Katie Shipko (now Haynes) on the Medal Stand for VSIS States circa 2000.  Ariana Aldeguer, medalist, at 2025 National Catholics.

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Thank you, Joe Aldeguer, for turning this blog post into a short (13:35) Podcast.  You can listen to it here:

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In 1999, I was very cool.

I had a Motorola Star Tac cell phone with a cradle that was professionally mounted on the front floorboard of my company car, a Buick Park Avenue Ultra that was wholly unmatched to my personality at the time.  Surprisingly enough for today’s cell phone users, I only used it to make phone calls.   I used a camera to take pictures.

Each time I wanted to make or receive a call, I had to flip it open and pull up the little antenna.  You could send some rudimentary texts, but it was very cumbersome.  If you wanted the letter “c” for instance, you had to hit the #2 key three times consecutively.  I never sent a text with that phone as a result.

I had a secretary who was, of course, a woman, and Polly used to handle my mail and make all travel arrangements for me with our company travel agent.  I was always afraid of losing the airplane ticket she’d hand to me, fearful of my track record of losing less important things.  Checking in at Dulles Airport required me to wait in line.

Once I arrived, there was no Uber, so Polly always arranged for me to get picked up.  How did they know who I was at the airport?  She would tell them to look for “Chachi” of Happy Days fame.  (You swimmers can google him if you want to know what I looked like in 1999).

Polly, you can’t be telling people that the Vice President coming to visit their plant looks like Chachi.” to which she would always say, “Have you ever not been picked up?”  As with many other things involving the older Polly, her point was impossible to argue.

The internet in 1999 was in the early stages of widespread adoption by regular people not working at DARPA.  Those who were very cutting edge with their use of technology were switching from an early browser called NetScape to MicroSoft’s Internet Explorer.  Google Chrome was still another decade away.

America On-Line (aka AOL) was the most popular e-mail provider.  To use it, you connected your computer to a home telephone line and literally “dialed” into a phone number.  The communication happened through varying frequencies of sound.  After you listened to the screeching sounds of the connection being made, you were greeted with the iconic “You’ve got mail!”

Today, I think the only AOL e-mail address in my entire address book is Mr. Vander Woude’s 😉

Amazon was where you bought books, CDs and DVDs.  It had just gone public two years before at $18 per share.  If you had invested $1,000 in that IPO, you’d have $2,915,000 today.

It’s why I buy Bitcoin.  You never know.

But for our purposes, there was something far more exciting going on in 1999.  Katie Shipko ‘02 was tearing up the pool for a small swim team from Seton School.

During her career, she won multiple individual State Championships in the 200 and 500 Free, and in 2000, she was named the VSIS State Championship Swimmer of the Meet.  (VSIS was the forerunner of today’s VISAA).

I joined the team as an assistant coach later in 2000, so I was fortunate to get to see her swim personally.  Her powerfully efficient strokes were truly something to behold.  Even the boys on the team could not compete with her.  She went on to swim at Virginia Tech.

Today, Katie (Shipko) Haynes is a married 40-year-old living with her husband Geoff in Whitefish, Montana where they share their love of the outdoors, especially skiing, snowboarding and rafting – it’s an “adrenaline junky and outdoorsy lifestyle” as she calls it.

Professionally, she worked as the Chef De Cuisine at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake, and now she is the Executive Chef of a brewery in downtown Whitefish.

It was fun for me to reconnect with Katie over e-mail.  I asked her about some of her memories:

My favorite things about Seton swimming were the friendships and the fact that high school swimming was more team oriented.  Year-round USA swimming was great, but it was always more of an individual sport than a team sport.  I loved that about high school swimming.  One of my favorite memories would have had to have been in Danville, VA for states when I won the MVP………..I had absolutely no idea that I was even being considered for the award, and it was a really special moment to come from such a small school and new swim team.  It was a pretty epic moment for me in high school.

Katie’s swimming career at Seton left two (2) of the most enduring swimming records on our very large record board in the Seton gym.

She swam 200 Free in only 1:55.74 and 500 Free in only 5:06.98 – a quarter of a century ago!  Those times are still fast today.

Let’s think about the great female swimmers that have come though Seton since Katie – swimmers that have been individual State Champions, National Catholic High School Champions, or even All-Americans – swimmers like Jessica Dunn, Alex Doonis, Lauren “the Machine” Donohoe, Cat Rogers, and Anna Kenna.  None of them were able to knock Katie Shipko off the record board.

Until this past weekend.

Born in 2009, it was sophomore Ariana Aldeguer who finally took care of both records – and on the same day.

This past weekend, January 11-12, 2025, we had our top swimmers, including Ariana, at Loyola University of Maryland for the annual National Catholic High School Swim & Dive Championships.

During the Saturday morning Preliminaries, Ariana swam 200 Free in 1:55.62 to break Katie’s record by .14 seconds.  Then, about an hour and a half later, Ariana swam 500 Free in 5:06.93 to break the other of Katie’s records, this time by .06 seconds.

I think Ariana had been putting herself under a bit of pressure to break these two records, so after the pressure was off, she was able to break both records (now her own records) again with times of 1:55.48 in the 200 Free and 5:05.98 in the 500 Free.

It took a quarter century, but the 15-year-old Ariana Aldeguer and the 40-year-old Katie Shipko Haynes are now connected across the span of time as Seton’s all-time greatest female middle-distance swimmers.

National Catholic High School Swimming and Diving Champs

Under my tenure as Head Coach, Seton started attending National Catholics annually in 2004 when the Meet was at Villanova in Philadelphia.  While the Meet is not truly “national”, I did meet teams from as far away as northern Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and New York City.

The meet used to occur on the last weekend in February, much closer to the championship season, but I think I like it earlier because it is such a great opportunity to get some championship experience – and some fast times – earlier in the year.

I was so pleased with the results, starting with our Diving team that competed under the tutelage of Coach Ashley Keapproth.

Here are the results, in Coach Keapproth’s words:

It was an exhausting and exciting weekend in Baltimore at the National Catholic Invitational!  The competition is always fierce, often more difficult than our State Championship.

I was so pleased with how the team as a whole competed this weekend. Last year was the first year we ever scored points in girls diving, with Rose Waldron taking 12th.  This year, we had 3 girls score in the top 16 out of a huge field of 44 divers! 

  • Rose Waldron placed 6th,
  • Maria Millerplaced 13th (an improvement over her 19th place finish last year), and
  • Meghan Condon placed 16th (an improvement over her 30th place finish last year). 
  • Anna Russo and Jane Judge attended the Invitational for the first time this year, taking 21st and 22nd respectively.

It is incredibly impressive that they finished in the top half of the field in their first National Catholics!

On the boys’ side, the competition was equally as fierce – with another large field of 39 divers. 

  • Connor Koehr finished 3rd,
  • Jacob Oswald finished 9th,
  • Gus Kohlhaas finished 11th, and
  • Daniel Sobkanfinished 26th.  Daniel’s performance was especially impressive as he just started diving this year and, after only 2.5 months of diving, he beat 1/3 of the competition. 

Overall, I was pleased with how the team dove, and feel we are on solid footing heading into our championship season.

Congratulations to these divers and Coach Ashley Keapproth!

In addition to Connor Koehr (SR) and Rose Waldron (SR) for diving who took 3rd and 6th, respectively, we had two (2) of our star young sophomores finish in the top-8.

  • Ariana Aldeguer (SO), who we have already talked about, turned both of her record-setting swims into top-8 finishes.
    • In the 200 Free, Ariana finished in 5th place after a 1.51 second PR
    • In the 500 Free, she tied with diving teammate for the highest individual finish on the team, a bronze medal after a 2.07 second PR.
  • Lionel Martinez (SO) was our other swimmer who scored individually in this extremely fast meet – Lionel made one (1) appearance in a Championship Final and one (1) appearance in a Consolation Final.
    • In 100 Fly, Lionel qualified out of Prelims in 6th place with a 52.22 and ultimately finished in 6th in the Championship Final at 51.94.  Our team record for 100 Fly is held by another Seton Swimming legend, Jameson Hill at 51.76.  I have a strong hunch that by the time I can climb up to pull down Katie Shipko’s records, I’ll be pulling down one of Jameson Hill’s too.
    • In 200 Free, Lionel qualified in 14th place at 1:46.38 with a 2.57second PR and then finished in 15th place in the Finals.  That time surpasses the fastest time swum at Seton by the great Nevin Cook in 2008, leaving only Jameson Hill’s team record of 1:38.54 as the only time fastest than Lionel’s in the history of Seton Swimming.

It was a great weekend for both Ariana and Lionel as they each prepare to score individually at the VISAA State Championship in mid-February.

We had four (4) relays come back for Sunday Finals too:

  • Our Girls 200 Medley “A” Relay of Ariana Aldeguer (SO), Clara Condon (SR), Anastasia Garvey (JR), and Elodie Brox (SR) came into the Meet with a best time of 1:53.01 from last week’s VCAC Meet, so I knew that would be hard to beat.
    • For Prelims, we qualified in the 9th seed at a very fast 1:53.95, mainly on the strength of Clara’s season-best breaststroke split of 31.93 (previously 31.95) and Anastasia’s 28.82 (previously 29.19).
    • Then in Finals, they learned a valuable lesson after getting DQ’d for an early take-off. Much better for it to happen at this meet!  Now it is out of their system, I trust.
  • Our Boys 200 Medley “A” Relay of Connor Koehr (SR), Lionel Martinez (SO), Joe Borneman (SR) and Liam Halisky (SR) just seemed to swim out of their minds. They came into the Meet at 1:42.54, which is very fast, but with the competition on the boy’s side, we felt like we had our hands full to even make the “B” Final.  We did!
    • In Prelims, we dropped to 1:40.98 to qualify in 9th place with three (3) of the four (4) boys swimming at or below lifetime-best splits. Connor split 26.12 (previously 26.65) in 50 Back, Lionel split 27.26 (previously 30.17 from 2022), and Liam split 22.53 (previously 23.01).  Those were some fast splits!
    • Then in the Finals, we looked on track for another drop when, like the girls, we were DQ’d for an early take-off
    • Our team record in this event was set in 2006 with a relay that contained All-American’s Kevin Koehr and Nevin Cook. Given how early it still is in the season, it is not inconceivable that the inconceivable (at least to me before last year) happens – that these four (4) guys beat the record of 1:39.82!
  • Our Girls 200 Free “A” Relay of Maggie Schroer (FR), Isabella McCook (SO), Clara Condon (SR), and Elodie Brox (JR) came into the meet with a season-best time of 1:45.29
    • In Prelims, they qualified in 12th at 1:46.25. Isabella McCook (SO) was a difference maker here after she split 26.49, .84 seconds faster than her season-best split.
    • In the Finals, it was Clara Condon’s (SR) turn to step-up. With her season-best split of 25.99 (previously 26.07) combined with another great split from Isabella (26.28), the girls dropped to 1:44.67 to hold their 12th place in the end.
  • Our Girls 400 Free Relay of Maggie Schroer (FR), Anastasia Garvey (JR), Isabella McCook (SO) and Ariana Aldeguer (SO), qualified in 13th out of the Prelims and held 13th in the Finals with two (2) great swims. In both races, it was Isabella McCook who was able to beat her best split after a long and tiring weekend.  Another great lesson as we head toward States in another month.

We had two other “A” Relays that came very close to making Finals:

  • Our Boys 400 Free “A” Relay of Lionel Martinez (SO), Joe Borneman (SR), Thiago Martinez (FR) and Max Wilson (SR) qualified 17th in Prelims after amazing splits from Joe Borneman (51.39 vs. 53.35) and Max Wilson (51.64 vs. 52.40)
  • Our Boys 200 Free “A” Relay of Max Wilson (SR), Connor Koehr (SR), Daniel Sokban (SO) and Liam Halisky (SR) with Liam’s split of 22.71 serving as the happy surprise (previously 23.01).

There has been a lot of movement in the relay line-ups for the boys, particularly in the freestyle relays.

Cutting to the chase, here are the fastest 50 Free splits among the Boys through National Catholics:

  1. Liam Halisky (SR)        22,53
  2. Lionel Martinez (SO)  22.96 (went 21.5 in USA, but needs to do it for Seton)
  3. Connor Koehr (SR)         23.14
  4. Daniel Sokban (SO)       23.22
  5. Max Wilson (SR)             23.36 
  6. Joseph Borneman (SR) 23.44
  7. Andrew Nguyen (SR)     23.94
  8. Greg Bauer (JR)               24.36
  9. Jack Herwick (FR)           24.53
  10. Dominic Judge (SO)        24.83

While we are at it, let’s look at the current standings for 100 Free splits among the boys because there was some movement there too:

  1. Lionel Martinez (SO)     48.67
  2. Joseph Borneman (SR) 51.39
  3. Max Wilson (SR)             51.64 
  4. Connor Koehr (SR)         52.36 (flat start)
  5. Thiago Martinez (FR)     52.94
  6. Andrew Nguyen (SR)      53.64
  7. Liam Halisky (SR)            54.15 (flat start)
  8. Daniel Sokban (SO)         54.71
  9. Patrick Kay (FR)                55.29
  10. Jack Herwick (FR)             56.47

This could get very interesting for reasons beyond the fact that we still have several Meets to change this rank order of sprinters:  Will Lionel swim two (2) individual events?

  • States will all about scoring the maximum possible number of points.
  • When we get closer, the coaches are going to have to look at times across the State and determine if Lionel is worth more points in all three (3) relays or in two (2) individual events.

The most recent reports for the team’s top splits for both boys and girls are posted under Meet Information of the VISAA State Championship.

And finally, congratulations to our other National Catholic Team members who swam well:

  • Joe Borneman (SR) dropped his 100 Fly PR by another .41 seconds to get down to 57.16.
  • Max Wilson (SR) is about to break :52 in 100 Free. He’s down to 52.14 after a .26 second PR.  He is also down to a flat start 24.40 in 50 Free after a .03 second PR.
  • Connor Koehr (SR) did not just perform well above the pool. He also had a great meet in the pool with a 1.86 second PR in 100 Free (52.36), a .08 second PR in 50 Free, and a .13 second PR in 50 Back.
  • Liam Halisky (SR) hit the 100 Free he’s been looking for all year. He dropped 2.04 seconds to go a 54.15 from a flat start.
  • Daniel Sokban (SO) really wants to keep his spot on the “A” 200 Free Relay, and his 1.00 second PR in 50 Free will certainly help.
  • Isabella McCook (SO) did not just swim well in the relays. Individually, she dropped 2.97 seconds in 100 Fly and 1.01 seconds in 100 Back.
  • Maggie Schroer (FR) cut .83 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Anastasia Garvey (JR) swam her best 100 Fly ever resulting in a 1.47 second PR.
  • Sophia Halisky (FR) improved her best 50 Breaststroke split from 37.32 to 35.07. She also cut 1.04 in 100 Breaststroke and .37 in 50 Free.
  • Patrick Kay (FR) has been on fire this season. He led off a medley relay in 29.07, a 50 Back split that was .43 seconds faster than ever before.  Then he dropped 2.15 seconds in 200 IM and 1.40 seconds in 100 Back.
  • Thiago Martinez (FR) smoked 100 Fly in 59.56, a .24 second PR and an excellent time for a freshman.
  • Drew Nguyen (SR) saved his spot on the “B” Medley Relay (assuming we continue to use Lionel for Breaststroke on the “A”) by dropping nearly a full second to 30.23. Drew also dropped another .11 seconds in 50 Free.
  • Betsy Arnold (FR) improved again in 50 Fly, splitting 28.22 on a previous best of 28.46.

Before I get off the topic of National Catholics, I want to take the opportunity reiterate some of the things we need to improve upon before we head to our other big travel meet, the State Championship.  None of this should be news to anyone, but we had some difficulty with the following things that I do not want to ever have to mention again:

  • Uniforms on Deck – I was surprised to see so many of our top kids wearing non-uniform items at the Meet. I care – A LOT – about our team all in uniform on deck.
    • I heard some of you say that your shirt was wet. If you are senior, we’ve given you six (6) shirts.  Bring extra.
    • The uniform includes the shorts that we bought you.
  • No Headphones While with the Team – Letting me see headphones or earbuds in use is the same thing as saying that you want me to have them. This is at least a 25-year rule for Seton Swimming.  Share the company of your teammates – don’t isolate yourselves.
  • National Anthem – Just because we are not at the Freedom Center doesn’t mean we don’t line up and respect our National Colors the same way we do for every other meet. Full uniforms, including shorts, full attention, hand over your heart, and no headphones!
  • Go to Bed – I hope this is the last weekend that I will have to “babysit”. You probably noticed that I can get very grumpy when I tell you to do something and you don’t.  These multi-day meets are very tiring, even for me – and I’m not swimming.  One key to performance is sleep, so when I say to be in bed by 10:00, I don’t expect to have to say it twice.  And if you are with the team and not swimming, you cannot be a distraction to the people who are swimming.

All-in-all, it was a great weekend for our top Seton Swimmers.  We once again stayed in the Madison House, a “Museum in a Mansion” as owner Dr. Paul Rhodes calls it.  It was so cool being able to have a gathering space between sessions and a central place for all our meals – and the art collection was pretty nice too.

We must start our Thank Yous with the great work of Mrs. Katie Condon who put together all the logistics for the weekend. It was a huge job very well done.  I am personally so grateful!

A special thanks to volunteer coaches Ross Palazzo and Ashley Keapproth, neither of whom have kids on the team, for taking their weekend to guide our swimmers and divers.

And also, a big thank you to Coach Matt Schroer, Coach Anne Judge, Coach John Halisky, Mrs. Christi Brox, and Mrs. Carol Miller for their hard work implementing Mrs. Condon’s plan for the meals and rides for everyone.

Standing up to the Challenge at the Seton Winter Invitational

It’s never easy running a Meet in Manassas while you have part of the team in Baltimore, but I long-ago resolved to keep hosting the Seton Winter Invitational during the weekend of National Catholics because it offers such a great opportunity to teach one of the key lessons of Seton Swimming:

You can always do more than you think you can do.

For those of you who have been around this team for a while know, one of my favorite quotes is from Thomas Edison:

If we did all the things we were capable of, we would literally astound ourselves

You’ve all never been 60-years old before, but I have been 13.  I know what fear feels like when someone like me intentionally puts you in a position where you are compelled by a coach or parent to do something that you don’t think you can do.  I do it on purpose.  (Which I’ve noticed concerns some of your well-meaning mothers too 😉).

If you don’t believe it, neither me nor your mother will ever convince you that you can race the 500 Free, 200 IM, 200 Free, or even 100 Fly simply by talking to you.  The only way to convince you is to let you convince yourself.  You simply have to face your fear to overcome it.   I could tell by the smiles on so many of your faces this past weekend, that you now know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’ve raised 12 children (almost, last one’s a senior 😉), and I have coached over 700 different kids over the past 25-years.  I’ve seen kids with Cystic-Fibrosis complete 200-lengths of the pool without quitting, and I’ve seen kids who were sick swim a Personal Record.  So, when you come to me on deck, and try to tell me that you are somehow uniquely incapable of swimming 100 Butterfly, you can forgive me for not believing you.

I remember once in 2015 when I accidentally put Marcie Vander Voorde in 100 Butterfly at Fork Union Military Academy.  In my software, the toggle button for 100-Free and 100 Fly are right next to each other so it is an easy mistake to make.  As 4’10” Marcie was walking up to the blocks for 100 Fly – in a meter pool, so it was going to be even farther – I was tempted to fix my mistake.  But then I thought, if she thinks she can do it, why would I ever tell her she couldn’t?  It may have been the most painful 3 minutes and 37.55 seconds I’ve ever personally experienced as the Seton Swimming coach, but that little girl did not quit!

All I want from you is all I ever want from you, “Give me the best you can, whatever that is today.”  Even if you are feeling a little sick or your stomach is upset because you are so nervous, just go and do your best – and you just might literally astound yourself.

As I talk about things like deliberately putting kids in uncomfortable situations or teaching kids that they can always do more than think they can do, I am reminded of a pair of Awards Banquet talks that I gave after the ’18-’19 season and the ’19-’20 season:

I strongly encourage you to print these talks and give them a read.  Together, they are pretty much the best description I have of how I think about raising my own kids and how I’m thinking as I coach all of you on this simple high school swim team.

Astounding Personal Records in Manassas

As remarkable as it was to watch the top swimmers for the top Catholic Schools swim times that might seem otherwise unbelievable if you didn’t see them for yourself, what I saw on Saturday at the Freedom Center was even more remarkable.  I would say it was “unbelievable” but after experiencing this Meet every year for the last several years, I am no longer surprised by all the ridiculous time drops.

Just for fun, I thought it might be interesting to add up the total amount of time dropped in the 107 Personal Records we saw during the meet.  The total time dropped was 2,828.37 seconds – that is over three-quarters of an hour (47:08.37 minutes to be exact)!  Are you kidding?  I might not have believed it myself had I not seen something similar every year in the past at this Meet.

When I add those 110 Personal Records and the 32 Personal Records swum at National Catholics to our previous season total, our new season total for Personal Records so far this season is now up to 724!

To accommodate that many swimmers for the 500 Free – an event that could take up to 15 minutes per heat – Richard Borneman, Mike Judge, and our outstanding Head Timer Chris Condon helped pull together our plan to swim three (3) heats at the same time – a so-called “chase start”.  It required us to get 30 separate timers (who also had to count) and stopwatches to make sure that, with multiple kids in a lane, we could reliably get a time on each one.

It was a remarkable event to behold as I watched so many young swimmers swim in the pool with long and efficient strokes.  You didn’t need a stopwatch to see that our team has experienced massive levels of improvement since the first practice.

Final Scores

This past week, the scores were not really a focus for us at all, especially with 31 of our top athletes in Baltimore, but here’s how they turned out all the same:

Boys

Immanuel Christian 174      Seton                                                             101

Seton                         173      BASIS Independent of McLean                       70

Seton                         180      Trinity Meadow View                                       46

Girls

Immanuel Christian 137      Seton                                                             124

Seton                         140      Trinity Meadow View                                      109

Seton                         150      BASIS Independent of McLean                       94

Seton                         174      Grace Preparatory                                            30

Conquering Discomfort

Prior to the meet, I know there were an awful lot of kids who were experiencing great anxiety about swimming in this meet.  (I even know some mom’s that shared in that anxiety).  Nineteen (19) flip turns?  That’s surely impossible!

After the introduction to this blog post, I suppose my secret is out – I do this sort of thing on purpose – I deliberately put our swimmers in uncomfortable situations so they can build the confidence that only comes from attacking their fears head-on.  Avoiding the fear just legitimizes it, and that is not something I want to perpetuate, particularly when they are afraid of something that is so clearly within their capability.

I suppose I have the advantage of 25-years of watching what happens when you push a kid to swim the 500 Free, even when they are afraid, and this year it all ended as I predicted for so many of those kids:

“Can I swim that again Coach Koehr?  I know I can do it faster.”

I should have counted how many times I heard that question, but it was more than five (5).  No surprise there.

There were some massive Personal Records in the 500 Free.  Can you imagine a meet where we had 15 PRs of more than one-minute and three (3) of those by more than two-minutes?  Remarkable!

Here are the people who overcame their fear and swam Personal Records of more than a minute:

  • James Reynolds (8) had the biggest PR of the meet, dropping 147.94 seconds in 100 Fly.
  • Cora Kramer (SO) dropped an amazing 122.82 seconds in 500 Free – more than two-minutes. She also dropped 14.33 seconds in 200 Free and 3.68 seconds in 50 Back.
  • Gianna Henry (7) also cut more than two-minutes in 200 Free! More precisely, she cut 122.56 seconds!
  • Dominic Henry (FR) had an amazing PR in 500 Free – by 110.19 seconds. He also had a huge drop in 200 Free – 29.36.
  • Penny Kramer (SO) dropped massively in 500 Free with a 102.27 second PR.
  • Avery Youngblut (6) showed how much she has improved this year with a 102.05 second PR in 200 Free.
  • John Cooley (FR) dropped more than a minute and a half (96.08 seconds) in 500 Free. He also dropped nearly a minute (48.03 seconds) in 200 Free.
  • Addi Hadro (7) didn’t quit during her swim in 200 Free, and her perseverance paid off with a 90.31 second PR.
  • Bella Vaughan (8) lowered her 200 Free PR by a massive 82.78 seconds.
  • Lucy Herwick (8) dropped 76.85 seconds in 500 Free and 12.15 seconds in 200 Free.
  • James Beltran (6) beat his 200 Free time from Time Trials by 73.89 seconds!
  • Mia Nguyen (6) smashed her Personal Record in 200 Free by 73.00 seconds.
  • Aidan McCardell (JR) cut 68.63 seconds in 500 Free and 4.52 seconds in 50 Back.
  • Colette Kramer (JR) had a great swim in 500 Free with a 64.24 second PR. She also swam well in 200 IM and 50 Back, with PRs of 20.79 seconds and .47 seconds, respectively.
  • Ben Ellis (SO) dropped 63.57 seconds in 200 Free from his last attempt in 2022. He’s come a long way.  He also dropped 12.16 seconds in 500 Free.
  • Evan Wible (8) had a great swim in 500 Free, beating his previous best by 64.98 seconds. He also dropped 1.52 seconds in 50 Free.

Here are the other swimmers who swam the rest of our 110 Personal Records on Saturday:

  • Dominic Judge (SO) swam incredibly well in 100 Breaststroke, beating his PR by 10.33 to go a very fast 1:12.67. He also dropped 3.36 seconds in 50 Back and 1.67 seconds in 50 Free.  Those were all breakthrough swims for Dominic!
  • Walter Saffian (SR) dropped almost a minute in 500 Free (55.21 seconds).
  • John Goodman (FR) lowered his PR in 200 Free by a massive 52.70 seconds.
  • Grace Catabui (7) had a wonderful swim in the 500 Free where she dropped 52.16 seconds. She also swam a 12.51 second PR in 200 Free.  I really enjoyed my conversation with her on the live-stream.
  • Luke Pillion (SO) crushed his 200 Free PR by 49.52 seconds.
  • Jane Vaughan (6) swam wonderfully in 200 Free, a 46.85 second PR.
  • Daniel Hurley (JR) had a huge drop in 200 Free, beating his previous best by 46.58 seconds.
  • Lily Waldron (FR) seems to be having a breakthrough season this year, and that continued with two big PRs on Saturday. In 500 Free she dropped 45.96 seconds and in 200 Free she dropped 24.85 seconds.
  • Thomas Goodman (7) continues to make huge improvements. On Saturday, he had a huge improvement in 200 Free – by 42.42 seconds.
  • JJ Garvey (8) had a magical swim in 500 Free, beating his previous best by 41.18 seconds. His time was initially listed incorrectly, so I was glad that we could see he went 7:05 on the live-stream recording.  He also dropped 4.75 seconds in 100 Breaststroke.
  • Philip Saffian (8) swam quite well in 200 Free, lowering his PR by 39.42 seconds. He also cut 5.97 seconds in 50 Back.
  • Anne Dusek (FR) had a superior swim in 500 Free, beating her previous best by 38.97 seconds to go 7:09.69. She also dropped 10.02 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Philip Nguyen (7) lowered his 200 Free PR by more than half a minute – by 37.17 seconds.
  • Bella Gorman (7) beat her previous best in 200 Free by 37.30 seconds and her previous best in 50 Back by 1.98 seconds leading off a relay.
  • Evie Mayer (8) continued her trend of weekly improvements with a huge 36.95 second PR in 200 Free.
  • Gianna Pillion (8) swam 200 Free 34.83 seconds than ever before.
  • Molly Bauer (SR) looked tremendous in the 500, crushing her previous PR by 29.18 seconds.
  • Monica Irving (FR) dropped 29.16 seconds in 500 Free.
  • Clare Kay (7) cut 28.94 seconds in 500 Free and 3.88 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Gigi Gibaldi (SO) swam very well in the 500, beating her previous best by 26.51 seconds.
  • Aoife Haggerty (SO) lowered her 500 Free PR by 25.78 seconds and her 200 IM PR by 3.45 seconds.
  • Eamon Haggerty (8) crushed his 200 Free PR by 24.31 seconds.
  • Bella Nguyen (FR) looked great in 200 Free during her 21.89 second PR swim. The same was true during her 6.57 second PR swim in the 500.
  • James Nguyen (7) was all smiles after his 21.23 second PR in 200 Free
  • Chiara Gonzalez (7) beat her 200 Free PR by 20.99 seconds.
  • Angela Andreu (FR) dropped 20.26 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Patrick Heiny (7) lowered his PR in 200 Free by 19.02 seconds.
  • Will Judge (6) swam 200 Free 17.36 seconds faster than ever before. He also swam 100 Breaststroke 4.92 seconds faster than his previous best.
  • Jonas Wilson (FR) dropped a big 16.43 in 200 IM and 9.90 seconds in 100 Free.
  • Luke Fifield (8) cut 16.19 seconds in 200 Free and 5.46 seconds in 500 Free.
  • Dominic Sciscilo (6) dropped 16.09 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Veronica Bingham (8) beat her previous best in 200 Free by 16.08 seconds and in 500 Free by 4.64 seconds.
  • Paul Partridge (7) swam a 15.84 second PR in 200 Free.
  • Adeline Youngblut (7) beat her previous best in 200 Free by 13.93 seconds.
  • Emma Beltran (7) dropped 12.96 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Joey Lynch (FR) beat his 200 IM PR by 11.45 seconds and his 100 Back PR by .29 seconds.
  • JJ Cooley (JR) lowered his 100 Breaststroke PR by 9.89 seconds.
  • Maggie Mikkelson (7) dropped 8.63 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Siobhan Maher (7) cut 7.56 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Avila Mantooth (FR) had two strong PRs – by 7.35 seconds in 200 Free and by 4.67 seconds in 100 Back.
  • Rafael De Micoli (FR) dropped 6.56 in 100 Back leading off a relay.
  • Brian Orellana (FR) cut 6.52 seconds in 100 Free
  • Mary Claire Osilka (JR) showed how to swim all four (4) strokes during her 6.33 second PR in 200 IM. She also had a nice swim in 50 Back with a 1.96 second PR.
  • Luke Partridge (SO) swam well in the 200 IM, beating his previous best by 5.61 seconds.
  • Caroline Schroer (7) beat her 200 Free PR by 5.59 seconds.
  • Greg Bauer (JR) was already pretty fast, so a drop of 5.11 seconds in 100 Fly and 1.14 seconds in 100 Back is a great accomplishment for him.
  • Gabby Russo (SO) continued her great season with a 2.24 second PR in 100 Back and a .38 second PR in 50 Back leading off a relay.
  • Annabelle Mikkelson (8) had two (2) PRs, one in 500 Free by 3.95 seconds and the other in 200 Free by 2.19 seconds.
  • Katie Bauer (FR) beat her previous best 200 Free time by 3.68 seconds and her previous best 100 Free time by .24 seconds.
  • Lucy Cunningham (SR) made the most of her opportunity in 100 Breaststroke by beating her previous best by 3.01 seconds.
  • Madelyn Fioramonti (7) beat her previous best by 3.41 seconds.
  • Rebecca Kramer (7) dropped 2.37 seconds in 200 Free.
  • Charlotte Meadows (8) lowered her 200 Free PR by 2.28 seconds.
  • William Sokban (SR) beat his 100 Back PR by 1.75 seconds.
  • Michael Zahorchak (SO) dropped .93 seconds in 50 Free and .35 seconds in 100 Free.
  • Jack Herwick (FR) cut .70 seconds in 50 Back leading off a medley relay.
  • Mariana Bingham (SO) cut .66 seconds in 200 IM.
  • Katie Cooley (7) cut .08 seconds in 200 Free.

Here are the swimmers who swam the most challenging events in a high school Meet for the very first time:

  • Bethany Allen (6) – 500 Free, 100 Fly
  • Angela Andreu (FR) – 500 Free
  • Emma Beltran (7) – 500 Free
  • James Beltran (6) – 500 Free
  • Rafael De Micoli (FR) – 200 IM, 500 Free
  • Madelyn Fioramonti (7) – 500 Free
  • Gigi Gibaldi (SO) – 200 IM
  • Chiara Gonzalez (7) – 500 Free
  • John Goodman (FR) – 500 Free
  • Thomas Goodman (7) – 500 Free
  • Bella Gorman (7) – 500 Free
  • Addi Hadro (7) – 500 Free
  • Eamon Haggerty (8) – 500 Free
  • Patrick Heiny (7) – 500 Free
  • Gianna Henry (7) – 500 Free
  • Monica Irving (FR) – 200 IM
  • Daniel Kohlhaas (8) – 200 Free
  • Penny Kramer (SO) – 200 IM
  • Rebecca Kramer (7) – 500 Free
  • Siobhan Maher (7) – 500 Free
  • Evie Mayer (8) – 500 Free
  • Aidan McCardell (JR) – 200 IM
  • Maggie Mikkelson (7) – 500 Free
  • Mia Nguyen (6) – 500 Free
  • Philip Nguyen (7) – 500 Free
  • William Orellana (7) – 200 Free
  • Paul Partridge (7) – 500 Free
  • CJ Pennefather (6) – 500 Free
  • Gianna Pillion (8) – 500 Free
  • Luke Pillion (SO) – 500 Free
  • Charlotte Poullath (7) – 200 IM, 500 Free
  • James Reynolds (8) – 500 Free
  • Philip Saffian (8) – 500 Free
  • William Saffian (SR) – 200 IM
  • Dominic Sciscilo (6) – 500 Free
  • Bella Vaughan (8) – 500 Free
  • Jane Vaughan (6) – 500 Free
  • Adeline Youngblut (7) – 500 Free
  • Avery Youngblut (6) – 500 Free

And here are the other swimmers who tackled the most difficult events in a high school swim meet:

  • Meg Blanchette (SR) – 200 IM, 500 Free
  • Veronica Gonzalez (FR) – 200 Free, 500 Free
  • Orla Haggerty (SR) – 200 IM

Final Notes

Let’s wrap it up with some final notes:

  • There are only two (2) weeks left in the season for our non-Varsity swimmers. Everyone will be swimming in the 15th annual Northern Virginia Catholic High School Championship (aka, “NoVa Catholics”) on January 18th
    • After NoVa Catholics, I will draft our entries for one of the February Championship meets and use that to announce our 2025 Varsity Team.
  • Then, as a season-ending meet for all non-Varsity swimmers (i.e., swimmers who are not entered into meets during the championship season where there is no exhibition swimming), we will host our 18th annual Junior Varsity Invitational Championship at the Freedom Center on January 25th.
    • This meet is primarily for 6th to 9th graders, but I will be able to include some select upperclassmen as exhibition.
    • There may be a few upper classmen in a sort of donut hole where you are not quite on the Varsity team yet you are too fast to swim in the Junior Varsity meet, but for the most part, all non-Varsity swimmers will swim on January 25th.
  • For the Varsity swimmers, it’s time to start to get serious about some championship level swimming. Since New Year’s, you have seen our attention shift from giving you a wide range of different types of swims to lining you up to be as competitive as possible.
    • Our Girls need to take the VCAC Championship Meet from Trinity Christian,
    • Our Boys need to take the VCAC Championship Meet from Immanuel Christian, and
    • I also expect both our Boys and Girls to be competitive at the VISAA Division II Invitational Championship and the VISAA State Championship.
    • None of those are going to be easy

So, let’s make the most of our training for the rest of January.  It’s nearing the end of the season for most of you, and this is when championships are won for the rest of you!

Coach Jim Koehr

 

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