On Thursday morning in Annapolis, Maryland, I gave the Eulogy at my father’s funeral. Coach Patrick Mulhern sang for my mother.
On Saturday morning, my father gave the pre-Meet speech – through me. My father always spoke of giving the maximum possible effort to do your best and to “Bloom where you are planted.” Through me, he told all of you to “do the best you can today, whatever that is” and to “find an opportunity to make a difference”. Here is the video that Mr. Fifield secretly took.
As you will read in this blog post, I feel like we can justifiably be proud that we did as my father asked. 130 new Personal Records does not even tell the whole story, but it is certainly a great indicator.
First, let’s say congratulations to our Seton Boys who won the Regular Season VCAC Conference Championship handily even though we did not have the top swimmers in the meet. I just love how our boys all push each other to higher levels of excellence in a healthy competition for post-season relay spots. It is Meekness in action. I apologize for not focusing on you during the pre-meet activities or the livestream, but that’s because I wasn’t worried about you guys at all. Your captains are doing a great job of keeping you focused, and with your depth, I knew that no one could touch you. I hope you understand.
The Seton Girls had a whole different competitive situation on their hands, and that is why it drew almost all my attention. Trinity Christian School has been a great rival since they first come into our conference for the ’15-’16 season, and this year, they are particularly strong. In fact, 4 of the top 5 swimmers between our two teams swim for them.
With the help of Coach Ross Palazzo and Coach Scott Kay in particular, I thought we had cracked the code. Yes, the girls would have to swim unusually well, which they did, but we were also going to have to limit the damage done by Trinity Christian’s all-powerful relays. They had the horsepower to win all three (3) relays if they chose – our relays are not even close when they load theirs up with their top girls – so, we decided to make sure that we got 2nd and 3rd.
That strategy, known as “splitting your relays”, comes out of the scoring system for 3+ Dual meets. Each team gets an “A” and a “B” Relay and the top 3 finishers between each combination of teams scores 10-5-3. So, if they took first and we took 2nd and 3rd, we would only lose that event 10-8. Across three relays, that would be a loss by only 6 points which could be made up by our depth in the individual events.
We decided to do this because of the danger of them getting 1st and 3rd in all three (3) relays. If that happened, we would have lost each relay 13-5 or a loss of 24 points across all three (3). That would have been a killer.
Splitting our relays was a very risky strategy, but we felt like their relays were so much faster than ours, that we had to take a risk if we were going to have a chance to win. What makes it risky? Because they could split theirs too and still take 1st and 3rd. You don’t get any more points for winning by a length of the pool, so when you are very dominate like Trinity Christian, it is a strategy often employed to take maximum advantage of that dominance.
Our strategy almost worked to perfection.
In the Girls 200 Medley Relay, we moved Elodie Brox (JR) down to anchor the “B” Relay with Haley Fifield (JR), Rose Waldron (JR), and Sophia Halisky (8), and we moved young Kyleigh Fifield (FR) up to anchor the “A” Relay with our top girls, Ariana Aldeguer (FR), Clara Condon (JR), and Stella Paradise (SR). Trinity Christian put an “A” Relay in the water that 1:51.35, a time that would have placed 5th at States last year, so there was no way we were going to touch that. All eight (8) girls swam their fastest splits of the season, and the result was exactly as planned – 2nd and 3rd.
Trinity Christian’s superstar Allie Witdoeckt (SR) was on that medley relay, so we had to decide what to do with the two (2) Freestyle Relays knowing that she would not be on one of them. Had they not used Allie on the Medley Relay, the decision would have been easy, but would we be giving up a chance to win one of these last two relays?
We were ahead of the scoring on the Psych Sheet, so we decided that it was important not to risk them getting 1st and 3rd – we decided to split both the Freestyle Relays too.
For the 200 Free Relay, we once again moved Elodie Brox (JR) down to the “B” Relay with Philomena Kay (FR), Maggie Schroer (8), and Kyleigh Fifield (FR). In an inspired choice that we had no idea would be so inspired, the girl from “B” Relay that we decided to move up to the “A” Relay was Lucia Bingham (JR). Lucia joined Stella Paradise (SR), Maggie Gibbons (SR), and Gigi Hill (SO) to form a relay that almost won! The first three girls on “A” relay gave Lucia a pretty good lead, but Trinity’s 2nd fastest sprinter, Audrey Schlieter (SO) was on the back-end of their relay. Lucia split an unbelievable 27.37 (her previous best was 29.08) and was just out-touched by 5-hundreths of a second. The meet would have been effectively over had Audrey not delivered that anchor leg, so it is no exaggeration to say that this meet came down to 5-hundreths of a second! Elodie’s tremendous 25.79 split (her previous best wa 26.65) ensured 3rd place.
Right before the 400 Free Relay, the final event of the Meet, Mr. Kleb announced that the score for the Girls was 150-147, Seton over Trinity Christian. That meant that if we got our planned 2nd and 3rd, we’d lose the event 10-8, but win the meet 158-157. I’m definitely going to have to get new glasses, because it was very frustrating not being able to read the Trinity Swim Caps on their “A” Relay.
I didn’t need good vision to recognize Allie Witdoeckt (SR) behind the blocks, but as soon as I figured out that they had put Allie Wiggins (SO), Kristen Womack (SR), and Audrey Schlieter (SO) with Allie on their “A” Relay, I knew immediately that they didn’t have enough horsepower left to beat our “B” Relay.
We had it! Or so I thought.
When the final Meet Scores were slow to be announced, I learned that it was because of a disqualification – early take-off in lane 9. That was us. The DQ slip had two (2) signatures on it, so it was dual confirmed – triple confirmed actually – so we are going with the call without complaint.
That gave 3rd place back to Trinity Christian and flipped the score back by 6-points. So, instead of us winning by 1-point, they won by 5-points.
God sure does have interesting ways to humble long-time swimming coaches. I have said in public many times that if you gave it your all in preparation and in competition, and you still got beaten by a better team, then you can be completely justified in being happy for your opponent. I guess this was God’s way of testing my sincerity, because I certainly think that we went all-in on preparation and all-in for the competition.
Congratulations to the Trinity Christian School girls for your ’23-’24 Regular Season conference championship. This is the second year in a row that it came down to the final relay and the second year in a row that their “B” 400 Free Relay beating our “B” 400 Free Relay was the final difference.
We’ll see you for the rematch at VCAC Champs at the Freedom Center on February 10th. Seton has won either the Regular Season or the Conference Championship Meet 29 years in a row. Will the streak reach 30 years?
Here are how the scores turned out for us on Saturday:
Girls
Trinity Christian 160 Seton Swimming 155
Seton Swimming 200.5 Oakcrest 114.5
Seton Swimming 225 Saint John Paul the Great 48
Seton Swimming 235 Fredericksburg Christian 58
Seton Swimming 237 Immanuel Christian 42
Boys
Seton Swimming 173 Trinity Christian 141
Seton Swimming 207 Immanuel Christian 102
Seton Swimming 245 Saint John Paul the Great 42
Seton Swimming 247 Fredericksburg Christian 29
The Difference Makers for the Girls in the Individual Events
The score of a Meet like this is the result of many small performances that add up to the whole. We knew it was going to be very close because when we scored the Psych Sheet (i.e., Scoring the Meet as if everyone swam exactly their seed times), Seton looked like clear victors against everyone except the Trinity Christian girls who looked like they could score 11-points more than us.
For those of you listening the livestream, you heard me doing this in real-time – I was adding up the plusses and minuses to see if we could make up those 11-points. Here are the great individual performances that resulted in the extra points that made the difference – until they didn’t:
- Girls 200 Freestyle
- After taking our 2nd and 3rd seeds in the 200 Medley Relay, we moved on to the first individual event, the 200 Free.
- This was the first time we got to see Allie Witdoeckt (SR) from Trinity Christian in an individual event. She we 1:51.51 to break the Trinity team record (I assume).
- Maggie Gibbons (SR) held her 2nd place seed versus Trinity Christian, but it took a 4.50 second PR to do it.
- Gigi Hill (SO) held her seed with a .50 second PR.
- Maggie Schroer (8) dropped an incredible 10.91 seconds in 200 Free to jump from a projected 6th place versus Trinity Christian all the way up to 3rd! By jumping ahead of two (2) Trinity girls, her swim swung the score our direction by 4-points.
- Lucy Cunningham (JR) also beat two (2) Trinity girls that she was not seeded to beat swinging the score another 4-points in our direction. She did it with a 7.56 second PR.
- Between Maggie and Lucy, we won the event 17-12 when we were seeded to lose it 16-13. We had already made up 8- of the 11-points we needed to close the gap on the Psych Sheet score. It was a great way to start the meet!
- Girls 200 IM
- Ariana Aldeguer (FR) won this event by a wide margin, as expected.
- Clara Condon (JR) had a great swim, beating her season-best time by 7.70 seconds to jump from the 4th seed to 3rd, flipping another 2-points to Seton.
- Philomena Kay (FR) and Madelyn Zadnik (SR) held their 6th and 7th place seeds with PRs of 1.39 seconds and 1.35 seconds, respectively.
- At this point, we were feeling very good because we had already made up 10- of the 11-points after only three (3) events.
- Girls 50 Free
- Kristen Womack (SR) from Trinity Christian had the swim of her season in this event, dropping 1.68 seconds to jump from the 4th seed to 1st! It was a heck of swim with her grandparents watching it on the livestream.
- Allie Wiggins (SO) from Trinity Christian held her 2nd seed resulting in Trinity getting both 1st and 2nd.
- Elodie Brox (JR) swam a .28 second PR to take 4th.
- Kyleigh Fifield (FR) was the highlight of the event for Seton when her .39 second PR not only jumped from the 7th seed to 6th place, but it also qualified her for National Catholics.
- Mary Catherine Hurley (JR) swam a .04 second PR and just missed out on scoring in 7th
- But despite three of our four girls swimming PRs, Kristen Womack’s swim resulted in a 6-point swing back to Trinity Christian. All credit to Kristen here. The ground we had made up on the Psych Sheet was reduced to 4- of the 11-points we need.
- Girls Diving
- Rose Waldron (JR) used a great final front 2 somersaults in the tuck position to jump from the 2nd seed versus Trinity to 1st. With some other shifting of finishers, that resulted in another 2-point swing back to Seton.
- At this point in the scoring (diving was actually before the swimming), we had overcome 6- of the required 11-points we needed to make up our Psych Sheet deficit.
- Girls 100 Butterfly
- Clara Condon (JR) stepped up a second time in 100 Fly by taking 1st place from her 2nd place seed after beating her season best time by 1.84 seconds. Because 1st and 2nd score 8-points and 6-points, respectively, that was a 4-point swing.
- Our other three (3) girls all held their seeds with strong swims. Lucia Bingham (JR) took 4th with a time right on her PR, Sophia Halisky (8) took 5th with a .19 second PR, and Madelyn Zadnik (SR) took 6th with a .64 second PR.
- So, netting out the changes, we had made up 10- of the 11-points we needed to find from the Psych Sheet.
- Girls 100 Freestyle
- Ariana Aldeguer (FR) did her job, taking 1st place versus Trinity Christian. No surprise there.
- Haley Fifield (JR) and Maggie Schroer (8) held their seeds with PRs of .58 seconds and 3.42 seconds. Those were a pair of very strong swings, particularly that huge PR from Maggie.
- Mary Bailey (SR) from Trinity Christian was the difference maker in this event. Her .80 second PR jumped her from the 4th seed to 3rd
- Thanks to Mary Bailey, that was another 2-point swing back to Trinity Christian, so now we were back to having made up 8- of the 11-points we needed to find.
- Girls 500 Free
- The finishes in this event were quite a bit different than the Psych Sheet, but the net of it all was another 2-point swing towards Trinity Christian.
- Allie Witdoeckt (SR) from Trinity Christian had the stand-out performance of the Meet for the girls with a new Trinity team record in the 500 Free – 4:58.71 (not a typo). Congratulations Allie!
- Stella Paradise (SR) showed what I knew she could do in the 500 with a 13.67 second PR that put her well under 6:00. That swim held the 2nd
- Philomena Kay (FR) delivered her scheduled 5-points, but it took a 6.14 second PR to do it.
- Kyleigh Fifield (FR) had her 2nd great swim of the Meet. I seeded her at 7:30 with a coaches time in this event, and she stunned me with a 6:48.44. That jumped her from the non-scoring 8th place up to 6th place or 2-points.
- Two Trinity Christian swimmers, Eloise Schlieter (FR) and Bella Yaroschak (SR) both had season-best times, by 13.08 and 6.22 seconds, respectively, and jumped from the 6th and 7th seeds up to 4th and 5th.
- With that 2-point swing back towards Trinity, we had made up only 6- of the 11-points we needed.
- The next event was the 200 Free Relay which we already discussed. We were supposed to lose that event 13-5, but by taking 2nd and 3rd, we only lost it 10-8. That 6-point swing got us up to 12- of the 11-points we needed. If everything played out like the Psych Sheet the rest of the way, we would win by 1-point.
- Girls 100 Backstroke
- At this point in the Meet, I was already thinking about that 400 Free Relay. The Psych Sheet had Trinity Christian getting 1st and 3rd to win the event 13-5, but I knew we had split our relays and were more like to lose the event only 10-8, a 6-point swing. So, I was thinking we just had to hold our own the rest of the way to win by 7-points. That would prove to be harder than I would have guessed.
- Our challenges started with Karis Witdoeckt’s (JR)91 second PR that jumped her from 3rd seed to 2nd place.
- Fortunately, Maggie Gibbons (SR) came up with a 2.26 second PR to hold her 4th She needed PR because Eloise Schlieter (FR) dropped 2.84 seconds and almost jumped up from her 5th seed.
- Lucia Bingham (JR) and Elizabeth Hurley (8) held their 6th and 7th place seeds with PRs of 2.11 seconds and .18 seconds, respectively.
- But Karis’ great swim swung the scoring by another 2-points back to Trinity Christian reducing the number of points we’d made up to 10- of the 11-points required. If everything played out like the Psych Sheet from this point on, we’d lose by 1-point. But I was still thinking we had 6-points coming in the 400 Free Relay.
- Girls 100 Breaststroke
- This turned out to be a very good event for Trinity Christian beginning with Liz Klanderman (JR) from Trinity Christian holding her top seed with a .64 second PR.
- Fortunately, Elodie Brox (JR) swam a 1.07 second PR to jump up to 2nd place, but Trinity Christian had an answer.
- Maggi Hsieh (FR), with her grandparents watching on the livestream, crushed her Personal Record by 6.52 seconds to jump up from the 4th seed to 3rd, pushing one of our girls down by one place.
- Sophia Halisky (8) held her 5th seed with a big 4.87 second PR.
- But Trinity Christian had one more trick to win. Sophia Bang (8) swam a huge 5.54 second PR to jump from the non-scoring 8th seed to 7th
- The net of the whole event was another 4-point swing towards Trinity Christian. That means we had now made up 6- of the 11-points we needed to win.
Going into the final Girls 400 Free Relay, we needed 5-points beyond what the Psych Sheet showed, and I thought we had six (6) – until we didn’t.
Does anyone see a lesson in all of this? I do.
Sure, the Ariana Aldeguer’s and Allie Witdoeckt’s are going to do their amazing things, but was that the difference here? No. It was swimmers like Maggie Schroer (8), Lucy Cunningham (JR), Clara Condon (JR), Kyleigh Fifield (FR), Philomena Kay (FR), Maggie Gibbons (SR), Elodie Brox (JR) Lucia Bingham (JR), Rose Waldron (SR) and others battling it out for sometimes just 1- or 2-points from a 4th, 5th, or 6th place.
They were battling with swimmers you don’t always hear about from Trinity Christian too. I might have expected swimmers like Kristen Womack (SR), Audrey Schlieter (SO) and Allie Wiggins (SO) to make a big difference, but I’ll bet that Maggi Hsieh (FR), Sophia Bang (8), Eloise Schlieter (FR), Mary Bailey (SR), Karis Witdoeckt (JR), Bella Yaroschak (SR), or even Liz Klanderman (JR) didn’t come to the pool thinking that their particular swim was going to turn the tide for their team.
In a sport where taking a 7th-place can flip the score by 2-points, everyone counts. And you never know until after the fact how much your swim will matter.
It is just another of the countless examples I’ve witnessed of how wise my father’s counsel to “Bloom Where You are Planted” can be. You just never know when the Lord is going to put you in a place where your beauty can make a real difference in someone’s life.
Believe It Or Not, Our Boys Competed Too
The Boys won the VCAC Regular season championship handily, as I expected, but it wasn’t without some outstanding swimming from a group of highly motivated and rapidly improving boys. I am so pleased with the way these boys have jelled as a team and are pushing each other to excellence.
This attitude of meekness on the boy’s team is most evident in the relays where they all continue to push each other for slots on our championship “A” Relays. Here were some of the great relay performances we saw from our Conference Champion Boys:
- Boys 200 Medley “A” Relay of Connor Koehr (JR), Andrew Nguyen (JR), Lionel Martinez (FR), and Michael Brox (JR) went 1:44.58 on a previous season-best 1:47.48. All four (4) of them swam life-time best relay splits. Connor went 26.98 in 50 Back, a drop of .94 seconds. Drew went 30.12 in 50 Breaststroke, a drop of .67. Lionel split 24.33 in 50 Fly, a drop of .14, and Michael anchored in 23.15, a drop of .13. That took 2nd place overall behind a very fast relay from Trinity Christian School. Tyler Phillips (SO) split an unbelievable 22.79 in 50 Fly.
- Boys 200 Medley “B” Relay took 3rd overall with another four (4) lifetime-best relay splits. Max Wilson (JR) cut .32 seconds to go 27.74 in 50 Back, Luke Mantooth (SR) cut .06 seconds to go 31.61 in 50 Breaststroke, Joe Borneman (JR) cut .18 seconds in 50 Fly to go 26.54, and Liam Halisky (JR) cut .55 seconds in 50 Free to split 23.26.
- Boys 200 Free “B” Relay of Thiago Martinez (8), Daniel Sokban (FR), Luke Mantooth (SR), and Drew Nguyen (JR) took 3rd overall PRs from 3 out of 4 of the swimmers. Thiago cut .13 seconds, Daniel cut .53 seconds, and Drew cut .56 seconds. Our “A” Relay had a bit of a mishap that we’ve discussed already 😉
- Boys 400 Free “A” Relay took 3rd overall at 3:45.62. We missed splits from Connor Koehr (JR), and Peter Konstanty (SR) on this relay, but we could see that Thiago Martinez (8) dropped .68 seconds and Max Wilson (JR) dropped .26 seconds.
- Boys 400 Free “B” Relay of William Sokban (JR), Jack Herwick (8), Luke Partridge (FR), and Daniel Sokban (FR) took 5th overall with 3 out of 4 of them swimming lifetime best 100 Free relay splits. William cut .50 seconds, Jack cut .56 seconds, and Daniel cut a whopping 4.94 seconds! Daniel’s split of 55.47 might put him on at least the “B” 400 Free Relay at States
Individually, our boys performed exceptionally well too. Here were some of the most outstanding scoring swims that I saw:
- Lionel Martinez (FR) doesn’t swim like a freshman, and he’s only getting better. He swam 200 IM 2.44 seconds faster than he did at States last year. His 2:01.80 took 2nd place overall and should score again at States. He also took 3rd in 100 Back.
- Connor Koehr (JR) continues to dominate VCAC Diving, taking 1st place by a strong margin on Saturday. He also continues to excel in the water. No only did he break :27 in 50 Backstroke leading off a medley relay, he cut 16.06 seconds in 200 Free. Had I not had him entered in 200 Free as exhibition, he would have placed 3rd overall – he surprised even me!
- Michael Brox (JR) had two superior swims, taking 2nd place overall in both of them. In the 200 Free, he broke 2:00 for the first time with a 9.91 second PR, and in the 100 Free he crashed through :53 with a 2.10 second PR. 26 is the 2nd fastest 100 Freestyle on the team right now.
- Liam Halisky (JR) rocked his 50 Free, going 24.00 to take 2nd place overall. That swim was a .86 second PR. Liam also scored in 4th place overall in 100 Free.
- Joseph Borneman (JR) also had a great swim in 50 Free, going 24.21 after dropping .61 seconds. He also dropped 1.65 seconds in 100 Fly, just missing the State cut by .11 seconds. He’ll get it!
- Max Wilson (JR) continues to have a stellar season. He had three (3) PRs on Saturday including in 50 Back leading off a relay, by .33 seconds, in 50 Free, by .11 seconds, and in 100 Fly, by .46 seconds. His Free and Fly swims were good enough for 7th and 5th place finishes, overall.
- Daniel Sokban (FR) has announced himself as a serious player on our team now. He took 3rd overall in 200 Free with a 6.36 second PR, and he took 9th in 50 Free with a .54 second PR. His 50 Free time of 25.06 and his best split of 24.63 puts him in the top-8 of male sprinters meaning he may end up on at least the “B” 200 Free Relay at States also.
- Thiago Martinez (8) went 2:12.97 in 200 IM, a time that is very fast for an 8th grader, and even fast for Thiago – in fact, it was 2.29 seconds faster than his previous best. Thiago also took 2nd place overall in the 500 Free with a 6.42 second PR. His walls on were so good on the 500 – he was well past the flags on every turn.
- Peter Konstanty (SR) took advantage of the “opportunity” we discussed in our pre-meet meeting with his 1.01 second PR in 200 Free to score in 4th place overall.
- Dominic Judge (FR) also knows how to take advantage of opportunities in the least popular events. He swam both the 200 Free and the 500 Free, scored in 6th place and 3rd place overall, and swam big PRs in both. In the 200 Free he cut 2.43 seconds, and in the 500 Free he cut 8.83 seconds.
- Patrick Kay (8) is doing the things that are required to make our post-season varsity team, including three (3) PRs on Saturday. In the 200 IM, he cut 3.82 seconds to take 6th He also dropped 1.43 seconds in 50 Back leading off a medley relay and 1.35 seconds in 50 Free in a 200 Free Relay.
- Jack Herwick (8) is another young swimmer that is getting the attention of the coaches. His .29 second PR in 200 IM and his 1.88 second PR in 100 Free scored in 7th and 9th
- Jed Albin (SR) dropped 2.15 seconds in 100 Backstroke to score in 10th place overall. He also had a 5.04 second PR in 100 Fly that would have scored in 10th place overall had he been official.
- Luke Partridge (FR) had a strong swim in 100 Breaststroke, scoring in 8th place overall after a .97 second PR.
- Drew Nguyen (JR) scored in 3rd place overall in both 100 Breaststroke and 100 Free.
- Mick Fioramonti (SR) took 3rd overall in diving.
- Luke Mantooth (SR) scored in 5th in 100 Breaststroke and 6th in 100 Fly.
Another Week with Some Unbelievable Personal Records on Saturday
It seems like every week, as I look down the Individual Results report, I see some Personal Records that make me want to go back and double-check the result:
- Rosie DeWolf (7) had an insane 84.76 second PR in 100 Breaststroke! She also dropped a massive 11.43 seconds in 100 Free. Great meet Rosie!
- Walter Saffian (JR) was incredible on Saturday, beating his previous best in 200 Free by more than a minute! (62.83 seconds to be exact).
- Kyleigh Fifield (FR) was already mentioned, but I thought her 55.03 second PR in 500 Free deserved another mention in this section 😉
- Aoife Haggerty (FR) had an amazing drop in 200 Free – by 41.92 seconds. She also had a great swim in her first attempt at 100 Fly.
- Patrick Judge (FR) cut a massive 25.13 seconds from his 100 Breaststroke PR.
- Maggie Mikkelson (6) showed great heart during the 200 Free where she dropped 20.64 seconds. She also dropped .24 seconds in 100 Free.
- Jack Gregory (SR) had a big meet with two (2) huge PRs. In 200 Free he dropped 19.87 seconds and in 100 Back he dropped 7.38 seconds.
- Claire Kay (6) was awesome in 200 Free, dropping 16.42 seconds. She also was awesome in 100 Breaststroke with her 7.70 second drop.
- Michael Zahorchak (FR) showed big improvement in Butterfly with his 12.59 second PR in 100 Fly. He also cut 3.20 seconds in 100 Breaststroke.
- Katie Bauer (8) dropped an amazing 20.60 seconds in 200 IM, and almost as impressive, she dropped 4.49 seconds in 100 Free.
- Greg Bauer (SO) continues to fight to get on the post-season Varsity team, and if he has more week’s like this past week, he’s going to make it. How about an 11.05 second PR in 50 Back leading off a relay, a 4.50 second PR in 100 Back, and a .98 second PR in 50 Free!? His 50 Free split of 25.52 is now the 11th fastest on the team.
- Molly Bauer (JR) completed the Bauer-Family trifecta with an 11.12 second PR in 100 Free.
- Mary Clare Osilka (SO) must be coaching herself in addition to Group 5, because she had a massive improvement in 200 Free, dropping 16.26 seconds.
- Joseph Minarik (SR) had to race off to an Eagle Scout Court of Honor, but he still had time to swim 200 Free 14.11 seconds faster than ever before.
- Stella Paradise (SR) was already mentioned for this, but I’ll repeat it because I was so pleased with her 13.67 second drop in 500 Free.
- Orla Haggerty (JR) had a great swim in 100 Fly, beating her previous best by 12.94 seconds. She also beat her previous bests in 100 Breast by 8.38 seconds and in 50 Back leading off a Medley relay by 2.88 seconds. It was a great day for Orla!
- Jane Judge (8) had a big meet this weekend with two (2) big Personal Records. In 100 Breaststroke she dropped 11.99 seconds, and in 100 Fly she dropped 4.81 seconds!
130 New Personal Records
There were loads of other Personal Records on Saturday also. With 130 this week, our total for the season is now up to 766 Personal Records! Dramatic individual improvement continues to the hallmark of Seton Swimming and Diving:
- Angela Andreu (8) beat her previous PR in 100 Free by 1.65 seconds.
- Sage Armstrong (FR) dropped 6.10 seconds in 100 Breaststroke.
- Jenny Baughman (7) lowered her 100 Back PR by 4.05 seconds.
- Mariana Bingham (FR) beat her PR in 200 IM by 5.57 seconds.
- Meg Blanchette (JR) cut 3.49 seconds in 100 Breaststroke. She also had a great 1st-time swim in 100 Fly.
- Joel Bookwalter (JR) swam two (2) PRs on Saturday. He dropped .96 seconds in 50 Free and .70 seconds in 100 Free.
- Caroline Brand (FR) did great job in her first attempt at 100 Fly.
- Ben Ellis (FR) 94 seconds in 100 Breaststroke and .69 seconds in 50 Free.
- Luke Fifield (7) had a great Meet on Saturday with a 9.25 second PR in 100 Back and a 5.13 second PR in 100 Free.
- Veronica Gonzalez (8) dropped 8.51 seconds in 100 Back. Nice job!
- Eamon Haggerty (7) looked better than ever in 50 Free, lowering his PR by 1.49 seconds.
- Clare Heiny (8) cut 4.12 seconds from her 100 Breaststroke PR. She also had a great first-time swim in 100 Fly.
- Elizabeth Hurley (8) had four (4) PRs on Saturday! In 50 Back leading off Medley Relay she cut 2.46 seconds, in 100 Fly she cut 3.89 seconds, in 50 Free leading off a relay she cut .52 seconds, and in 100 Back she cut .18 seconds.
- Mary Catherine Hurley (JR) dropped 2.90 seconds in 100 Free, .84 seconds in 50 Back leading off a Medley Relay, and .04 seconds in 50 Free.
- Dan Jackson (FR) improved his best diving score by 11.45-points
- Daniel Kohlhaas (7) lowered his 50 Free PR by .92 seconds.
- Sofia Kohlhaas (8) beat her 100 Breaststroke PR by 8.25 seconds and her 50 Free PR by .60 seconds.
- Joey Lynch (8) cut 6.05 seconds in 100 Back and .15 seconds in 50 Free
- Avila Mantooth (8) dropped 4.17 seconds in 100 Breaststroke and .84 seconds in 50 Free leading off a relay.
- Julia Maranian (8) improved her previous best time in 100 Free by 3.51 seconds.
- Evie Mayer (7) lowered her 50 Free PR by .11 seconds.
- Annabelle Mikkelson (7) dropped 2.22 seconds in 100 Back and .10 seconds in 50 Free.
- Kenneth Nguyen (FR) beat his previous PR in 50 Free by .48 seconds.
- Evan Rodriguez (JR) cut .17 seconds in 100 Free.
- Noemi Rodriguez (FR) had good swims in 100 Free and 50 Free where she dropped 6.12 seconds and 1.39 seconds, respectively.
- Anna Russo (JR) beat her previous high score for 6-dives by 20.10-points.
- Briana Schillingburg (JR) lowered her 100 Free PR by 9.97 seconds and her 50 Free PR by .24 seconds.
- Lily Waldron (8) beat her PR in 100 Breaststroke by 2.75 seconds.
- Grace Catabui (6) cut 5.02 seconds in 100 Breaststroke.
- Katie Cooley (6) dropped 1.21 seconds in 50 Free and .92 seconds in 100 Free.
- Thomas Keapproth (7) swam 100 Breaststroke 1.11 seconds faster than ever before.
- Audrey Mayer (6) lowered her PR in 50 Free by 2.47 seconds.
- James Nguyen (6) cut 1.24 seconds in 100 Free.
- Paul Partridge (6) swam two PRs. In 50 Free he dropped .35 seconds, and in 100 Breast he dropped .09 seconds.
- Caroline Schroer (6) beat her previous best in 50 Free by 1.44 seconds while leading off a relay.
Championship Meet Qualifiers
Recall that there are two championship meets that are unique in that, to qualify, you or your relay must beat a qualification time at a high school meet during the current season. Those meets are:
- The National Catholic High School Championship at Loyola University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD on January 13-14, 2024 (aka “National Catholics”)
- The VISAA State Swimming & Diving Championship at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center in Christiansburg, VA on February 16-17, 2024. (aka “States”)
Seton will go to both these meets and Trinity Meadow View will only go to States.
I have posted both the qualification standards and the qualifying swimmers under Meet Information for both Meets.
Congratulations to Seton’s 2024 National Catholic Championship Team. Entries are now final. Here is the final team that we are talking to Baltimore. (New individual qualifiers are in bold):
- Swimmers
- Ariana Aldeguer (FR)
- Elodie Brox (JR)
- Clara Condon (JR)
- Haley Fifield (JR)
- Kyleigh Fifield (FR)
- Anastasia Garvey (SO)
- Maggie Gibbons (SR)
- Giselle Hill (SO)
- Philomena Kay (FR)
- Stella Paradise (SR)
- Rose Waldron JR)
- Joseph Borneman (JR)
- Michael Brox (JR)
- Liam Halisky (JR)
- Connor Koehr (JR)
- Luke Mantooth (SR)
- Lionel Martinez (SR)
- Thiago Martinez FR)
- Andrew Nguyen (JR)
- Max Wilson (JR)
- Divers
- Connor Koehr (JR)
- Mick Fioramonti (SR)
- Jacob Oswald (JR)
- Max Gonzalez (JR)
- Gus Kohlhaas (JR)
- Philip Gomez (JR)
- Rose Waldron (JR)
- Maria Miller (SO)
- Meghan Condon (8)
- Elizabeth Francis (JR)
Logistics and a detailed schedule for the trip to Baltimore are posted under Meet Information. Please note that there are actions to be completed by each team member.
And here is where Seton currently stands on individual qualifiers for the VISAA State Championship Meet (new qualifiers in bold):
- Michael Brox (JR)
- Liam Halisky (JR)
- Connor Koehr (JR)
- Lionel Martinez (FR)
- Thiago Martinez (8)
- Ariana Aldeguer (FR)
- Elodie Brox (JR)
- Clara Condon (JR)
- Stella Paradise (SR)
- Boys and Girls 200 Medley Relays, both A and B
- Boys and Girls 200 Free Relay, both A and B
- Boys and Girls 400 Free Relay, both A and B
I expect this list to get longer. We have now qualified at least eight (8) swimmers required to enter both an “A” and “B” relay in every relay event. Remember that we will be putting the fastest possible relays in the water which means most of the top swimmers will be swimming all three (3) relays. The exception will be Ariana Aldeguer (FR) and possibly Lionel Martinez (FR) because they may be able to generate more points swimming two (2) individual events.
For Diving, to qualify you must be able to do 11 Dives from all five (5) categories and demonstrate that you scored at least 2.5 on each one of them. Plus, you must have scored at least 140.00 in a 6-Dive Meet or 200.00 in an 11-Dive Meet. The Divers that have qualified so far are:
- Connor Koehr (JR)
- Mick Fioramonti (SR)
- Jacob Oswald (JR)
- Gus Kohlhaas (JR)
- Max Gonzalez (JR)
- Rose Waldron (JR)
We are now approaching the championship portion of the season with three (3) weeks left for all but the post-season Varsity team. Let’s make the most of it!
See you at practice,
Coach Jim Koehr