautiful dive when done well, and I consider it a gift from you to have learned it. You are checked off now, so you can do whatever dives your coach wants for the last two (2) meets.
One last thought before I move back to swimming: Did you all notice the ages of all those top boys? We need to fix that!
Medal Winners for Seton
Like most championship meets, we gave gold, silver and bronze medals, and we had a number of swimmers walk across the bulkhead during the awards ceremonies. Surprisingly though, the list below is not as long as you might think given the disparity in the final scores.
We only won a total of seven (7) individual medals. If any single statistic reveals the power of our depth, it is that one.
I’ve already talked about Ariana Aldeguer’s (SO) two (2) and Connor Koehr’s (SR) one (1) individual gold medals, but here are the other championship medalists, individually:
- Lionel Martinez (SO) won the silver medal in 100 Free with a 48.31, only .12 seconds behind the winner. That swim was a .36 second Personal Record. He also took 6th in 100 Back with a 1.01 second PR.
- Thiago Martinez (FR) took the silver medal in 500 Free with a superior swim, beating his previous best by 10.19 seconds. He also scored in 5th place in the 200 IM with a 2.62 second PR. The top 4 finishers in the 200 IM were all under 2:00 so it was a super-fast event.
- Gus Kohlhaas (SR) took the silver medal in boys Diving with a huge 33.70-point PR. We are looking for a strong top-8 finish at States from Gus.
- Rose Waldron (SR) took the silver medal in Diving with an 11-Dive score that 15.70 points higher than her best score last season. She also cut .12 seconds in 50 Free.
The relays were a different story, and with the double-points available, you can start to see why I put so much focus there.
Besides our Boys 200 Medley Relay, which I’ve already discussed, here are the other relay medalists from the Meet:
- Our Girls 200 Medley Relay of Ariana Aldeguer (SO), Elodie Brox (SR), Isabella McCook (SO), and Maggie Schroer (FR) jumped up to the silver medal by crushing the time I calculated from their previous best splits. I calculated a time of 1:57.54, and they ended up going 1:54.96. The big differences came from Elodie (stepping in for Clara) who beat her best split by 1.85 seconds in 50 Breast, Isabella who beat her best 50 Fly split by .52 seconds, and Maggie who beat her best anchor split by .40 seconds.
- Our Boys 200 Free Relay of Lionel Martinez (SO), Daniel Sokban (SO), Connor Koehr (SR), and Liam Halisky (SR) took the silver medal behind a powerhouse relay from The Covenant School that we are going to have to beat at States.
- Their time of 1:31.52 was only 1.45 seconds off of our 2010 team record of 1:30.07 set by Jameson Hill, Daniel Koehr, Connor Cook, and David Basinger. (I know that Connor is already anxious to knock another one of his brothers off of the record board!)
- Lionel led off at 22.40 (a flat-start PR by .03 seconds), and Connor broke the 23-second barrier for the first time this season when he split 22.81, a drop of another .33 seconds.
- We are spending time in practice this week focusing on walls. Since we will likely be running this relay at States without Lionel, VCAC Champs is the last best shot at the record.
- Our Girls 200 Free Relay of Maggie Schroer (FR), Anastasia Garvey (JR), Philomena Kay (SO), and Elodie Brox (SR) outperformed by expectations and took the bronze medal as a result.
- Their time of 1:46.72 beat my expectation by 1.15 seconds, all of which came from a tremendous swim by Anastasia who split 27.07. Her previous best was 28.89.
- That swim by Anastasia has shaken-up my draft of the State and Conference Championship relays a bit.
- Our Boys 400 Free Relay of Joe Borneman (SR), Thiago Martinez (FR), Max Wilson (SR), and Drew Nguyen (SR) had a great swim to take the silver medal, just .50 seconds behind a very strong Miller School relay.
- The anchor leg for Miller split a 49.68 so there was no complaining about the result, especially after I saw that Drew beat his previous best 100 Free split by 1.23 seconds. His 52.22 is now the 5th fastest 100 Free split on the team
Personal Records
The 42 swimmers and divers that we had in this meet swam or dove 62 new Personal Records. Adding that to our previous season total of 1,011, our Seton Swim Team has swum 1,073 new Personal Records so far this season! Ane we still have two (2) meets remaining!
Let me start by singling out Patrick Kay (SO) who had two (2) new State Qualifying times after a 2.24 second PR in 200 IM and a 1.23 second PR in 100 Back. Welcome to the State team Patrick!
I know Dominic Judge (SO) will be joining his friend Patrick after this weekend’s meet. We will all be cheering for you Dominic!
And here are the Personal Records from our team that I have not already mentioned:
- Michael Zahorchak (SO) beat his previous best in 100 Breast by .04 seconds.
- Max Wilson (SR) had a heck of a race in the 200 Free against the eventual winner of the 500 Free, and the challenge pushed him to a .31 second PR, 1:56.89.
- Jonas Wilson (FR) also had a great swim in 200 Free, dropping 10.89 seconds. In the 50 Free, he dropped .41 seconds.
- Rose Waldron (SR) cut .12 seconds in 50 Free.
- Daniel Sokban (SO) not only had a 10.65 point PR in diving, but he had a 1.40 second PR in 200 Free. He also had a great anchor split in the 400 Free relay, going 53.09 which was .1.62 seconds faster than ever before. That split is now the 7th fastest on the team.
- Maggie Schroer (FR) rocked her 100 Free with a .74 second PR to go 57.34, a superior time for a freshman girl. She also rocked her flat-start 50 Free leading off a relay with a .35 second PR. Her anchor on the Medley Relay was also quite good. She split 26.13 or .40 seconds faster than ever before.
- Gabby Russo (SO) made the most of her first Varsity opportunity with a 19.75 second PR in 500 Free and a .75 second PR in 50 Free.
- Luke Pillion (SO) blew through the 30-second barrier in 50 Free with a 1.01 second PR.
- Luke Partridge (SO) had a great swim in 100 Breast, swimming it .82 seconds faster than ever before.
- Jacob Oswald (SR) beat his previous best 11-dive score by 5.90 points.
- Drew Nguyen (SR) is finishing the season strong with a .88 second PR in 100 Breast and a .21 second PR in 50 Free. I was particularly pleased with his 50 Breast split in the medley relay. He went 28.89 on a previous best of 30.03!
- Isabella McCook (SO) continues to show her versatility and work ethic, and the results showed in three (3) new PRs. In 200 Free she dropped .91 seconds, in 100 Fly she dropped .22 seconds, and in 100 Free leading off a relay she dropped .67 seconds. Isabella also had her best 50 Fly split in the relay, beating her previous best split by .52 seconds.
- Avila Mantooth (FR) cut .01 seconds in 100 Free. She also had a massive .79 second drop from her previous best 50 Free split anchoring a medley relay.
- Gus Kohlhaas (SR) added a big 33.70 points to his best 11-Dive score.
- Connor Koehr (SR) showed his versatility as our team’s top diver and one of our team’s top swimmers also. Not only did he add 25.20 points to his best 11-dive score, he cut 19.80 seconds from his 500 Free PR, .76 seconds from his 50 Free PR, and a massive .70 seconds from his already fast 50 Back PR.
- Gigi Hill (JR) had two scoring swims, both PRs. In 200 Free she dropped .89 seconds, and in 100 Fly she dropped .09 seconds.
- Jack Herwick (FR) crushed his 100 Fly PR by 2.33 seconds. He also beat his 100 Back PR by .15 seconds.
- Sophia Halisky (FR) had two (2) PRs in two (2) individual swims including a .83 second drop in 100 Breast and a .80 second drop in 200 IM. Her 50 Breast split in the relay was also excellent, .20 seconds faster than her previous best.
- JJ Garvey (8) continues to show the magic, this time with a huge 15.71 second PR in 500 Free to break 7:00 for the first time.
- Anastasia Garvey (JR), what did you have for breakfast? Whatever it was, have it again, but not only did you shake up our 200 Free Relay line-ups, you had big drops in 500 Free, by 12.04, and 200 Free, by 6.96 seconds.
- Kyleigh Fifield (SO) also had a big drop in 500 Free, cutting 5.61 seconds. She beat her previous best 50 Free by .43 seconds.
- Haley Fifield (SR) broke :30 seconds in 50 Back leading off a relay by cutting .83 seconds from her PR. She also cut another .45 seconds from her 100 Free PR.
- Annie Dusek (FR) continues to impress after a 6.20 second PR in 200 IM and a 2.45 second PR in 100 Fly.
- Elodie Brox (SR) stepped in for Clara on the “A” medley relay and beat her best 50 Breast split by 1.85 seconds.
- Joe Borneman (SR) scored in 4th place in a very fast heat of 100 Fly after another .06 second PR. His 3.29 second PR in 200 Free jumped him up to 8th
- Greg Bauer (JR) is staking his claim to be one of the top swimmers on the team after all the current seniors graduate. His 15.13 second PR in 500 Free got him under 6:00 for the first time. He also had a .73 second PR in 100 Free and a .68 second PR in 50 Free leading off Relays. His flat-start 50 Free during the individual event was even better, a .82 second PR that bumped him up the 8th fastest on the team.
- Betsy Arnold (FR) looked great in a 100 Back, which she swam .81 seconds faster than ever before. She also cut .13 from her 50 Free split in the relay.
Next Weekend’s VCAC Championship Meet
Next weekend is our annual Conference Championship meet. Since we lost the regular season Conference Championship, this is a huge meet for us. Our Girls will face-off against a very strong Trinity Christian team that showed us in early January what they can do. Does everyone still remember what happened last year? 310 to 309, on the last relay. Are we going to fix that on Saturday?
And our Boys will need to repeat their performance from January 6th if we are to come out on top against the very powerful swimmers from Immanuel Christian.
In addition, anyone who finishes in the top 3 will be designated All-Conference. I hope to work on the entries on Monday, and my goal will be three-fold: 1) win, 2) get the maximum number of Seton Swimmers designated All-Conference, and 3) finalize our state team relays.
The Conference Championship will be hosted by Seton at the Freedom Center (We have permanently moved it from the WARF in Warrenton). Our warm-up time is at 1:00 p.m., so you should be stretching on deck by 12:39 p.m. I’d plan on the meet running until at least 5:30 p.m. with all of the awards ceremonies.
The Diving portion of the competition will be very big for us. It starts at 10:32 a.m., so please come out and cheer for the VISAA’s best diving team – and I mean that!
The State Championship Meet is Friday and Saturday, February 13-15th at Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport in Stafford, VA
I have posted the best information I have on who will be joining us for States, including top relay splits for this season.
The competition on both the Boy’s and Girl’s side for Relay spots has been keen, so I’ve been tracking it very closely. There was some movement on Saturday, so remember, that I am doing it all by time. Specifically, I will use the fastest relay splits or flat start times swam this season.
And remember that everyone who has made all three (3) “A” Relays will be swimming all three (3) because that is our best chance to get points. The only exception as of now will be Ariana Aldeguer (SO) and Lionel Martinez (SO) who can score so many points individually.
As a reminder, there are two more chances to either qualify or move up to an “A” Relay:
- VCAC Champs
- We get one scoring relay and one exhibition relay so I may be able to put some of you who are on the bubble on a “B” Relay to try to qualify for the “A” Relay.
- As I said in our team meeting before the Meet on Saturday though, VCAC Champs is about winning so I can’t put you in a relay spot if it reduces our competitiveness in any way.
- Preliminaries of the State Championship Meet
- If we have a relay make the Finals, then to be fair, I will factor in the splits swam during Prelims.
- Remember that Joe Borneman will only swim Prelims on Saturday, so that is going to leave a spot for someone to move up to the “A” Relay for Finals.
- I will still use the best splits for the entire season though.
- If we have a relay make the Finals, then to be fair, I will factor in the splits swam during Prelims.
Mrs. Katie Condon is once again taking charge of the State Meet logistics for the team – thank you! We will use a mix of VRBO houses and commuters based on your responses to her previous survey. We should have most of the logistical details up on the web site shortly. Please look under Meet Information for a document called Everything You Need to Know About States.
Count on a dinner Wednesday night rather than an IHOP breakfast Thursday morning, as well as other changes from tradition.
I have new Seton Swimming and Diving rugby shirts for everyone who doesn’t already have one. That is our team uniform for the entire meet. If you want to be in the team picture (Thursday, 3:45 at the pool) or in the team area, then be in uniform. I get a little grumpy when I see people in our team area without a uniform, so please don’t make me go there.
Two (2) more good practices left before VCAC Champs – its time to get fast, especially on the walls!
Coach Jim Koehr
Ross is AWESOME
That seems to be the general consensus around Seton Swimming for sure.
Seton dominance continues! Congratulations, Coach! This is the one meet I miss!
I miss you Karen. I was reliving some of our great memories together on the livestream