I’ve always said that if everyone swims their personal best times, then the winning will take care of itself – and that was definitely the case on Saturday with Seton swimming 85 total personal records!
With only five (5) individual first place finishes overall, we managed to sweep the seven (7) teams that joined us at the Freedom Center. A close look at the results reveals how: Even though other teams would often finish ahead our top swimmer, we’d come in right behind them with 2nd thru 5th or 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th. And with those kind of finishes, we’d actually win the event (See “So How Do you Score a High School Swim Meet Anyway” in Coach Koehr’s Corner)
Here is the way the final results shook out:
Boys
Seton 216 Middleburg Academy 39
Seton 203.5 Highland 51.50
Seton 201 Benedictine 48
Seton 198 Wakefield School 58
Seton 186.5 St. Michael 80.50
Seton 182 Fredericksburg Christian 100
Seton 163 Pope John Paul 92
Girls
Seton 224 Middleburg Academy 27
Seton 218 Highland 31
Seton 216 Wakefield School 37
Seton 203 St. Michael 61
Seton 194 Fredericksburg Christian 75
Seton 194 Pope John Paul 67
Top Performances
There were so many great swims, that it is difficult to single out just a few, but here’s an attempt to highlight some of the most outstanding performances that I saw:
- Joe Kosten had one of his best performances as a Seton swimmer on Saturday. In the 200 Free, he was seeded far behind the top seed, but after dropping 12.13 seconds, he ended up finishing in a relatively close 2nd and nearly qualifying for our post season championships. And in 100 Fly, he cut 7.24 seconds to take 1st place overall and again nearly qualifying for States and National Catholics. We hear about drops like this fairly regularly, but we don’t usually see these kind of drops from the most competitive swimmers because they are already going so fast. Very nice work Joe!
- Kimberly Rector also took a 1st and 2nd overall with two really fine races. In the 200 Free, she dropped 4.04 seconds and took 1st place by a wide margin. She also got her State and National Catholic cut in the event. Then in the 500, she was seeded far behind the top seed, but with a 5.03 second PR, made it a race and just barely missed breaking 6:00. In the process, she got the State cut. And she wasn’t done yet. Leading off the 400 Free relay, after that big workload, she still managed to swim a PR. It was a great day for Kimberly!
- Alex Sinner took 1st place overall in 100 Free by a fairly wide margin, but I thought her best race was in 100 Back where, in spite of a 2nd place finish overall, she had a personal record 1:06.46. That’s a time that is going to score some good points for us. Because Alex’s backstroke looks so strong, we tried her as the lead-off for our medley relay and it worked very well – we dropped 5 seconds in the event and took 1st
- Claire Kenna took 1st place overall in 50 Free and 2nd place overall in 100 Breaststroke after her .29 second PR in the event. Look at that picture of Daniel on the home page Claire – do that and you’ll get yet another PR.
- Jillian Ceol might be finding a home in the more difficult events. I was extremely pleased with her 100 Fly where she dropped 5.13 seconds to take 3rd place overall. In 200 IM, Jillian took 2nd place overall after a 1.36 second PR.
- Andrew Quinan did a really fine job in his first attempt at the 500 Free. A 7:40 is a pretty impressive time for a first-time freshman. Now that he has a better understanding of his capability level, I’ll be looking for a big PR the next time he swims it! Andrew also cut 1.38 seconds from his 50 Free PR.
- Patrick Koehr’s backstroke has never looked better than it did on Saturday. It was so much better that I had to do a double take. And it showed in the final results. After dropping 3.24 seconds, he finished 2nd It was a very fine swim.
- Brian Koehr continues to shine. On Saturday, he broke 1:00 in 100 Free for the first time after dropping 1.63 seconds. His time is now within only 2 seconds of oldest brother Kevin at this point in his career and right on pace with brother’s Sean and Daniel. With his focus on this sport, I think we could see some really good things in the future for Brian. He also cut 3.57 seconds in 100 Breast to go 1:14 and take 3rd place overall – Brian is going to score a lot of points for us this season.
- Dani Flook rocked every time she hit the water. In the 500 Free, she cut 24.79 seconds to take 5th overall, a very strong performance for an 8th Just prior, she took 6th overall in 100 Fly with 3.92 second PR, and that was after her 2.13 second PR in 50 Back leading off the medley. She seems focused this season.
- Anna Kenna (7) popped a 30.68 in 50 Back leading off the medley relay which was 1.52 seconds faster than her previous best. I’ll bet most of that drop was made within the 1st 10 yards off of each wall – she’s getting very good underwater. Of all the medley relay lead-off swimmers in the meet, only the Benedictine boys lead-off swam 50 back faster than Anna.
- John O’Donohue has really come a great distance with his strokes, and now he is swimming very well. His 100 Free is now down to 1:11, which is 6.31 seconds faster than ever before. He also took another 1.80 seconds off of his 100 Free to break 30 seconds for the 1st John’s level of improvement has been very impressive so far this season.
- Those Fioramonti boys (Mark, Matt and Joe) are really taking to the sport of swimming well. I’m sitting at a wrestling meet as I type with some younger Fioramonti’s and Koehr’s sharing with their father how impressive they have looked, especially for 1st year swimmers. These kids are just good athletes.
Another Great Weekend of Personal Records! 85 in All!
This was the second week in row where we tallied a very large number of PRs – nothing pleases me more.
Below is an enumeration of the great performances not already mentioned that made up this total:
- William Arnold is really showing me something this season. In the 500 on Saturday, he cut another 28.09 seconds which scored a good number of points for us.
- Ashley Cackett (7) continues to get better. How do you drop 2.08 seconds in 50 Free? By listening and working hard in practice, that’s how.
- Mary Camarca is another one who knows how to work in practice (really, she does Tommy), and for her effort she swam a .50 second PR in 50 Free leading off a relay and a .20 second PR in 100 Free
- David Catabui (7) lowered his 100 Free PR by a significant 16.85 seconds!
- Ben Ceol (7) continues to impress me. He must have learned something this past week because he cut 7.56 seconds from his 100 Breaststroke PR – that’s a lot! He also cut another .82 seconds from his 100 Free PR.
- Tim Costello cut 6.78 seconds from his 100 Breaststroke PR. Just wait until we work on those turns Tim!
- Kalli Dalrymple (7) had 2 PRs including a 2.22 second drop in 100 Back and a .25 second drop in 50 Free.
- Ben Dealey (7) had a great swim in the 100 Free where he finished 2.67 seconds faster than ever before. He also PR’d in 50 Free by .20 seconds.
- Patrick Dealey also shined in the 100 Free with his own 4.53 second PR combined with his .70 second PR in 50 Free
- Bryanna Farmer continues to improve. She did very well in the 200 Free with a 2.74 second PR. She also swam a .57 second PR in 100 Breaststroke.
- Matt Fioramonti was a beast in the 100 Free cutting 4.58 seconds from his PR.
- Mark Fioramonti also had a big drop, but his was in the 50 Free, by an amazing 1.84 seconds.
- Tommy Flook seems to have caught the swimming bug with a focus at practice that I love to see. The result for him was a 8.52 second PR in the 200 IM.
- Cecilia Garvey swam beautifully as usual and ended the meet with another 3 PRs including a 2.20 second drop in 100 Free, a 1.30 second drop in 50 Back leading off a medley, and a .31 second drop in 100 Back.
- Noelle Hickey had three big PRs. In 50 Back leading off the medley, she cut 4.21 seconds, in 100 Breast she cut 4.13 seconds, and in 100 Free she cut 2.80 seconds.
- Tyler Hoffman has shown me a lot of great potential this year, and he is gradually realizing it. In 50 Back leading off the medley he lowered his PR by 6.30 seconds, and in 50 Free he cut another .22 seconds. Tyler’s 50 Free time is now down to a pretty competitive 28.31, not at all bad for an 8th He now has the 12th fastest time on the boys team.
- Julia Irving had a very nice swim in the 200 Free, lowering her PR by 1.88 seconds
- John Paul Kenneally brought a lot of joy to his races – and also a big 4.02 second PR in 100 Free
- Michael Kenneally also brought home a big PR, his being by 2.75 seconds in 100 Breast
- Connor Kleb! How about that 8.15 second PR in 200 IM?
- John Paul Kleb did a very fine job in his two events, cutting 3.32 seconds in 100 Free and .31 seconds in 50 Free
- James Kosten cut nearly a second (.85 seconds) from his 50 Free PR.
- David Lambrecht dropped an amazing 3.32 seconds in 100 Free and just missed breaking 1:00. As focused as he is in practice these days, I think that breaking that barrier is just a matter of time for him.
- Geni Lucas showed her stamina and versatility with a 3rd place overall finish in the 200 IM after her 2.62 second PR.
- With Luke Marrazzo’s huge .83 second PR in 50 Free, he is officially the fastest sprinter on our team right now.
- Natalie McIntyre had two big personal records including a 11.40 second drop in 100 Breast and a 3.77 drop in 100 Free. Very nice “McIntyre comma Natalie”!
- Fiona Miller (featured this week on our home page) dropped 6.54 seconds in 100 Breast.
- Tommy Moore had a really big PR in 100 Free, lowering his previous PR by 4.61 seconds.
- Mark O’Donohue has worked his way up to Varsity and made the most of it on Saturday. He took 7th place overall in 200 Free in his first attempt at the event. H also cut 2.12 seconds in 50 Free leading off a relay and .48 seconds in 100 Free.
- Meghan O’Malley has also worked her way up to Varsity this season and still continues to improve. Her 50 Free PR (by .78 seconds) was good enough for 7th place overall and her 85.12 second PR (not a typo) in the 500 Free would have placed 8th
- Paul Pechie was great in his 100 Back, lowering his PR by 3.35 seconds. He also cut 1.13 seconds from his 50 Back PR leading off a medley relay
- Ryan Pugh had a really fine swim in the 500, lowering his PR by 72.84 seconds. Very fine swim Ryan.
- Martin Quinan (7) had a great meet with 2 PRs: a 2.91 second PR in 100 Free and a 2.36 second PR in 50 Free
- Peter Quinan led the way for the Quinan brothers with a huge 10.61 second PR in 200 IM, good enough for 4th overall. Then he followed it up with a 5.35 second PR in 100 Fly, good enough for 6th Peter scored a lot of points on Saturday.
- Rose Remington not only sang a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, she cut 2.67 seconds from her 100 Free PR
- Cris Salas has been a man possessed – possessed with the desire to get faster – and he is! How about a 73.71 second PR in the 500 Free? And then another PR in the 50 Free?
- Brendan Santschi had a least one swim in the lane right in front of me so I got an up-close look at his level of effort. And for that effort, he has a new PR in 100 Free (by 2.79 seconds) and in 50 Free (by .14 seconds)
- Stephen Shaw got some payoff for practice this week with a 1.66 second PR in 100 Breaststroke.
- Meggie Vestermark was very excited after her 100 Back – and she deserved to be! She cut 9.84 from her 100 Back PR!
- Dominic Wittlinger had a very nice swim in the 100 Free, setting a new PR by 1.30 seconds.
- Elizabeth Zadnik hit two strong PRs in 100 Back by 4.00 seconds and in 50 Free by 2.85 seconds
- Vivian Zadnik also had a great meet with a 4.39 second PR in 100 Breaststroke
- Maria Zambrana is definitely showing good improvement in her first year on the team. On Saturday, she cut .68 seconds from her 50 Free PR.
New Qualifiers for States and National Catholics
Congratulations to Emily Heim who qualified for both States and National Catholics for the first time this season. Welcome to the championship teams Emily. Here are the swimmers who have qualified individually so far – the new qualifications are in bold:
| Meet | Girls | Boys |
| National Catholics | Alex Sinner
· 200 Free · 100 Free · 100 Back Kimberly Rector · 200 Free · 200 IM · 100 Breast Claire Kenna · 50 Free · 100 Free · 100 Breast Emily Heim · 100 Breast 200 Medley “A” 200 Free Relay “A” 400 Free Relay “A” 400 Free Relay “B” |
|
| States | Alex Sinner
· 500 Free · 200 Free · 100 Free · 100 Back Kimberly Rector · 200 Free · 500 Free · 200 IM · 100 Breast Claire Kenna · 50 Free · 100 Free · 100 Breast Emily Heim · 100 Breast 200 Medley “A” 200 Free Relay “A” 400 Free Relay “A” 400 Free Relay “B” |
Joe Kosten
· 200 IM · 100 Breast 200 Medley Relay 200 Free Relay 400 Free Relay |
So How Do you Score in a High School Meet anyway?
One more mention: With so many families new to Seton Swimming, I thought you might find it helpful to see an explanation of how we score our meets. It’s a little confusing so I’ve included a detailed explanation in Coach Koehr’s Corner.
Opportunities to Improve
We did much better with the National Anthem and our warm-up routine this week, but we are still have trouble with time. I think it is the Marines who say, “if you are on time, you’re late”.
I wish we could even contemplate such a saying because on Saturday, at least a quarter of the team was not stretching at the published time. Next week, I look forward to having the Managers to report to me that we have 100% attendance when stretching is scheduled to begin.
Final Note
We’ll continue with breaststroke and butterfly this coming week, so don’t miss practice!
See you Monday morning,
Coach Jim Koehr