What a great weekend for Seton Swimming. At the DAC Championship meet, which we hosted Saturday at the Freedom Center, we closed out our 12th straight DAC Championship season, while establishing 12 new DAC records, 1 new team record, and 31 new Personal records (PRs). Out of the 22 available Gold Medals, Seton took 17. We also had swimmers win both the boys and girls Swimmers of the Meet honors, we put 13 swimmers on the All-conference team, and we added two new qualifying times to our State team.
The final scores shook out like this:
Girls
Seton 361
Fredericksburg Academy 197
Fredericksburg Christian 193
Quantico 130
Wakefield 107
Highland School 83
Emmanuel Christian 62
RMA 28
Word of Life 5
Boys
Seton 369
Fredericksburg Academy 264
Fredericksburg Christian 172
Highland School 132
RMA 113
Emmanuel Christian 62
Quantico 51
All-Conference Swimmers
Our 11 new All-Conference Swimmers each had tremendous afternoons. We had 7 girls make 1st team All-Conference:
– Jessica Dunn – Co-Swimmer of the Meet, 3 Golds in the 100 Back, 200 Free and 200 Free relay. Three new DAC records in 100 Back (1:03.22) beating the old record by over two seconds, 200 Free (2:04.87) beating the old record by almost 3 seconds and the 200 Free relay. Her backstroke swim was also a new team record and a new Personal record. Jessica was matched up against the an outstanding FCS swimmer who was the defending champion in both events and the previous record holder in both of these individual events, so it was quite a day for Jessie.
– Katie Planchak – Co-Swimmer of the Meet, 3 Golds in the 50 Free, 100 Free and the 200 Free relay. Two new DAC records in the 100 Free (56.08) and the 200 Free relay, which she anchored. Like Jessica, Katie was matched up against another outstanding FCS swimmer who was the defending champion and DAC record holder in both of these individual events. Katie slipped on her start in the 50 Free and came back to win the race. She missed the 50 Free record by .01 seconds – but Katie is a Junior, so I think it is just a matter of time.
– Lea Mazzoccoli – Gold in the 100 Fly and 200 Free relay and a Bronze in the 200 IM. She established a new DAC records in 100 Fly and at 1:05.77 and on the 200 Free relay. She also set a new Personal record in 200 IM (2:32.85), lowering her previous PR by over 2 seconds.
– Melissa Dunn – Gold in the 100 Free and 200 Free relay and a Bronze in the 100 Breast. She was part of the DAC record setting 200 Free relay. Both of her individual swims we big PRs – in 100 Free, she cut 1.48 seconds to swim 1:00.16 (is :59 far away?) and in 100 Breast, she cut another .74 seconds down to 1:13.52. Melissa has really improved her Breaststroke this season – last year, her best time was 1:17.17!
– Kimberley Melnyk – Silver in the 500 Free with a tremendous finish! She just outtouched a girl from Quantico by .01 seconds – all of her hard work in practice paid off on that last 25 yards! Kimberley also had a top-8 finish in the 200 IM.
– Hailey Moya – Bronze in the 50 Free and a 4th place finish in the 100 Free. Both swims were Personal Records: 50 Free at 27.03 and 100 Free at 1:00.70. Maybe we can break :26 and 1:00 at States?
– Mary-Kate Kenna – Bronze in the 100 Breast and a 4th place finish in the 200 Free. In the 200 Free, Mary-Kate set a new PR of 2:15.51, improving her previous best by nearly 1.5 seconds. The Steelers weren’t the only winners this weekend!
Our 6 All-Conference Swimmers for the Boys included:
– Kevin Koehr – Swimmer of the Meet for the 2nd year in a row, 4 Gold medals and 4 new DAC records in 100 Back, 100 Free (49.55), the 200 Medley relay and the 200 Free relay. The previous 100 Free record was set by Lawrence Lauderdale of Seton way back in 1996 – Kevin beat it by almost 3 and a half seconds. The other three records were his own, at least in part.
– Nevin Cook – 4 Gold medals and 4 new DAC records in 200 IM (1:59.78), 100 Breast, the 200 Medley relay and the 200 Free relay. The 200 IM record that Nevin broke was previously set by Ray Hrabe in 9 years ago, in 1997. The other three records were his own, at least in part.
– Bryan Morch – 3 Gold medals in 100 Fly, the 200 Medley relay and the 200 Free relay plus a Bronze medal in the 200 IM. He was also part of two new DAC records in the two relays. Bryan’s 100 Fly was the first time he’s been under :58 this season – we were both very pleased with that swim.
– Sean Koehr – Gold medals in 50 Free, the 200 Medley relay and the 200 Free relay plus a Bronze medal in the 100 Breaststroke. He was also part of two new DAC records in the two relays. Both of Sean’s individual swims were PRs – he cut .58 seconds from his 50 Free to 24.21 and he cut .73 seconds off of his 100 Breast down to 1:09.11. That 50 Free was a particularly good swim.
– Connor Cook – only an 8th grader, Connor Cook earned a Gold medal anchoring the 400 Free relay and two Bronze medals in the 200 and 500 Free. Connor’s 200 Free time as a new Personal Record, and his 500 Free time was faster than the previous DAC record.
– Daniel Koehr – Earned a gold medal in the 400 Free relay. After dropping 4.70 seconds from his previous best 100 Backstroke time, 8th grader Daniel swam a 1:08.61 to take the Bronze medal. With our top boys backstroker graduating, it is good see that we have someone to fill that role. Dan also took 6th in 100 Free.
New State Championship Qualifiers
We had two new qualifying times for States during DAC Champs:
– Meghan Morch – on the lead-off leg of the 400 Free relay (which counts as an official time since you do not have a rolling start), Meghan dropped her previous best 100 Free time by 2.29 seconds to a 1:03.85. Now she will swim both 50 Free and 100 Free for us at States. To add to successes at DAC Champs, she also set a new PR in 100 Back, lowering her time by .81 seconds.
– Danielle Smith – dropped 8.46 seconds in 200 Free to a 2:16.64 – this qualifies for States! She was already going to States in 100 Back. At DAC Champs, she got 5th place in both events.
There were several other Personal Records and/or outstanding swims on Saturday:
– How about that boys 400 Free Relay? Jack Murphy, Billy Corkery, Daniel Koehr and Connor Cook had a tremendous race to take the Gold medal. Adding up their previous best 100 Free times, I entered them at 4:04.72. Their final time? 3:55.28! Jack Murphy swam his best 100 Free ever at 58.43 to lead us off – that’s 1.41 seconds faster than he’s ever swum it before! Coming off the 3rd turn a little behind the FCS lead-off swimmer, he grimaced, and pushed, and kicked, and gave our relay the lead after the first leg. I have never seen his stroke look so good (thank Jack’s hard work and Coach Sam’s great coaching). Daniel Koehr split 1:00.68 and Billy Corkery split 1:00.83. Then Connor Cook hit the water. He touched only 55.34 seconds later! It didn’t count as an official time because of the relay start, but to put the swim in perspective, Connor’s PR in 100 Free is 57.23! Last year, their overall relay time would have earned 18th at States. The year before, that time would have earned 15th. If they improve again at States, they could score some points toward a possible State Championship for us. Great job!
– Billy Corkery – In addition to his Gold medal in the 400 Free relay, he also had two PRs in the 100 Free (1:00.41) and the 100 back (1:13.01)
– Pat Gott had a great meet with 2 big PRs. In the 500 Free, he cut 20.53 seconds off his previous best and in the 200 Free, he dropped 9.65 seconds. Those swims were good enough to earn him a 7th and 9th place in the meet. It was a great day for Pat.
– Patrick Kenna – finished 8th in 100 Backstroke after lowering his previous PR by 5.67 seconds! I’m looking forward to having Patrick join our backstroke contingent next year.
– Bridget Wunderly – finished 6th in 100 Fly while lowering her PR by 1.47 seconds and finished 7th in 100 Back while dropping 2.30 seconds from her PR. Given that she is only in 7th grade, I think we’ll be seeing many more great swims from Bridget in the future.
– Tony Minarik – Tony continues to improve that 50 Free time. This time, he lowered it by .18 seconds down to 27.40.
– David Basinger– as a 7th grader, David stepped up to swim the 200 IM, improved his PR by .75 seconds and finished 5th with a 2:32.65. Amazing!
– Greg Bliss – had a top 8 finish in 100 Fly while setting a new PR by 1.87 seconds. Great job!
– Chris Fletcher – set a new PR in 50 Free, lowering his time by .15 seconds to 27.18. Chris has had a great season. At the Bishop Ireton meet at the beginning of the season, Chris swam 100 Free in 1:09.83. His PR at the end of the season? 1:01.87! Almost an 8 second improvement. I can’t wait to have him at States.
– Gina Garzione – improved her PR in the 500 Free by 4.36 seconds to take 6th place and score 9 points.
– David Harris – David also had a PR in the 500 Free, improving his time by over 4 seconds. That got David 6th place also.
– Whitney Hood – had a great swim in the 100 Breast, lowering her PR by 3.05 seconds.
– Dan Quinan – Dan finished his Seton swimming career with another improvement in his 100 Breaststroke. He lowered his PR by .74 seconds.
– Kristin Rafter – set her new PR in 100 Breast by .25 seconds and scored for the team.
Yes, the performance by our swimmers was outstanding, but the meet itself was outstanding also. This is the 2nd year that Seton has hosted the conference championship meet and this time, it was better than ever. So many parents teamed up to make this happen, starting with the meet director, Mr. Chris Cook. We are very lucky to have him as the President of our team.
There were many other parents who really gave alot of time to make the meet a success. Among them was Mrs. Patt Morch who headed up concessions, hospitality and the post meet party. She’s been a great team Mom for all us this season. I know she had a great deal of help – for that we are all grateful.
Thanks to all of the officials and scorers including Mrs. Dunn, Mr. Wunderly, Mr. Rosato, Mrs. Harris, Mr. Mooney, Mr. Planchak and many others. I’m sorry that I can’t mention everyone, but you all get the idea that it takes alot of willing and loving volunteer parents to make a swim meet like this go.
Finally, I’d like to thank our assistant Coaches: Mr. Pat Mulhern, Mrs. DD Ross and Coach Sam Higginbottom. That Coach of the Year award goes to all of you also. We all appreciate the time and talent they bring to our team.
The final meet of the season will be the State meet at the University of Virginia. We are in the running for the State Championship this year. Coach Higginbottom has been running practice so far this week, and he really has everyone working hard. I know we will have many PRs down there.
For those of you who are not going to States, it’s been a great season. I’ll report back to you on how we did.
Coach Koehr