Over the past two weeks, we have continued to see tremendous improvement from swimmers at all levels. From our first practice in early November to our last practice before Christmas, we have methodically worked through every stroke and every wall and the results of that approach to the first half of the season bore much fruit.
At the Seton Invitational on December 15th, we had 85 personal records and at last weekend’s Christmas Spirit Homecoming Invitational, we had another 41 PRs. That means that, so far this season, we have had 304 personal records – an astounding number for after only four (4) meets. Congratulations to all of our swimmers. If we keep this up, we’ll be back to competing on the State level before we know it!
It was also particularly fun to see so many of our alumni back at the meet – especially the ones that jumped in the water to race. On the boy’s side, we had Kevin, Sean, Daniel and Brendan Koehr plus Tim Seltman (’99), Pat Kenna, David Basinger, and Andrew Minarik. Andrew is not that far off of a significant chest surgery, but he swam anyway – great to see you in the water again Andrew! On the girls side, Cat Rogers, Bridget Wunderly and Lauren “the Machine” Donohoe carried the water and whipped all comers. I think it helped that they are all current college swimmers 😉 And nice job Leslie Zapiain with that National Anthem!
Before I highlight some of the individual accomplishments of our swimmers, I wanted to recognize the great work that our managers do, particularly Dianna Pechie. On Saturday, as the list of swimmers who couldn’t make it because they were sick grew longer (and that list was added to by swimmers who left for vacation and didn’t tell me or showed up late leaving us unsure if they were coming – ughh!) and my frustration level grew higher, the task of rearranging all of our relays and communicating all of the changes before the meet started grew more difficult. Dianna stayed cool (cooler than me) and just got the job done. I was very grateful to have her there taking care of business. We’re lucky to have you Dianna.
And now, here is the way the final results shook out. Last Saturday, against Division I power Collegiate School, the results were predictable, but we fared much better for the Seton Invitational, against primarily competition our own size, on the 15th:
Boys
Seton 224 Veritas 11
Seton 202 St. Mary’s Ryken 67
Seton 199 Wakefield Country Day 74
Seton 181 Fredericksburg Christian 104
Seton 173 St. Michael 102
Seton 149 Pope John Paul the Great 120
Patriot 208 Seton 78
Girls
Seton 222 Veritas 20
Seton 215 Wakefield Country Day 16
Seton 197 St. Michael 76
Seton 195 Fredericksburg Christian 76
Seton 187 St. Mary’s Ryken 92
Seton 180 Pope John Paul the Great 87
Patriot 179 Seton 107
This was the first time we’ve ever swum against Patriot High School, and I hope to make them an annual opponent – they were wonderful people to work with. They had a very good team with whom I looking forward to competing with better as our younger swimmers continue to improve. In spite of the point differential with Patriot, one exciting outcome for us was that our girls 200 free relay of Claire Kenna (9), Alex Sinner (10), Kimberly Rector (9) and Emily Heim (9) beat their team record!
Top Performances
Once again, there were many special performances over the past two weekends, but here are some of the ones that struck me the most:
- Senior Captain Peter Quinan had five (5) opportunities to PR over the past two weekends and swam PRs in all five (5) of them. He cut 5.14 seconds in 100 Back, 4.27 seconds in 200 Free, 2.32 seconds in 100 Free leading off a relay, 2.22 seconds in 100 Fly and .12 seconds in 50 Free. That’s quite a nice piece of work for Peter!
- Paul Pechie duplicated Peter’s 5-for-5 PR effort: a 12.37 second PR in 200 Free, a 5.23 second PR in 100 Breast, a .50 second PR in 50 Back leading off the medley, a .18 second PR in 100 Fly and a .11 second PR in 50 Free.
- Brian Koehr just continues to get faster – even compared to older brother and former high school All-America Kevin at the same age. Somehow, Brian managed to drop 22.95 seconds in 100 Fly, 7.28 seconds in 100 Back, 1.67 seconds in 50 Free and 1.30 seconds in 100 Breast – all resulting in competitive high school times, especially for a freshman. In fact, that 100 Breast time was good enough for 2nd place last Saturday.
- Alex Sinner had three (3) PRs at the Seton Invitational, something that is difficult for a swimmer at her level to do at this point in the season. She cut 2.42 seconds in the 200 IM, 2.21 seconds in 100 Fly and 1.21 seconds in 50 back leading off the medley. That 50 back PR was particularly impressive!
- Senior Captain Steven Shaw had three (3) PRs, the most impressive of which was a 1.96 drop in 100 Free with a 57.49. Steve also cut a dramatic .95 seconds from his 50 Free PR to go 25.87. Finally, he cut .09 seconds from his 50 Back PR to get back on track leading off our medley relay.
- Freshman Cris Salas seems more focused than ever before on getting faster, and I can see already that it is paying off. How about a 12.79 second PR in 100 Fly? Or a 3.32 second PR in 100 Free? Those are some very big drops. Cris also cut .12 seconds in 100 Back and tried the 200 IM for the first time.
- Senior Captain David Lambrecht cut 14.39 seconds from his 100 IM PR, 12.33 seconds from his 200 IM PR, .85 seconds from his 100 Free PR and .36 seconds from his 50 Free PR. In 100 Free, David broke 1 minute for the first time in his career. If you had asked me 5 years ago if I ever thought David would break a minute, I probably would have told you that I’d never expect it to happen. That swim at the Seton Invitational, as much as any swim David has had in his career at Seton, was a reminder to me of just how far he has come. I couldn’t be more proud of David – and congratulations on your early admission to GMU!
- Senior Captain Luke Marrazzo cut .49 seconds from his 100 Fly PR, .21 seconds off of his 100 Breast PR, and .12 seconds from his 50 Free PR leading off a relay. For the first time, Luke broke :25 seconds in 50 Free going 24.99! That’s currently the fastest time on the team.
- Joe Kosten cut an amazing 2.03 seconds from his 100 Free PR to go 55.12, currently the fastest time on the team.
- Senior Captain Mikey Wittlinger continues to shine in the most difficult events for us. She’s swum 100 Fly, 200 IM and 500 Free and scored points for us in all of them. Her example would be a good one for many of our young swimmers to follow.
- Senior Captain Bernadette Wunderly had a fine swim in 100 Fly, going 1:23.50 and taking 7th Bernadette has been another good role model for our younger swimmers.
- Joe Duran took first place in Saturday’s diving competition. Joe should be quite competitive at the State level in February.
126 Personal Records over just the past two weeks!
Below is an enumeration of the great performances not already mentioned that made up this total:
- Joe Zapiain dropped 10.61 seconds in his 100 Fly during the Dec 15th Too bad he was sick for last weekend because I’m sure he would have dropped again. Joe also had a great first attempt at the 200 IM.
- Dominic Wittlinger is figuring out breaststroke. On the 15th, he cut 9.25 seconds from his PR!
- Jude Van de Voorde was getting long in that 100 Free and the results showed – a 4.20 second PR
- Brendan Santschi was great in the 50 free, lowering his PR by another .68 seconds.
- Julia Rowzie managed to cut another 1.92 seconds from her 50 Free PR at the Seton Invitational.
- Meridyth Rosato lowered two (2) PRs in the last two weeks: in 100 Breast, she dropped 3.17 seconds and in 100 Back, she dropped 1.85 seconds! I was also very pleased with Meridyth’s first attempt at 100 Fly!
- Rose Remington took another 1.23 seconds off of her 100 Breast PR, and she did a very fine job in her first attempt at 100 Fly. I guess she can do a lot more than just sing!
- Kimberly Rector continues to score big for Seton. In the 200 Free on the 15th, she lowered her PR by 1.43 seconds and took 4th place overall, and last weekend, she cut 1.46 seconds from her 100 IM PR and took 5th
- Martin Quinan cut 4.50 seconds in 100 Breast and 2.09 seconds in 50 Free. Those are some nice drops Martin!
- Andrew Quinan is going to be very competitive in the 500 Free in the future, and he got 7.96 seconds closer at the Seton Invitational. He also cut 2.85 seconds from his 50 Back PR leading off a medley relay. And how about that great 1st time 100 Fly and 200 IM?
- Cat Pechie has really been working hard in practice, and she’s starting to see the results. She cut 3.09 seconds from her 100 Fly PR, .72 seconds from her 100 Free PR, and .21 seconds from her 50 Free PR.
- Meghan O’Malley continues to impress. Over the past two weeks, she’s lowered her 100 Back PR by 5.22 seconds, her 100 Breast PR by 1.91 seconds and her 100 Free PR leading off a relay by 1.51 seconds. Meghan also swam 100 Fly and 200 IM for the first time and did quite well both of them.
- Mark O’Donohue just keeps getting faster. This past weekend, he cut another 1.55 seconds from his 100 Back.
- John O’Donohue was just super at our Homecoming meet, lowering his 100 Breast PR by an amazing 6.93 second PR.
- Tommy Moore dropped 2.35 seconds in 100 Breast at the Seton Invitational
- Catherine Moore dropped 1.24 seconds from her 50 Free PR at the Seton Invitational also
- Fiona Miller fought through some adversity to complete her events this past Saturday. Nice work Fiona – never quit! The week before, you also managed to cut 5.89 seconds from your 50 Back PR leading off a medley relay.
- Sally Marrazzo had a great swim in the 200 Free when she lowered her PR by 4.76 seconds. She also lowered her 100 Breast PR by 1.81 seconds and had a great 1st attempt at 100 Fly.
- Geni Lucas lowered her 200 Free PR by another .32 seconds.
- Collette Kosten was really catching her stride with a 6.18 second PR in 100 Free on Saturday. She also lowered her 100 Breast PR by 4.57 seconds and her 50 Free PR by .62 seconds during the meet the week before.
- James Kosten is getting the hang of this sport with two very nice swims at the Seton Invitational. In 100 Breast, he cut 6.64 seconds and in 100 Free, he cut 6.11 seconds.
- Junior Captain Patrick Koehr cut 4.27 seconds from his 100 Breast PR and another .13 seconds from his 50 Free PR – with an injured shoulder.
- John Paul Kleb swam a 2.88 second PR in 50 Back leading off a medley relay
- Connor Kleb swam a .96 second PR in 100 Back and a .36 second PR in 100 IM at the Seton Invitational. He also swam a 1.04 second PR in 100 Fly and a .73 second PR in 100 Breast last weekend. Keep rollin’ Connor!
- Michael Kenneally was great on Saturday with his 8.09 second PR in 100 Fly and his .20 second PR in 100 Back. He also did a great job in his first ever attempt at the 500 Free at the Seton Invitational.
- John Paul Kenneally was also super with his 17.98 second PR in 100 Breast and his .31 second PR in 50 Free.
- Claire Kenna took 4th place overall at the Seton Invitational in the 500 Free, swimming the event 12.90 seconds faster than ever before. At Homecoming, she continued the improvement with a 3.68 second drop in 100 Fly and a 2.68 second drop 100 Back. Claire is becoming a lot more than just a great sprinter – she is becoming a really fine all-around swimmer.
- Anna Kenna is also becoming a great all-around swimmer. In her first attempt at 100 Fly last Saturday, she went 1:14.18, an amazing time for a 7th The week before, she lowered her 100 Breast PR by 4.73 seconds – so it is official Anna, you are good at all four (4) strokes!
- Julia Irving did a nice job in the 500 Free, lowering her PR by .71 seconds and just missing breaking the 7:00 mark – next time Julia! She also cut .52 seconds from her 100 Breast PR
- Joe Irving is becoming a very good swimmer. In his first attempt at 100 Fly, he went 1:16.29, a great inaugural result. Joe also swam PRs in 100 Breast by 6.35 seconds, 100 Free by 1.90 seconds and 50 Free by .83 seconds.
- Georgine Irving lowered her 100 Breast PR by 7.47 seconds, a really nice drop. She also lowered her 50 Free PR by another .65 seconds.
- Xavier Holl swam yet another PR in the 50 Free, this time by 1.43 seconds.
- Keziah Higginbottom got a lot out of our work on breaststroke with her 5.28 second PR in the event. She also shaved another .01 off of her 50 Free PR.
- Noelle Hickey lowered her 50 Back PR leading off a medley relay by .05 seconds.
- Emily Heim is beginning to hit the form that she will need in the post-season meets. In 100 Back she swam a 9.80 second PR, in the 200 IM she swam a 8.52 second PR, and in 100 Fly she swam a 6.30 second PR.
- Connor Given lowered his 100 Breast PR by 12.90 seconds and his 50 Free PR by 3.29 seconds – that was at the Seton Invitational. Then at the Homecoming meet, he lowered his 50 Free PR by yet another 1.74 seconds.
- Allison Given lowered her 100 Breast PR by 8.03 seconds.
- Cecilia Garvey can now officially swim butterfly and her 5.04 second PR was the proof.
- Nina Francis did a great job in her first attempt ever at 100 Fly. I was very pleased with her effort on Saturday! The week before, her efforts resulted in a .99 second PR in 100 Free. A couple of really nice swims there.
- Tommy Flook is really making nice progress this season. His 100 Free is down to 56.81 after another 3.08 second PR – that’s pretty fast for a sophomore! Tommy also cut 1.77 seconds from his 100 IM PR.
- Dani Flook had a great swim in the 200 Free, swimming it 6.34 seconds faster than ever before. She also swam her 50 Free .57 seconds faster than ever.
- Mark Fioramonti lowered his 50 Free PR by .17 seconds.
- Joe Fioramonti hit three (3) PRs when he lowered his 100 Breast PR by 16.79 seconds, his 100 Back PR by 2.52 seconds, and his 50 Free PR by .96 seconds.
- Elizabeth Earls cut 3.82 seconds from her personal record in 100 Free. In addition, she took her first ever shot at the 200 IM.
- Patrick Dealey had a great first attempt at 100 Fly. He coupled that great swim with three (3) other PR swims: by 11.85 seconds in 100 Breast, by 5.75 seconds in 100 Back, and by .08 seconds in 50 Free
- Ben Dealey lowered his 100 Breast PR by 2.44 seconds and his 50 Free PR by 1.66 seconds.
- Kalli Dalrymple’s 100 Breaststroke showed great improvement – how about 23.43 seconds worth! She also showed 11.61 seconds worth of improvement in 100 Free.
- Jillian Ceol had a very nice 100 Free, cutting .64 seconds from her PR in the event. Another nice swim was that 100 IM where she not only lowered her PR by .04 seconds, she showed me a very nice butterfly.
- Ben Ceol lowered his 50 Free PR by another .69 seconds
- Alex Ceol also lowered his 50 Free PR, by another 1.03 seconds. Alex also did a very fine job in his 1st attempt at 100 Fly. These 7th grade twins are going to do very well in the future, you can see it already.
- David Catabui swam very well in 100 Breast, lowering his PR by 8.23 seconds.
- Mary Camarca cut 3.23 seconds from her 100 Breaststroke with a very nice swim. I was also extremely pleased with the result of her 1st attempt at the 500 Free. I think Mary can be quite good at it.
- Andrew Bishop did a great job at his first ever attempts at 200 IM and 500 Free. In the 500, he broke 7:00 – not too bad there Andrew. And on Saturday, he cut 1.62 seconds in 100 Breast too.
- Will Arnold is becoming a pretty good butterflier, especially after his 1.27 second PR at the Seton Invitational. 1:15 is a pretty good time for a freshman.
- Nice work to the following other swimmers on your first attempt at 100 Fly:
- Matt Fioramonti
- Vivian Zadnik
- Ashley Cackett
- Welcome to the team Ian Curley! It is great to have you join us!
New Diving Record
Congratulations to Senior Captain Keziah Higginbottom who’s personal record diving performance of 121.20 at Saturday’s Homecoming meet broke Sarah Zapiain’s January 2010 team record for six (6) dives of 120.4. That performance was also good enough for 3rd place against Collegiate’s high flying diving team. Great job Keziah!
New Qualifiers for States and National Catholics
No new qualifiers over the past two weeks, but we did have a number of current qualifiers hit the cut in additional events.
Congratulations to Alex Sinner who qualified for two additional events at National Catholics. Here are the swimmers who have qualified individually so far – the new qualifications are in bold:
| Meet | Girls | Boys |
| National Catholics | Alex Sinner
· 200 IM · 100 Fly · 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
· 200 IM · 100 Fly · 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 |
Opportunities to Improve
This will be the third time I’ve highlighted the importance of:
- Being on time, especially for swim meets
- Informing me before I do the entries if you cannot make the meet for a non-emergency (I understand that you cannot help it if you get the flu)
We are running a high school team, so I’m expecting the kids themselves to take responsibility for both of these. I never allow them to blame their parents, even though some of them try – they are old enough to take some basic responsibility for themselves.
I’ve been hesitant to impose repercussions for continued difficulty in these two areas, but I’m starting to think that I have no choice. Should I really have to?
Upcoming Events
Over the Christmas break we have two important events:
- Captain’s Practice on December 27th at the Freedom Center:
- This practice will be run by the captains, but adult supervision will be present
- Swimmers should be stretching before 9:04 a.m.
- Not everyone is required to attend this practice:
- Mandatory for practice lanes 2,3,4,5, and 9
- Optional for practice lanes 6 and 7
- Swimmers in practice lanes 1 and 8 are excused
- The 1st Annual Cystic Fibrosis Swim-a-Thon on December 31st at the Freedom Center
- Swimmers should be on deck stretching by 9:39 a.m.
- We start swimming at 10:00 a.m.
- Here are the goals for each practice lane:
- Practice lanes 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9 – 200 lengths
- Practice lanes 6, 7 and 8 – 100 lengths
- Practice lane 1 – 50 lengths
- The captains are providing fellow Seton students who are not swimming to be lap counters.
- And after you swim, you can enjoy the free pizza courtesy of Papa John’s!
- So let’s get going on that fundraising!
- The swimmer that raises the most gets a free IPod Mini.
- It looks like the Irvings, O’Malleys and Remingtons have a jump on it so far.
Merry Christmas,
Coach Jim Koehr