Last Saturday, we hosted our 18th annual VISAA Division II Invitational. For the second year in a row, it was a dominating performance for both our Boys and our Girls with the boys winning by almost 100 points and the girls winning by more than 200.
I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that this was the best we’ve swum so far this season – and it is the best we have dived all season too. The girls showed the biggest improvement, with Maria Miller (SO) improving so much, she broke the VCAC Conference record!
We created this Meet 17-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 get the chance to know each other better. Then we could all go down to States 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 23 schools who brought 305 swimmers – that is nearly 3/5ths the size of the VISAA State Championship meet.
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 most of the time between 2008 and 2013, but after that, the meet has largely been dominated by Hampton Roads Academy, who took home both of trophies the next four (4) years.
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 last year, the Seton boys and girls have won four (4) out of the last five (5).
Congratulations to our Seton Boys and Girls, the VISAA Division II Invitational Swimming and Diving Champions for 2024!
I’d also like to congratulate our Swimmers of the Meet, both of whom were selected by a vote of the coaches:
- Boys – Jacob Wolf (SR). Jacob won Gold medals in both the 50 and 100 Free, breaking the Meet record for 100 Free by .31 seconds and coming within .08 seconds of breaking the record for 50 Free. He also teamed up with his brothers to take the Gold medal in both the 200 and 400 Free Relays.
- Girls – Madisyn Carter (SR), Highland School. Madisyn was one of only two (2) girls in the meet to win two (2) Gold medals (Seton’s Ariana Aldeguer (FR) was the other). This is the second year in a row for Madisyn, and once again, she did it by winning both 100 Fly and 100 Back.
- Ariana Aldeguer (FR) the other female competitor who won two (2) individual events, so in my mind she could have easily been the Swimmer of the Meet. Not only did she win gold medals in both the 200 and 500 Free, but she also won a gold medal in the 200 Medley Relay and a silver medal in the 400 Free Relay. No girl in the meet was responsible for more points scored than Ariana.
This meet just keeps getting faster. We had eight (8) new Meet Records set on Saturday, including two (2) relay records by the powerhouse Trinity Christian boys.
- Boys 200 Medley Relay, 1:39.39, Trinity Christian School, Jo Witdoeckt, Justin Kim, Tyler Phillips, Noah Yun
- Boys 200 Free, 1:43.33, Will Charlton, The Covenant School
- Girls Diving, 11-Dives, 314.35, Lily Ditman, Stonebridge School
- Boys 100 Fly, 50.10, Caleb Wolf, Immanuel Christian School
- Boys 100 Free, 47.81, Joshua Wolf, Immanuel Christian School
- Boys 500 Free, 4:37.13, Will Charlton, The Covenant School
- Boys 200 Free Relay, 1:30.43, Trinity Christian School, Noah Yun, Elliot Jang, Justin Kim, Tyler Phillips
- Boys 100 Breaststroke, 54.93, Gabe Nunziata, Stonebridge School
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 nine (9) new VCAC Conference Records! There are only 24 total – the Wolf Brothers from Immanuel Christian and the Trinity Christian boys practically rewrote the boy’s record book!
- Boys 200 Medley Relay, 1:39.39, Trinity Christian School
- Jo Witdoeckt, Justin Kim, Tyler Phillips, Noah Yun
- They beat a 2006 record set by a medley relay team that contained All-Americans Kevin Koehr and Nevin Cook. It was quite swim by these Trinity boys!
- Boys 200 Free Relay, 1:30.43, Trinity Christian School
- Noah Yun, Elliot Jang, Justin Kim, Tyler Phillips
- They smashed this 2016 record of 1:32.22 set by a very fast group of FCS boys.
- Boys 400 Free Relay, 3:23.52, Immanuel Christian School
- Caleb Wolf, Caleb Fiala, Moses Wolf, Joshua Wolf
- I’m guessing that the previous record holders from last year, Trinity Christian, might want that record back next weekend?
- Boys 50 Free, 21.89, Joshua Wolf, Immanuel Christian
- He broke Jameson Hill’s 2010 record of 21.91.
- Jamo’s Seton team record is 21.22
- Boys 100 Free, 47.81, Joshua Wolf, Immanuel Christian
- Again, he broke a 2010 Jameson Hill record of 48.78
- Jamo’s Seton team record is 45.67
- Boys 200 Free, 1:43.88, Caleb Wolf, Immanuel Christian
- He broke Josh Kim’s 2022 record of 1:46.54
- Jameson Hill never swam 200 Free for Seton at a Conference Championship, but his Seton team record is 1:38.54
- Boys 100 Fly, 50.10, Caleb Wolf, Immanuel Christian
- Tyler Phillips of Trinity Christian has the previous record from last year, and this year, Caleb had to beat Tyler head-to-head to take. Tyler took 2nd at 50.20, also crushing his previous record of 52.74
- Boys 100 Breaststroke, 1:00.48, Justin Kim, Trinity Christian School
- The previous record holder was Andrew Turbyfill of Fredericksburg Christian who went 1:00.59 in 2020.
- Maria Miller, 259.05, Seton
- Maria just broke Trinity Christian Diver Keri Hough’s 2022 Record of 256.90.
- Thank you Maria for getting “SST” back on the Conference Record Board!
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, 3rd, and 4th and the girls took 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Then in the Medley Relays, our boy’s “A” and “B” Relays scored in 2nd and 5th and the girls scored in 1st and 4th!
At that very early point in the meet, we had nearly triple the points of our nearest competitors for both the boys and girls, and our kids never looked back.
Here’s stat that will blow your mind: Our boys won by over 80-points, and except for Diving, we didn’t win a single event. It was our depth again. We had five (5) boys events where we had three (3) or more swimmers score in the top 12, and all six (6) of our Boy’s relays were in the top-7. That is just too many points.
The girls were even more dramatic because they did see the top of the medal platform, and still had the depth. Individually, our girls won gold in three (3) events, and our Relays took two (2) golds, a silver, and a bronze. In seven (7) of the 12 events, we scored three (3) or more athletes in the top-12. Without Trinity Christian in the meet (their girls are Division I), we seemed to have a way with things.
For the 23 teams involved, here’s how the meet scores looked for the top finishers when it was all over – looked at where Trinity Meadow View ended up!
Girls
- Seton School 369
- Steward School 156
- Fredericksburg Christian 152.5
- Trinity Meadow View 87
- The Covenant School 86
- Norfolk Christian 70
- Stonebridge 68
- Immanuel Christian 66
- Hampton Roads Academy 48
- Nansemond-Suffolk 43
- Virginia Episcopal 42
- Williamsburg Christian 37
- Highland 32
Boys
- Seton School 312
- Trinity Christian School 231.5
- The Covenant School 218
- Immanuel Christian 182
- Norfolk Christian 90
- Virginia Episcopal 71
- Trinity Meadow View 68
- Christchurch 41.5
- Stonebridge 32
- Fredericksburg Christian 29
- Miller School 24
- Veritas School 24
- Steward School 21
I’m Really Starting to 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.
For instance, in yesterday’s Meet, our boys took all the top-4 places and scored a total of 62 points! Our primary competition in the Meet, Trinity Christian, only scored 26-points. On the Girl’s side, it was even more lopsided. Our girls took 2nd through 5th and scored 46 total points. None of our primary rivals for the title yesterday even had divers.
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.
Looking on SwimCloud at the top scores posted from across the State so far this season, I can see that our top-4 boys are all in the top-10 in the State with Connor Koehr (JR) having posted 11-dive scores above the 2nd best posting twice so far. Our boys are so deep in fact, that I’ll bet we could have five (5) in the top-16 if it were allowed.
And the way our girls are improving, I don’t think it is ridiculous to believe that we have a chance to get four (4) girls in the top-16 too.
What a huge advantage in competition where our score is being compared to other Division II schools, many of whom are unable to even compete in diving at all!
I’ve saved the rest of the details on this weekend’s performance for Coach Ashley Keapproth who sent this message out to the Diving team via e-mail:
Congratulations to both our girls and boys teams on winning the VISAA Division II Championship title!!! I left the pool yesterday feeling super pumped, and we are exactly where we need to be two weeks out from the State Championship.
- Congratulations to Elizabeth Francis and Anna Russo who qualified for states yesterday! Theywill join Meghan, Maria, Rose, Connor, Mick, Jacob, Gus, and Max who have qualified for States. It is an honor to bring a team of 10 divers to states! State Team Divers please review:
- Congratulations to our Varsity Team on a fantastic performance yesterday. The whole team has stepped up their game and the improvements are marked! Specifically, congratulations to:
- Connor Koehr (JR) for placing 1st with 371.10 points, over 70 points more than this meet last year and 35 points more than states last year.
- Mick Fioramonti (SR) for placing 2nd with 331.75 points, over 70 points more than this meet last year.
- Jacob Oswald (JR) for placing 3rd with 290.35 points, over 90 points more than this meet last year.
- Gus Kohlhaas (JR) for placing 4th 267.25 points, over 100 points more than this meet last year.
- Max Gonzalez (JR) for placing 5th with 266.05 points, over 45 points more than this meet last year.
- You may wonder, did we sweep 1-5 because we were the only divers? No! All five of our male divers beat the four divers from Trinity Christian!
- Maria Miller (SO) for placing 2nd with 259.05 points. She could not compete last year as she did not have a full 11 dive list.
- Rose Waldron (JR) for placing 3rd with 255.30 points, 50 points more than this meet last year, and more than 35 points more than her prior 11-dive PR.
- Meghan Condon (8) for placing 4th with 242.40 points. She could not compete last year as she was a 7th grader.
- Elizabeth Francis (JR) for placing 5th with 231.35 points. She could not compete last year as she did not have a full 11 dive list.
- Anna Russo (JR) for placing 6th with 230.65 points, who is brand new the year and this was her first 11 dive meet!
- Finally, congratulations to Elodie Brox who won the 50 free yesterday. When I spoke with Coach Ross Palazzo after her win, he mentioned that her dive and streamline were amazing, so I am taking some credit for that victory as well. 😉
- I encourage the JV divers to come and cheer for our Varsity divers at this meet! Thank you to Lucy Herwick (7) who came to cheer for our varsity divers yesterday (apologies if I missed others who came).
One last thought before I move back to swimming: Did you notice the ages of all those boys? We need to fix that!
Stand-out Performances
I saw loads of great swimming on Saturday, but there were some performances that really caught my attention in real time. As a fan of the sport of swimming, these were some of the Seton races that were so exciting (and sometimes surprising) to witness – most of them against conference opponents that we will see again this coming weekend. Seton was on fire Saturday, and here were some of the fireworks:
- Ariana Aldeguer (FR) Eve Frost (SO) of Stonebridge School in the 200 Free
- This race was neck-and-neck the entire way with Ariana laying down four (4) amazingly consistent splits. On the last length, Eve Frost made a big push, but at the wall, Ariana kept her head down, got on her side, touched low and hard, and won by only .02 seconds. Finishes matter!
- Her 1:56.99 was a Personal Record by .88 seconds.
- Ariana was on fire!
- Lionel Martinez (FR) Justin Kim (SR) of Trinity Christian School in the 200 IM
- At our January 6th Regular Season Conference Championship Meet, Justin beat Lionel by a bit more than a second, but Lionel was not going to allow a repeat of that!
- Lionel was about 2.5 seconds behind at the 100 and gained a bit on the breaststroke leg, but he closed the gap with a tremendous final 50. His 27.00 split in the final 50 Free was 2.34 seconds faster than Justin’s and allowed him to out-touch Justin by just .14 seconds.
- Lionel’s 2:00.35 was a 1.45 second PR, and he needed almost all of that.
- Lionel was on fire!
- Stella Paradise (SR) Evie Miller (FR) of Fredericksburg Christian in the 200 IM
- All the coaches knew that something special was going to happen with Stella on Saturday just based on the way she has been performing in practice lately. Stella has picked the perfect time to peak.
- They touched together at the 100, but Stella started to pull away on the 3rd leg of 50 Breaststroke.
- Then Evie came back on the last leg with a wicked-fast 50 Free, but it wasn’t enough to catch Stella who out-touched her by only .14 seconds. (.14 seconds seems like it was a magic number on Saturday!)
- Stella’s 2:20.82 was a lifetime best by a whopping 4.06 seconds.
- Stella was on fire!
- Michael Brox (JR) Jack Knewtson (SR) of Fredericksburg Christian in the 50 Free.
- Jack beat all comers in our January 6th regular season championship, but Michael was in that race. He was definitely in this one.
- Jack came in seeded ahead of Michael’s 23.16 with a seed time of 23.09.
- But Michael somehow dropped .59 seconds to 22.57 and beat Jack by .38 seconds. Jack also swam a PR, by .14 seconds (again?), but Michael would not be denied.
- Seton now has two boys at 22.5 for a flat start 50 Free, with Lionel Martinez (FR) being the other one.
- Michael was on fire!
- Elodie Brox (JR) Eve Frost (SO) of Stonebridge and Kate Shumate (FR) of Immanuel Christian School in the 50 Free.
- Elodie came in seeded 3rd with a time of 26.35, well behind both Eve and Kate.
- I don’t know how you drop more than a one full second in a race as short as 50 Free, but somehow Elodie dropped all the way down to 25.31 by .36 seconds and .56 seconds, respectively.
- Elodie was on fire!
- Clara Condon (JR) Bermuda Granger (JR) of Norfolk Collegiate in 100 Butterfly.
- Clara came into the meet with her seed time set at her season-best of 1:03.11, only .15 seconds behind Bermuda.
- At the 50, Clara had built a half second lead, and she extended that lead by another half second on the closing 50 to win by 1.02 seconds with a new season-best 1:01.27.
- Clara’s time was the 21st fastest time posted in the VISAA this year, but it is only .25 seconds out of 16th.
- Clara was on fire!
- Michael Brox (JR) Noah Yun (SO) of Trinity Christian School in 100 Free.
- Michael wasn’t done with his competition against the top swimmers in the VCAC. Next up, Noah Yun.
- Michael came into the meet with a seed time of 52.14 versus Noah’s seed of 52.57.
- Both swimmers crushed their seed times, so it became a question of who would crush theirs by more. The answer was Michael Brox.
- Michael dropped an unbelievable 1.38 seconds to go 50.76 which was enough to out-touch Noah by only .22 seconds.
- Congratulations still go to Noah Yun though. That was a heck of swim! But…
- Michael was on fire!
- Elodie Brox (JR) Lina Dawson (JR) of the Steward School in 100 Free.
- Elodie entered the meet with seed time of 59.26, which was .31 seconds behind Lina.
- Lina flipped at the 50 just .06 ahead of Elodie, but Elodie brought it home in 29.74 to out-touch her by only .10 seconds.
- Even though Lina dropped almost 1.5 seconds herself, Elodie dropped 1.87 seconds to touch first.
- Both girls had tremendous swims, but…
- Elodie was on fire!
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. If any single statistic reveals the power of our depth, it is that one.
Let’s start with Seton’s VISAA Division II Individual State Champions:
- Ariana Aldeguer (FR)
- 200 Free, 1:56.99
- As you just read (above), this was a hard-fought victory for Ariana
- 500 Free, 5:10.75
- This one, on the other hand, was not particularly hard fought. Ariana pretty much owned the race from the beginning.
- Connor Koehr (JR), Diving, 11-Dives, 371.10
- This was the 2nd highest 11-dive score posted in the VISAA with the highest posting of 385.60 also posted by Connor.
- After eight (8) dives, it was clear that another diver was having a great day too – Mick Fioramonti (SR). Only 8.85-points separated our two (2) top Seton divers.
- Elodie Brox (JR), 50 Free, 25.31
- You just read about Elodie’s stunning PR swim to unexpectedly take the gold medal. It was incredible to watch.
- 200 Free, 1:56.99
Also, congratulations to Seton’s VISAA Division II Relay State Champions:
- Girls 200 Medley Relay of Ariana Aldeguer (FR), Clara Condon (JR), Stella Paradise (SR), and Elodie Brox (JR), 1:53.23
- They also came within .05 seconds of breaking the Meet Records and .58 seconds of breaking the VCAC Conference Record.
- As a team, they cut another .36 seconds from their PR on the strength of Stella’s 27.66 50 Fly (a .35 second PR split) and Elodie’s 24.94 anchor leg (a .18 second PR split).
- Girls 200 Free Relay of Lucia Bingham (JR), Maggie Gibbons (SR), Stella Paradise (SR), Elodie Brox (JR), 1:44.69
- Lucia was the “next man up” when we had an injury, and she swam a great lead-off leg. Her 27.77 was a 1.90 second flat-start PR.
- Maggie beat her previous best split by .08, and Stella continued her pattern of season-best swims with split of 25.73, .57 seconds faster than her previous best this season.
- Elodie brought home the victory in a blazing 25.08 to hold off the great Ashley Compton (SR) from The Steward School.
Here were our other individual medalists from the Meet, four (4) of whom were Divers:
- Mick Fioramonti (SR) had a PR diving score of 331.75 to take the silver medal. He made a great run at the gold medal in the process. Mick has posted the 4th highest score so far in the VISAA, only .55 points behind the 3rd All-State Mick?
- Maria Miller’s (SO) first attempt at 11 dives was not only good enough to take the silver medal, it was also good enough to set a new VCAC Conference record!
- Elodie Brox (JR) added a bronze medal in 100 Free to her gold medal in 50 Free, both of which were described above.
- Clara Condon (JR) won a bronze medal in 100 Fly as you read about above.
- Jacob Oswald (JR) won a bronze medal with a huge 24.25-point PR score. Jacob has now posted the 10th highest 11 dive score in the VISAA, but I know he wants to finish in the top-8 at the State Championship in two weeks. The way he keeps improving, I can definitely see that happening.
- Rose Waldron (JR) improved her 11 dive score by a massive 49.80 points to take a bronze medal.
And here were our other relay medalists from the Meet:
- Our Boys 200 Medley Relay of Connor Koehr (JR), Luke Mantooth (SR), Lionel Martinez (FR), and Michael Brox (JR) took the silver medal.
- They beat their Personal Record even with Luke Mantooth as the “next man up” to replace a sick Drew Nguyen.
- Connor Koehr led off with a .22 second PR 50 Backstroke leg followed by a great swim by Luke who beat his previous best split by nearly a full second (.97 seconds).
- Lionel did what Lionel does, swimming the Fly leg in sub-24 seconds before handing it off to Michael Brox who rocked a 21.62 split. That split was .04 seconds better than his previous best.
- Their time, without Drew, is now the 13th fastest time posted in the VISAA for the Boys 200 Medley Relay.
- Our Girls 400 Free Relay of Ariana Aldeguer (FR), Haley Fifield (JR), Anastasia Garvey (SO), and Clara Condon (JR) won a silver medal
- Their time was a season-best by 2.05 seconds on the strength of a .1.97 second PR split by Haley, a .58 second PR split by Anastasia, and a 1.09 second season-best split by Clara.
- For both Haley and Anastasia, it was the first time they split under 1:00.
- Their time was the 16th fastest posted in the VISAA so far this season, and they did it without Elodie, Stella or Maggie.
- Our Boys 200 Free Relay of Lionel Martinez (FR), Liam Halisky (JR), Connor Koehr (JR), and Michael Brox (JR) took the bronze medal behind two (2) powerhouse relays from Trinity Christian and Immanuel Christian.
- Their time of 1:31.40 was a 1.31 second PR and is now only 1.33 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 one of his brothers off of the record board!)
- Lionel led off in 22.51 (a flat-start PR by .08), followed by another big PR split by Connor Koehr.
- Connor broke the 23-second barrier for the first time when he split 22.97, a drop of another .36 seconds.
- Our Girls 400 Free “B” Relay of Philomena Kay (FR), Maggie Schroer (8), Sophia Halisky (8), and Maggie Gibbons (SR) took the bronze medal despite being the “B” Relay!
- Under Maggie Gibbons’ leadership, these young girls rocked! All four (4) of them swam lifetime best PR splits to beat everyone’s “A” relay except Steward’s.
- Philomena led-off with a .40 second flat-start PR, followed by Maggie Schroer’s huge 2.25 second PR split, Sophia’s 1.53 second PR split, and Maggie Gibbon’s huge 3.52 second PR split.
- Taking both the silver and bronze medal in the Girl’s 400 Free relay scored 50-points alone!
Tempest Swimming is a Thing!
I met Joe Kelley (SR) for only the second time on Saturday after just a brief handshake at practice last Tuesday. He was clearly a bit nervous, not knowing what to expect, as 300 other swimmers hovered around him, drowned out only by the warm-up music of Coach Koehr’s youth.
We didn’t have much time during warm-up, so I tried to fix the things that were easiest to fix – streamlines and limited breathing on the 50 Free. That later one seemed to get the attention of some of Joe’s teammates.
“Coach, Joe hasn’t swum since the summer. He’s going to be tired!”, I was told.
“Really? How could he possibly get more tired than you if you gave it 100% during your race. How can you be more tired than as tired as you can possibly get?”, I said as I turned back to Joe to tell him, “You can breathe three (3) times in the 50, that’s it. There’s plenty of time to breath tomorrow.”
Joe listened though. I think he breathed more than three (3) times, but not much more – and it showed in the result. I was absolutely stunned when I saw a time of 25.13 on the scoreboard.
“You have to be kidding me!”, I said to myself. “The guy’s a basketball player, and with only rudimentary technique he went 25-low!?”
Then in 100 Free, he blew me away again with a time of 58.30. I wanted to find that swimmer who told me that Joe was going to be tired. I’m sure he was tired, but you’re supposed to be – this is swimming.
It reminded me of a famous Andre’ Agassi quote that I love so much. (For those of you saying, “Who’s he?”, I’ll tell you that he was the world’s #1 professional tennis player before most of you reading this were born.)
“There’s a lot of good waiting for you on the other side of tired” – Andre Agassi
And there certainly was for our team on Saturday. With Joe Kelley added to the relays, Elijah Soto (SO), Shane Monroe (JR), and Eamon Schrock (FR) beat the State cuts in both the 200 Free Relay and the 400 Free Relay – by wide margins.
Right now, their 200 Free Relay time is the 18th fastest posted in the VISAA so far this season, and their 400 Free Relay time is the 19th fastest. The top-16 make it out of Preliminaries to the Finals on Saturday night. I think we can do it. Our 200 Free Relay is only .22 seconds behind 16th best, Bishop Ireton.
As exciting as that was to watch, there was one other thing that excited me even more – being able to put bronze medals around the necks of our Girls 200 Medley Relay! Lauren Kelly (SO), Sydney Arllen (SO), Aine Maloney (JR), and Reagan Mazanec (FR) dropped almost 2 full seconds to jump from the 4th seed to the Bronze medal. Their time of 2:00.20 is now the 19th fastest time posted in the VISAA this season, less than 2 seconds behind the 16th fastest. Let’s swim at night!
I was also quite pleased to see the level of improvement we are experiencing on very limited practice time. Here are the eleven (11) Personal Records that we saw on Saturday:
- Sydney Arllen (SO) dropped .90 seconds in 100 Fly
- Sophie Blankenstein (JR) completed her season with two (2) strong PRs. In 100 Free she cut 1.59 seconds and in 100 Breast she cut 2.23 seconds.
- Lauren Kelley (SO) swam her medley relay lead-off 50 Backstroke .12 seconds faster than ever before.
- Aine Maloney (JR) posted her best time in 100 Breaststroke by .51 seconds. Her time of 1:11.86 is the 22nd best posted in the VISAA so far this season, but she is very close to 16th which is 1:10.33. She also swam a PR 27.18 leading off our 200 Free Relay – .24 seconds better than her previous best.
- Charlotte Mazanec (SO) proudly wore her Tempest swim cap to a .08 second PR in 50 Free.
- Reagan Mazanec (FR) looked great in her first attempt at 100 Fly with a 1:28.52.
- Shane Monroe (JR) was elated to get the chance to try 100 Breaststroke for the first time, and I was quite pleased with his 1:19.52
- Lizzie Neal (FR) wrapped up her season with strong swims in the 50 and 100 Free.
- Eamon Schrock (FR) rocked his two (2) events. In 100 Fly he dropped 3.56 seconds to go 1:02.01, and in 100 Breaststroke he dropped .53 seconds to go 1:19.18.
- Elijah Soto (SO) showed that he could compete with the big boys. His 100 Fly (55.13) was a 1.46 second PR, and his 100 Back (57.85) was a .14 second PR.
- Levi Soto (8) had a good first season, particularly for a middle-schooler. His 100 Breaststroke (1:23.67) was a very good time for an 8th
I’ll wrap up here by noting that I was quite pleased to see all of those Trinity Meadow View car magnets on my truck after practice last Tuesday. Unfortunately for me, there are still alot of memories of the 2008 Lacrosse semi-finals floating around my house, so I definitely heard about it from my older kids – and my wife. Sorry, but I had to take them off to be allowed back into the house 😉.
Personal Records
The 42 swimmers and divers that we had in this meet swam or dove 46 new Personal Records. Adding that to our previous season total of 1,094, our Seton Swim Team has swum 1,140 new Personal Records so far this season! We have never had a number that high, and we still have two (2) meets remaining.
Here are the Personal Records from our team that I have not already mentioned:
- Lucia Bingham (JR) in addition to cutting 1.90 seconds in 50 Free leading off a relay, she also cut 3.45 seconds in 100 Breaststroke.
- Joe Borneman (JR) beat his previous best 200 Free time by .27 seconds.
- Lucy Cunningham (JR) dropped another .02 seconds in 200 Free.
- Haley Fifield (JR) improved her 50 Back PR by .53 seconds while leading off a medley relay.
- Kyleigh Fifield (FR) had a great swim in the 500 Free, beating her previous best by 4.58 seconds.
- Elizabeth Francis (JR) beat her 11-dive score from last year at States by an incredible 148.90 points.
- Anastasia Garvey (SO) dropped 1.74 seconds in 200 IM.
- Maggie Gibbons (SR) rocked her 200 IM, beating her lifetime best by 6.69 seconds.
- Max Gonzalez (SR) improved his 11-dive PR by .75 points.
- Liam Halisky (JR) dropped another .39 seconds in 50 Free.
- Sophia Halisky (8) had a great swim in the 200 Free, beating her previous best by 7.12 seconds.
- Elizabeth Hurley (8) swam two (2) PRs on Saturday. In 100 Fly she cut .27 seconds, and in 100 Back she cut 2.67 seconds.
- Dominic Judge (FR) wanted to see what he could do in the 500 Free, and it turns out that he could do quite a bit. How about a 22.01 second PR that broke 6:00 for the first time? He also cut another .34 seconds in 100 Back.
- Patrick Kay (8) is building momentum towards the end of the season with a .33 second PR in 500 Free.
- Philomena Kay (FR) beat her 200 IM PR by .99 seconds and her 500 Free PR by 3.75 seconds.
- Connor Koehr (JR) broke the 1:00 barrier in 100 Backstroke after a PR of .64 seconds. 78!
- Gus Kohlhaas (JR) improved his 11-dive score by another 18.90 points.
- Peter Konstanty (SR) was right on his PR for 50 Free from both a flat start and while leading off a relay.
- Avila Mantooth (8) had a great meet with two (2) new PRs. In 50 Free she dropped 1.07 seconds, and in 100 Free she dropped 2.36 seconds. Those were pretty significant drops for Avila.
- Luke Mantooth (SR) had two (2) great individual swims in addition to his great relay swim. In 100 Fly he cut another 1.39 seconds, and in 100 Breaststroke he cut another 1.93 seconds.
- Thiago Martinez (8) left his mark as an 8th grader with a 4th place finish in 200 IM.
- Luke Partridge (FR) continues to get faster. On Saturday, he dropped .19 seconds in 100 Free and 1.79 seconds in 100 Back.
- Maggie Schroer (8) looked great in both the 100 Free and the 200 Free, dropping 2.27 seconds and .10 seconds, respectively.
- Daniel Sokban (FR) has had a break out season, and it continued with another sub-25 second 50 Free and another sub-56 second 100 Free.
- William Sokban (JR) crushed his 500 Free PR by 7.61 seconds. He also dropped .37 seconds in 100 Fly.
- Rosie Waldron (JR) beat her previous best 11-dive score by 49.80 points.
- Max Wilson (JR) really shined in both the 200 IM and 100 Back, breaking his previous PRs by 1.17 seconds and .97 seconds, respectively.
- Michael Zahorchak (FR) had a great swim in 100 Breaststroke where he dropped another .44 seconds.
How Does Little Seton School Consistently Host Meets of this Scale?
Even though we have been doing it for many years, it still amazes me that a small school like Seton can put on such a large-scale event. It happens because we can muster so many dedicated volunteer parents. While other schools can’t seem to come up with even one parent timer, we have our stalwart volunteers like Referee Charles Seltman, Starter Richard Borneman, Scorers Mike Judge and Hank Konstanty (and Bill Dealey), CTS Operator Melissa Sokban and Hume Nguyen, Announcers John Kleb and Michael Bingham, Stroke and Turn Judges David Wilson and Claire Nguyen, Head Timer Chris Condon, Head volunteer recruiter and Dive Meet Director Katie Condon – and of course, the Producer of the Seton Sports Network, Paul Fifield. And we cannot forget the great on-deck coaching our kids got from DD Ross, Ross Palazzo, and Pat Mulhern.
We also had some other volunteers that played really stepped up for Seton:
- Anne Judge did a great job in the stressful work of finding a place for 333 kids on and around the deck even though she had other family responsibilities on Saturday morning.
- Molly Herwick got called into duty as our Team Nurse more than once. Her are Mary Pat Blanchette have a nurses’ table set up now behind the blocks at every meet.
- Anne Judge and Joe Hurley did a great job with the occasionally stressful job of preparing the medals. They were always right there with the medals, already labeled and ready to hand out.
- The Carmel School really stepped up this weekend to help us with hospitality. They came in force to handle this job, and as a result, we had a great hospitality set-up for the coaches and volunteers during the four-hour-long meet. And thank you to Julie Mantooth for the leadership she provide for them.
For the many other parent volunteers that I have not mentioned here, thank you for your support in making Seton Swim & Dive, Seton Swim & Dive.
And weren’t the students running the livestream for the Seton Sports Network just killing it on Saturday? Haley Fifield, Gabe and Hambleton have set the bar for all other schools in the State! Wasn’t Luke Fifield’s mobile camera work great!
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? Are we going to fix that next 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 Trinity Christian and 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 award’s 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 16-17th at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center in Christiansburg, VA.
Mrs. Condon has posted the most up-to-date information on our State Championship Team including the current set of individual qualifiers and the top relay splits for this season.
The competition on both the Boy’s and Girl’s side for Relay spots has been keen, particularly on the boy’s side, 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 swum 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 (8) 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 swum during Prelims.
- Remember that Connor Koehr likely will not be able to swim in the Prelims for the Boys 200 Free Relay, but if he still has one of the top-4 times after those Prelims, he will swim in the 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 swum during Prelims.
Once again, we have a Team House this year for team meals and as a hang-out between sessions. Mrs. Katie Condon is taking charge of the State Meet logistics for the team. Please look under Meet Information for a document called Everything You Need to Know About States.
There are several key actions for all members of the team that require you to hit a link Mrs. Condon has provided:
- Arrange for transportation and designate a responsible adult for your child. Preferably that adult does not have “Koehr”, “Mulhern” or “Palazzo” in his or her name.
- RSVP for Team Meals including the Thursday morning IHOP team breakfast.
- Get a hotel room out of the Seton Swimming block.
- See the Everything You Need to Know document for details but do it soon!
- Sign up to volunteer in some capacity (coming soon).
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 – let’s make the most of them!
Coach Jim Koehr