Our openning meet of the year versus North Stafford was a great way to start the season. After an audit of the final results by the accounting firm of Planchak, Quinan and Dunn, the girls actually won! It took 53 Personal Records (PRs), which itself must be a record, to pull off the victory. Here are the final results::
Girls
Seton: 147
North Stafford: 139
Boys
Seton: 121
North Stafford 165
It is no small feat that our girls ended up beating N. Stafford. They have 2,100 students in their school. As we left the meet, we all thought that we had lost by only 4 points, but after reviewing the scoring, we noticed that Meet Manager had made a mistake scoring 2 of the events. That made the difference for the girls. I was particularly displeased with the original result since I am the one who lined up a B girls medley relay that was faster than our A girls medley. I guess the good Lord decided to save me the pain of being at fault for a close defeat.
On the boys side of the ledger, we lost the overall meet, but we won all 3 of the big races that the North Stafford coach and I had specifically orchestrated. Nevin Cook and Kevin Koehr were matched up against their two top swimmers. Nevin met a rival from USA swimming in the 100 brststroke. The result was a victory and a new Seton record of 1:04.07. This lowered Nevin’s previous record by nearly 3 seconds! To put that time in perspective, that would have placed 5th at last year’s state meet! Did I mention that he is just a freshman? (In addition to Nevin’s new Brststroke record, he set another record at last week’s time trials. Nevin broke a 6 year record in 200 Free held formerly by Matt Kendle. Nevin’s new record was 2:00.47, breaking the old record by more than 2 seconds.)
The other two races were both won by Kevin Koehr. In the 50 free, Kevin was losing into the turn but came back to win by .09 seconds with a time of 23:64. Ray Bennett’s record of 23:48 is still safe. Kevin also took the 100 backstroke against the same guy.
In so many ways, this meet was a success story for Seton.
We started the meet by announcing this year’s captains. For girls, the captains will be Meg Seale and Ali Van de Voorde. For boys, the captains will be Kevin Koehr and Bryan Morch. These 4 swimmers were selected by the coaches based on your input. Congratulations to all of them.
As I mentioned earlier, we didn’t just break team records. We had 53 personal records. For those of you who are new to the team, this is the most important thing we celebrate. We’ve all been given different numbers of “talents” and it is our job to give the good Lord the best possible return on his investment. Here are the people who came back to the Master with extra “talents” this week:
– Kimberley Melnyk – 200 Free and 100 backstroke. Kimberley is now our top backstroker.
– Gina Garzione – 200 Free
– David Harris – 200 IM by 5 seconds and 100 Back by over 4 seconds! I’ve never seen him look so good. Only 8th grade.
– Ali Van de Voorde – 200 IM by over 3 seconds and 100 Brst
– Kevin Koehr – 50 and 100 free (in lead leg of relay)
– Sean Koehr – 50 Free by 1.5 seconds
– Haley Moya – 50 and 100 Free. She is now one of the faster sprint freestylers on the team.
– Tina Economou – 50 Free and 100 Brst. Where have you been? So glad she is back on the team. She looked very good.
– Megan Hoffer – 50 Free
– Teresa Eidem – 50 Free by over 4 seconds and 100 Free by 10 seconds! Maybe the most improved swimmer of the meet.
– Angela Hassan – 50 Free
– Eileen Corkery – 50 Free and 100 Back
– Betsy Mooney – 50 Free
– Kirstin Kleb – 50 Free
– Virginia Hagen-Gates – 50 Free
– Alex Hetrick – 50 Free, by nearly 6 seconds and 100 Free, by nearly 8 seconds!
– Billy Corkery – 100 Fly and 500 Free. Lots of points available in these events to those with heart – like Billy!
– Kristin Rafter – 100 Fly by nearly 4 seconds! I thought you said you didn’t do well? She’s going to be good in this event.
– Andrew Davis – 100 Free. I’m looking for Andrew to step up in Sprint freestyle. Also 100 Brst
– Daniel Koehr – 100 Free and 100 Brst
– Greg Bliss – 100 Free and 100 Brst
– Katie Planchak – 100 Free @ 59.89
– Melissa Dunn – 100 Free
– Kelsey Kleb – 100 Free and 100 Back
– Katie Racine – 100 Free and 100 Back
– Pat Gott – 500 Free. Great job Pat! Must have been the haircut.
– John Verry – 100 Back
– Joe Ross – 100 Back by over 6 seconds!
– Meghan Morch – 100 Back, by 4.5 seconds!
– Lea Mazzoccoli – 100 Back
– Katie Corkery – 100 Back
– Whitney Hood – 100 Back. Very nice body roll. Her stroke is coming along nicely.
– Megan Hoffer – 100 Back – this is a good event for Megan
– Nevin Cook – 100 Brststroke
– Dan Quinan – 100 Brst
– David Basinger – 100 Brst
– Mary-Kate Kenna – Big PR in 100 Brst – almost 4 seconds!
– Katie Hoffer – 100 Brst
If I have to do that much typing each week, I will be a very happy coach.
There were some other swims that caught my eye:
– Our B girls Medley was surprisingly fast – surprising to both me and the A relay! We have so many fast girls this year, and most of them are young. The future is really bright. Based on this week’s result, I think next week’s medley relay will be Kimberley Melnyk, Melissa Dunn, Lea Mazzoccoli, and Katie Planchak – nothing final yet. This will free up Jessie Dunn to be fresh for the 200 Free. I suspect there are more shake-ups in this relay coming. This is a very good problem.
– James Zambrana is a first time swimmer. After his 100 Free race, he told that me “this is the toughest sport I’ve ever done”. He had an outstanding effort in the 50 and 100 Free.
– Lea Mazzoccoli has really stepped up in butterfly. Last year, we used Katie Planchak for Fly in our medley. Lea outstanding performance allows us to use Katie’s many talents in other places.
– Mary-Kate Kenna had a nice swim in the 500 free. As the season progresses and her confidence increases, I know she can go even faster.
– David Basinger and Daniel Koehr are two homeschooled exhibition members of our team. They faced off in 100 Brststroke and both of them dropped 3 or 4 seconds. Together with David Harris, Connor Cook, Joe Ross and others, we have a strong core for the future of the boys team.
– After watching Gina Garzione’s leg of the 400 Free relay, I’m excited for her chances to go back to States.
We had several people swim qualifying times for the State and National meets so far this season:
Girls
– Jessica Dunn – State times in 50, 200, 500 free and 200 IM and National times in 50 free and 200 IM
– Melissa Dunn – State times in 50 and 100 free and 100 Brststroke
– Caitlin Harris – State times in 50 and 100 Free and 100 Fly
– Mary-Kate Kenna – State time in 100 Brststroke
– Lea Mazzoccoli – State times in 50 free, 100 Fly and 200 IM. National time in 100 Fly
– Kimberley Melnyk – State times in 50, 100 and 200 Free and 100 back
– Meghan Morch – State times in 100 back and 200 IM
– Haley Moya – Both State and National times in 50 Free
– Katie Planchak – Both State and National times in 50 and 100 Free
– Meg Seale – Both State and National times in 50 Free. State times in 100 Free, 100 back, 100 Brst, and 100 Fly
Boys
– David Basinger – State time in 500 Free. Unfortunately, he is not eligible for the actual meet.
– Nevin Cook – State times in 50, 100, 200 Free, 100 Brst, 100 Fly. National time in 100 Brst
– Kevin Koehr – Both State and National times in 50 and 100 Free and 100 Back. State time in 100 Fly.
– Bryan Morch – State times in 100 Fly and 200 IM.
Concerning the State and National meets, one issue that came up last year was that we can only have 4 entries per event. This means that, if we have more than 4 girls qualify for 50 free, only the top 4 can swim. There is no exhibition in Championship meets.
With all of these outstanding performances, there were a few areas for improvement:
- I really want to see everyone wearing their new t-shirt when they are not swimming. This is our uniform and makes our big team look even bigger. Alot of swimming is mental.
- Prior to the meet, we asked each swimmer to go to a specific coach immediately after their swim. Very few of you did it. This is your opportunity to get immediate feedback to help you improve. It is impossible for us to watch everyone, but we are trying to put a system in place where we can comment on almost everyone.
- As coaches, we need to get more organized on relay splits. We’ll do better next week.
- Remember how we lined up for the National Anthem next year. Captains, let’s get that going again next week.
- We need much more cheering for your fellow swimmers.
And finally, I would like to mention the tremendous parental involvement. With all of the new positions, this weekend’s meet was very well run. Mr. Kenna and Mr. Planchak were outstanding as the referee and the starter. Mr. Seltman would have been proud. Mr. Mooney and all of the “lane captains” had timing completely under control. It was great to see so many parents volunteer without being asked. (Swimmers, watch Mr. Mooney if you want to see how to lead a group). Mr. Quinan and Mrs. Dunn had our brand new Meet Manager software humming. I can’t tell you how much time it saves me. No more cards – I love it! The T-shirts looked great with everyone’s name on the back – thank you Mrs. Harris. Mrs. Morch kept everyone in line with her usual efficiency. I even noticed that she got Mr. Morch out there to start training with Mr. Melnyk and Mr. Byers as stroke and turn judges.
Next week’s meet is Saturday afternoon at Woodberry Forest against Woodberry and Flint Hill. I’ll get you more information on it shortly. Great job this week. See you tomorrow morning.
Coach Koehr