So Many Surprises During Championship Season

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Thank you, Joe Aldeguer, for turning this blog post into a short (18:10) Podcast.  You can listen to it here:

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It has been an intense and rewarding string of championship meets since the end of January.

It started with the 18^th annual VISAA Junior Varsity Invitational Championship where Seton won both the boys’ and girls’ championships by wide margins, including a girls’ win by almost 150 points.

Then we hosted the 19^th annual VISAA Division II Invitational Championship where the Seton Varsity team dominated the competition for both boys and girls.  With the importance of depth in that meet, our boys beat The Covenant School by more than 100 points.

Next, we hosted the 4^th annual VCAC Conference Championship Meet.  The girls beat Trinity Christian School by a semi-surprising 35 points, and the boys beat their closest competitor by 145 points.  After diving and the medley relays, the outcome was never really in doubt for either the boys or the girls.

And finally, last weekend (February 13-15, 2025), we brought the best boys’ and girls’ teams we’ve had since 2011 to the VISAA State Swimming and Diving Championship at the Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center in Stafford, VA.  It was a massive meet that included 675 swimmers from 53 schools with some unbelievably fast swimming.

Uniquely in the VISAA, Division I and Division II schools all swim and dive together.  I get a lot of questions about why it is set up that way, and since I was a long-time VISAA Swimming Executive Committee member, and I was the one who wrote the proposal for a Division II back in 2005, I am uniquely positioned to answer.

For those who have been to a State Championship Meet, you understand how awesome it is to be a part of such a huge competition, but prior to 2006, the VISAA Swimming and Diving Championship competition was in a single division.  That meant that a small school like Seton had virtually no chance of winning (although our girls finished 3^rd overall in 2010 believe it or not).  Was there a way to score the small schools as a separate Division without denying them opportunity to participate in such an awesome meet?

Remember that we hadn’t started the VISAA Division II Invitational yet, but even after that, I didn’t want to relegate the Division II schools to a second-class State Championship meet, especially at some future date after I’m gone when we might not be the one hosting it.  I’ve always held the line on that way of thinking, even though our Division II Invitational now has all the trappings of a State Championship meet except for the Timed Finals format (i.e., no Preliminaries and Finals).

The way I proposed to “square the circle” was to continue with a single, state-wide championship meet but declare the highest scoring Division II team as the Division II State Champion.

There have been some significant trade-offs for Seton by taking this position.  In a meet with just the Division II schools, our advantage of depth becomes very important.  We can often get three (3) or even four (4) individual swimmers score in every event.  Looking back at the historical results, if the VISAA Division II Championship was the “State Championship”, we’d have 20 banners hanging in the gym.

At a big State Championship meet that includes every school however, it is very difficult to get an individual swimmer into the top-16 to score.  Almost all of the top 16 finishers are accomplished USA Swimmers like Ariana Aldeguer (SO) and Lionel Martinez (SO).  Occasionally you might find a high-school-only swimmer or diver make the Finals to score – like Connor Koehr (SR), Clara Condon (SR) or Elodie Brox (SR) this year – but it is rare.

It was that trade-off that made the difference at States, once again, this year.

For the boy’s, we knew the competition was with The Covenant School who had three (3) great USA swimmers, including the two-time individual State Champion in 200 and 500 Free, Will Charleton (JR).   We beat them by 114 points in the VISAA Division II Invitational Championship, but with a State Meet format that emphasizes top swimmers, the points they got from six (6) individual scoring swims and two (2) high-scoring relays was just too much – even with our big scores in diving.

After reviewing the Psych Sheet before the competition, I wasn’t particularly surprised that they ultimately beat us by 46.5 points.  We did, however, manage to overcome the advantage that Trinity Christian had with their USA swimmers, particularly Tyler Phillips (JR) who won 100 Fly with one of the best swims of the meet. 

With two (2) record-setting boys’ relays (more below), some individual scoring by Lionel Phillips (SO), and 31 points from Diving (Connor Koehr (SR), bronze medal, Jacob Oswald (SR), 9^th, and Gus Kohlhaas (SR), 11^th),  we beat Trinity Christian by only one (1) point on the last relay to claim the VISAA Boys Division II State Runner-Up!

Here’s an excerpt from the Boys’ scores:

Boys

1. Christopher’s School           299.5
2. Norfolk Academy                235
3. Bishop O’Connell                190
4. Trinity Episcopal School    148
5. Collegiate School                147
6. Paul VI                                   139
7. Woodberry Forest              133
8. The Covenant School       129.5 – Division II Champ
9. Flint Hill School                     96
10. Anne’s-Belfield                      95
11. Cape Henry Collegiate        85
12. Seton School                        83 – Division II Runner-up
13. Trinity Christian                 82 – Division II
14. Virginia Episcopal              71 – Division II    
15. Stephen’s/St. Agnes            60

While the boys’ competition did not yield any big surprises, the girls’ competition, on the other hand, did end with a big surprise.

The Psych Sheet confirmed what I already knew after seeing them at the VISAA Division II Invitational, that Cape Henry Collegiate was going to be our competition for the State Championship – even though we had just beaten them by 125 points.  They had three (3) very strong USA Swimmers, so the story was shaping up just like the boys’ competition with The Covenant School.  Could we overcome their USA Swimmers with Ariana Aldeguer’s (SO) individual scoring, our great relays, and our diving?

With Ariana Aldeguer’s (SO) incredible silver and bronze medal swims (more below!), two (2) girls’ scoring relays, and 24 points from diving (Meghan Condon (FR), 7^th, Maria Miller (JR), 10^th, and Rose Waldron (SR), 12^th), we ended up beating Cape Henry Collegiate 17 points!

Once we got to the start of the final event of the meet, the girls 400 Free Relay where Cape Henry was seeded in the Consolation Final, meaning they could not score better than 9^th place, we knew the gig was up.  The celebration of our 11^th VISAA Division II State Championship was underway in earnest……… ……until it wasn’t.

Into the midst of our on-deck celebration walked the VISAA Swimming President (a long-time friend who has given unbelievably great service to VISAA Swimming for many years) with an unfamiliar man holding out his cell phone displaying the VISAA website.

“Jim, this is all my fault”, my friend told me with a very troubled look on his face.  I knew what was about to come next couldn’t be good.

The unfamiliar man, not dressed in any sort of uniform or other attire appropriate to the event, then announced to me that “St. Anne’s-Belfield is a Division II school this year.”

Prior to the Meet, the VISAA Swimming committee sent out the Divisional breakdown for all the VISAA schools.  They asked me how it looked, and I replied that “I can’t see all the most recent school census counts, but it looked like it had for many years back to when I first published it in 2005.”  I don’t know why this gentleman, who I assume was an Athletic Director of some sort, decided to wait until the end of the meet to raise the issue.

St. Anne’s-Belfield only has 14 girls on their entire team, but four (4) of them are big-time USA swimmers – one from NOVA of Virginia (a Richmond-based team) and three from Cavalier Aquatics in Charlottesville.  Those four (4) girls were awesome.  They put together two (2) bronze medal relays and eight (8) individual scoring swims, including one (1) gold medal and two (2) bronze medals.

That is just too many points to overcome for a high school swimming team like ours.  Their four (4) USA Swimmers scored 100% of their points, and I can’t know this for sure, but because it wouldn’t be unusual for swimmers like that to not participate in their high school practices at all, it is possible their entire State Championship scoring team just shows up for the competitions.

In contrast, our team in total scored 183 points and 117 of them were scored by athletes that were not experienced USA swimmers or divers.

Let me stop quickly to highlight that I do not mean to belittle the level of commitment required to be a top-level USA swimmer.  Having been a USA-swimming parent in my life and having been a 25-year swimming coach, I have a darn good idea of what it takes to perform like these great swimmers.  I’m guessing these girls practice 7 or 9 times per week swimming up to 60,000 yards.  They certainly earned those medals through many early mornings of hard work in the cold waters of Charlottesville.

In the end though, the right thing happened, even if it happened in an undesirable fashion.  Assuming they really do have less than 160 girls in their high school, which I have no reason to believe they do not, then they belong in Division II per the VISAA rules.

I hope we can get STAB to participate in the VISAA Division II Invitational next year.

So yes, it was heartbreak right at the very end, but that doesn’t diminish the size of the accomplishment of our girls last weekend.  With just one scoring USA swimmer, a bunch of high school girl swimmers met the best Division II teams in the State as became the VISAA Division II State Runner-up!

Here’s an excerpt from the Girls’ scores:

Girls

1. Collegiate School                 358
2. Catherine’s School               222
3. Bishop O’Connell                 194
4. The Madeira School            193
5. Anne’s-Belfield                    183 – Division II Champ
6. Norfolk Academy                 149
7. Potomac School                   144
8. Stephen’s/St. Agnes            126
9. Seton School                        101 – Division II Runner-up
10. Cape Henry Collegiate        84 – Division II
11. Oakcrest                                 74
12. Paul VI                                     73
13. Fredericksburg Christian  65 – Division II
14. Trinity Christian                  58 – Division II
15. Bishop Ireton                        56
16. John Paul the Great           43

The Seton Record Board is Barely Recognizable Now

I haven’t spent so much time with our record board since I first put it up after the 2011 season – and I never thought I’d have to.

At that point in the history of Seton Swim & Dive, we had just completed a run of seven (7) State Championships in a four (4) year period with some of the best swimmers and divers we’d ever seen at Seton.  We’ve obviously had some great swimmers since then, but only Anna Kenna ’18 was able to touch our record board – until this season.

As I was posting all of our most current records, I was astounded to see that we now have nine (9) of the 28 total swimming and diving records with a date from the ’24-’25 season, most set in the last two (2) weeks.  Incredibly, four (4) of the five (5) girls records were individually set by Ariana Aldeguer (SO) and all four (4) of the new Boys records were set individually or as part of a relay by Connor Koehr (SR).

Two (2) of these nine (9) new records I’ve talked about, in painful detail, in previous blogs:

• Girls 200 Free, 1:55.48, Ariana Aldeguer (SO) – You may recall that this swim happened at National Catholics on January 11^th when Ariana broke the 25-year-old Katie Shipko record.
• Boys Diving, 6-Dives, 249.20, Connor Koehr (SR) – Connor started the season at the Icebreaker Invitational with his best 6-dive performance of 249.20, breaking his own previous record of 231.10.

Five (5) of the nine (9) records were records from earlier this season that were reset in the last two weeks at either the VCAC Conference Championship Meet or VISAA States.  Let me highlight three (3) of those here:

• Girls Diving, 6-Dives, 177.95, Meghan Condon (FR) – Meghan broke through earlier this season at the Homecoming Invitational with a new record score of 175.20. As part of her stellar 7^th place 11-Dive performance at States last weekend, she had an even more impressive score of 177.95 after 6-Dives.  Like a lead-off relay split, that counts as the 6-Dive score that broke the record!
• Girls 100 Fly, 57.17, Ariana Aldeguer (SO) – Recall that Ariana first broke Anna Kenna’s 2018 record at NoVa Catholics with a time of 57.71, but it turns out she wasn’t done. At VCAC Champs, she got one last chance before States and made the most of it.  Her new record swim of 57.17 was good enough for the silver medal (by only .07 seconds) and All-Conference honors.
• Boys 200 Medley Relay, 1:39.19, Connor Koehr (SR), Lionel Martinez (SO), Joe Borneman (SR), Liam Halisky (SR) – I won’t make you relive my heartfelt story after the VISAA Division II Invitational about how these boys broke the 2006 Medley Relay from our first Division II State Championship team, but I will share a few more words about how they broke their own record once again at States.

In Prelims, they just barely missed the Championship Final with a 10^th place finish with a disappointing 1:40.83, so they came back to Finals that night with redemption on their mind.  In the Finals, they still ended up in 10^th place, but all four (4) of them swam much faster to break their own team record again.  Connor split 25.75 in 50 Back, Lionel split 27.15 in 50 Breast, Joe split 24.03 in 100 Fly, and Liam anchored in a blazing 22.26.

I have saved the last four (4) new records because they either received All-State Recognition or they were among the most insane swims I’ve seen since I’ve been coaching – and in one case, both.

• The first All-State performance of the meet was Ariana Aldeguer’s (SO) 200 IM. You probably recall that Ariana beat her personal record and her own team record of 2:08.57 with a time of 2:07.00 at the VISAA Division II Invitational.  At the time, that was also a new VCAC Conference Record.  At States she did us all one better.

She entered the meet seeded 3^rd at her 2:07.00, just .11 seconds ahead of a girl from Cape Henry Collegiate (who we thought was going to be our main competition for the Division II State Championship) and just .54 seconds ahead of a girl from St. Catherine’s.

In Prelims, she swam the 2^nd best time of her life, 2:07.17, but she found herself seeded 4^th for the Finals.  The Cape Henry girl had dropped to 6^th, so this was an opportunity for Seton.  A girl from St. Anne’s-Belfield was seeded 7^th for the Finals, but we didn’t know to look for her, yet.)

In the Finals, Ariana took it out almost a whole second faster for the 50 Fly and was solidly in 3^rd position – a position she would not relinquish.  After the 2^nd fastest split in 50 Back, she was firmly positioned for the bronze medal finish that she ultimately got.  She finished in 2:05.81, a new Personal Record, a new Team Record, and All-State honors.

• The second All-State performance of the Meet was Connor Koehr (SR) in Diving. Connor was the defending State Champion, but this year’s meet featured a new 8^th grade from Flint Hill who is a 7-time Junior National Champion plus the new freshman from O’Connell who is a great club diver, so a repeat of an individual State Championship was never in the cards.  But could he beat everyone else to score in the top 3 and earn All-State honors?

It didn’t take long before the scores got very stratified.  The top diver, of course, jumped out far ahead, but at the end of the Preliminaries (first 5 dives out of 11 dives), Connor was in 3^rd, less than 6 points behind the young O’Connell Diver.  He was helped by the addition of a new dive, my favorite, a back 1 and ½ somersault in the pike position.  It looks so cool when done well – and he did it well, scoring up to 6.5s with a high degree of difficulty (2.3) which resulted in a big 40.25 points on that one dive alone.  (Note: The score for a dive is the sum of the middle three judges’ scores multiplied by the degree of difficulty, or DD)

In the Semi-Finals (the next 3 dives), Connor closed the gap on 2^nd place, finishing just 1.30 points out of 2^nd place.  In that round, he had two very high scoring dives, including an Inward 2 Somersaults that carries a ridiculous degree of difficulty of 2.8.

In the Finals (the last 3 dives), Connor has dives with DDs of 1.7, 2.2, and 2.4, but the young O’Connell diver had the math on his side with DDs of 2.6, 2.1, and 2.4 so we knew what was going to happen.

Congratulations to Connor Koehr who finished with a score of 422.70, a new Personal Record, a new Team Record, and All-State honors.

• Our Boys 200 Free Relay of Lionel Martinez (SO), Connor Koehr (SR), Daniel Sokban (SO), and Liam Halisky (SR) wasn’t an All-State swim, but it definitely fell into the “insane” category.

Our team record in this event was set back in the Seton Swimming glory days at the 2010 State Championship with a crazy fast group of boys.  At the time, they got overshadowed a bit by the girls whose 200 Free Relay won the gold medal by just .03 seconds, but their record has held an emotional tie for me nonetheless.

The current team record occurred in the Championship Finals at the Freedom Center with Jameson Hill ’10 leading off in 21.36 (in Prelims, he led off with the current team 50 Free record of 21.22!).  That top lead-off split was followed by Daniel Koehr’s ’10 23:00, Connor Cook’s ‘10 22.72, and David Basinger’s ’11 22.99 for a time of 1:30.07.

Our boys have been coveting this record all year, but have never quite been able to put together four (4) swims that average 22.51 seconds – that’s fast!

In the Preliminaries, they came close with a time of 1:30.85.  All four (4) boys were fast but just slightly off, so we entered the Finals seeded 9^th, which is the top of the Consolation Final with no chance to jump ahead of anyone in the top 8.  The pressure was on.

In the Finals, these boys came ready to play, but so did the 10^th seed, St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes who was seeded just .24 seconds behind us.  Lionel Martinez (SO) took responsibility for the flat-start lead-off and went a Personal Record 22.22.  Then Connor Koehr (SR) split 22.62 and Daniel Sokban (SO) split 22.52.  We were right on that 22.51 average required to beat the record as Liam leaped into the water – and we were also sitting in 10^th place – uh oh.

Liam Halisky (SR) delivered on a powerful anchor leg of 22.29 to complete the relay in 1:29.65!  A new Team Record by nearly a half a second.

I never thought we’d ever see that record broken, even with the very strong senior boys’ class that we have this year, but I need to stop thinking that way.  Did you notice that the new record-setting relay had two sophomores on it?

Here is a video of the race on Seton’s All-Time Greatest Swims YouTube Channel

• Let’s end with Ariana Aldeguer’s (SO) 500 Free, which is the one swim that was both All-State and insanely good.

Regular readers of this blog surely recall that, at National Catholics, Ariana not only broke the Katie Shipko’s quarter-century old 200 Free record, but she also broke her 500 Free record with a time of 5:05.98.  That was truly a great swim, in part because it was the first time Ariana had broken 5:06.

She took it out in 28.19 for the first 50 and then settled in to a series of 50 splits between 30.7 and 31.2 before coming home in 1:00.43 for the last 100 yards.

She’s been hovering between 5:06 and 5:08 since February 2023, so I’m sure she was feeling a little stagnant, despite all the hard work she’s been putting in over the past couple of years.

Well on Saturday at States, she finally got the breakthrough she’s been looking for.

She entered the meet seeded 2nd with her 5:05.98 from National Catholics.  The top seed was at 4:58.93 from St. Stephen’s/Agnes (SSSA) and the 3rd seed was, ironically, from St. Anne’s-Belfield (STAB) at 5:06.97.   In the morning, Ariana had another Personal Record and Team Record swim at 5:04.39 but found herself seeded 3rd for the Final that night.  The other girls went 4:56.80 and 5:01.89 while the 4th seed was right behind her at 5:05.62.

As Ariana prepared for the Finals, Coach Ross Palazzo suggested a different approach to the race.  During Prelims, she had gone out her normal 28.2 for the first 50 and settled in behind the leaders – in a spot from which she was never able to break out.  Coach Palazzo suggested that, for Finals, she take the first 50 out a bit faster and settle into a pace right with or just ahead of the leaders.  He told her that if she could keep her 50 splits at :30 and then come home in less than a minute on the last 100, she’d be there.

They worked on that pacing in warm-ups, doing pace 50s from the block at 27-low and 50s from a push at 30-flat.  Ariana was ready.

As Coach Palazzo and I stood on the side of the pool during the march up for the Championship finalists, he leaned over and said, “I think she has a sub-5:00 swim in her tonight”.

For the Final, Ariana went out in a much faster 27.23, right with the leaders.  Then she settled into a series of 50s with very fast splits – 29.21, 29.71, 29.85, 30.21, 30.42, 30.53, 30.74.  As the race proceeded through the 200 and then the 300, she started pulling away from the STAB girl and was still on the feet of the much faster SSSA girl.

We knew the math – average 10 splits of :30 and you go exactly 5:00.  With that great first split and her series of :29s, I was starting to get excited.  When her feet hit at the 400, she was at 3:57.91 – all she had to do was bring home the last 100 in better than 62.09.

30.56.  One 50 to go.  29.87!  She did it!  4:58.34!  A new Personal Record.  A new Team Record.  A Silver medal.  All-State honors.  And an All-American Consideration cut by .01!

I loved it after the race when she told me, “That hurt!”

Congratulations to Ariana.  Her hard work has paid off.  No one deserved that swim more.

Here is a video of Ariana’s race on Seton’s All-Time Greatest Swims YouTube Channel

Other Scoring Swimmers and Divers at States

You don’t score 183 total points in a meet as competitive as VISAA States without many of our athletes reaching the great heights of the top 16.  Here are the swimmers I have not yet mentioned:

• Lionel Martinez (SO) was a key contributor to both of our record-setting relays, but he was also a key contributor individually, scoring in both 100 Fly and 100 Free. In 100 Fly he scored in 12^th place with a 52.33.  There’s a Jameson Hill team record for 100 Fly on the board at 51.76 that I know Lionel wants to take down next year.  Then in an incredibly fast 100 Free, he finished in 8^th place with a Personal Record 47.99, cutting .32 from his previous best.  Lionel is now #2 on the Seton All-Time Top-20 list in both of those events, behind only the great Jameson Hill himself.
• Clara Condon (SR) rocked her 100 Fly to a surprising 13^th place finish. She entered the meet seeded 17^th with a season-best time of 1:01.72.  In Prelims on Friday morning, she went 1:01.02 to jump into the Consolation Final as the 14^th  Then in the Finals that night, she again dropped time to go 1:00.76 and score in 13^th place!
• Elodie Brox (SR) entered the meet seeded 16^th in 50 Free at 25.16. I was so pleased with her Prelim swim – she swam a new Personal Record 25.06 to qualify for Finals as the 13^th  Then in Finals, she unfortunately flinched on the start as was disqualified for a false start, but that didn’t nullify her amazing 25.06 which 5^th on the Seton All-Time Top 20 list!

And here are the divers I have not yet mentioned:

• Jacob Oswald (SR) finished 9th with 298.80 points and set a new 6-dive personal record of 201.40. Coach Keapproth shared that “Jacob had an overall fantastic meet, nailing all five of his preliminary round dives, but was frustrated by a failed dive in the semi-finals which was (in my humble opinion) an incorrect call by the referee. Regardless, he should be very proud of himself.”  I saw it and I agree!
• Maria Miller (JR) placed 10th with an 11-dive score of 285.45 setting a new personal record! Coach Keapproth shared that “Maria had a very consistently solid meet, not scoring below 4.5 on any dive.”
• Rose Waldron (SR) placed 12th with a score of 278.75. Coach Keapproth shared that, “after a difficult preliminary round, Rose showed maturity and leadership to have a great final round moving up several places in her last three dives.”
• Gus Kohlhaas (SR) finished 11th with 280.20 points.  Coach Keapproth shared, “He nailed his final dive, an inward 1.5 somersault, to move up in the final round. Gus was plagued by an injury this season, so I was happy that he was even able to finish his diving career despite his injury.”

Both the Boys and Girls Won the VCAC Conference Championship!

I know it doesn’t always seem like it, but I have a life in the wintertime outside of swimming, so I’m sorry that I was never able to publish a blog about our stellar performance in the VCAC Conference Championship Meet.

Right after the Conference Champs meet, I went from submitting our States’ entries, to developing the State Champs warm-up schedule, to preparing for a major presentation, to a Board dinner and meeting with MarginEdge in Arlington, to a National Sales Meeting with my largest customer in Asheville, NC (where I had to present), and then directly to the State Championship meet after Friday Prelims.   Whew!  I’m tired just typing that – and that doesn’t account for the physical demands that come with a Manufacturer’s Rep selling to sales reps at an off-site sales meeting, if you know what I mean.   Some of you in business do, I’m sure.

Anyway, there was a lot that happened at the VCAC Conference Championship Meet, but I’m going to have to stick with the highlights – like winning both the boys and the girls championships!  And, beating the great Trinity Christian girls in a meet with a scoring format that is to their advantage with so many USA swimmers!

There are lots of ways to approach these great results, so I am going to choose to start with the Meet scores, then the special recognitions, and then bring into focus our All-Conference Swimmers.  “All-Conference” is a recognition that is unique to the Conference Championship Meet.  Anyone who finishes in the top 3 in an individual event is recognized as All-Conference – we had a boatload of them.  Since relays are so important in a championship meet, I’ll wrap up with a summary of our top relay performances.

Here is how the scores turned out.  Remember that Oakcrest and John Paul the Great are Division I schools

Boys

1. Seton School                           461
2. Immanuel Christian              314
3. Trinity Christian                     170
4. Saint John Paul the Great     104
5. Fredericksburg Christian       43

Girls

1. Seton School                            345
2. Trinity Christian                      310
3. Fredericksburg Christian     175
4. Saint John Paul the Great    169
5. Oakcrest School                    145
6. Immanuel Christian             113

“Depth over Dominance” as Mr. Aldeguer’s AI-generated podcast extracted from the words of some of my previous blogs.  There were 16 individual swimming events, and we won the gold medal in only two of them – Ariana Aldeguer (SO) in 500 Free and Lionel Martinez (SO) in 100 Free – yet we won by these wide margins.

Of course, part of that equation was Diving where both Connor Koehr (SR) and Meghan Condon (FR) were individual conference champions and where we dominated the scoring.  The boys beat Trinity Christian 46-32, and the girls scored a total of 45 points while taking all three (3) of the medals.

Our girls won the championship over Trinity Christian by 35 points, and we beat Trinity Christian in girls diving by 26 of those points.  Thank you, Coach Ashley Keapproth, for keeping my stress level down during these girls meets with the Gryphons.

With so many incredible top swimmers on some of the other teams, most of the big accolades went to their swimmers, like Elizabth Bryan (JR) of Oakcrest and Tyler Phillips (FR) of Trinity Christian, but I’m pleased to report that Connor Koehr (SR) was voted by the Coaches as the Diver of the Meet.

Besides winning, however, the most exciting part of the results for me was that we had 16 unique swimmers and divers recognized as All-Conference a total of 21 times.  There are nine (9) individual events for boys and for girls, so that means that Seton athletes took almost 40% of the available All-Conference awards.

Here are the Seton All-Conference Swimmers and Divers:

• Connor Koehr (JR) (2X)
  • Conference Champion, Diving
  • Silver medal, 50 Free
• Lionel Martinez (FR) (2X)
  • Conference Champion, 100 Free
  • Silver medal, 200 Free
• Thiago Martinez (8) (2X)
  • Silver medal, 200 IM
  • Silver medal, 500 Free
• Max Wilson (SR) (2X)
  • Silver medal, 100 Back
  • Bronze medal, 200 Free
• Joe Borneman (SR)
  • Silver medal, 100 Free
• Liam Halisky (SR)
  • Bronze medal, 50 Free
• Greg Bauer (JR)
  • Bronze medal, 500 Free
• Patrick Kay (FR)
  • Bronze medal, 100 Back
• Ariana Aldeguer (SO) (2X)
  • Conference Champion, 500 Free
  • Silver medal, 100 Fly
• Meghan Condon (FR)
  • Conference Champion, Diving
• Elodie Brox (SR)
  • Silver medal, 50 Free
• Haley Fifield (SR)
  • Silver medal, 100 Back
• Maria Miller (SR)
  • Silver medal, Diving
• Clara Condon (SR)
  • Bronze medal, 200 IM
• Rose Waldron (SR)
  • Bronze medal, Diving
• Isabella McCook (SO)
  • Bronze medal, 500 Free

There is potentially a lot to say about the great performance of our relays, but for now, I’ll limit it to highlighting that we won the gold medal in four (4) of the six (6) contested relays:

• Boys Medley Relay of Connor Koehr (SR), Lionel Martinez (SO), Joe Borneman (SR), and Liam Halisky (SR)
• Girls Medley Relay of Ariana Aldeguer (SO), Clara Condon, SR), Anastasia Garvey (JR), and Elodie Brox (SR)
  • They went 1:50.39 and came within .14 seconds of our iconic girls’ medley relay record of 1:50.25 set at the 2011 State Championship Meet in Christiansburg, VA
• Boys 200 Free Relay of Connor Koehr (SR), Daniel Sokban (SO), Liam Halisky (SR), and Lionel Martinez (SO)
• Boys 400 Free Relay of Max Wilson (SR), Daniel Sokban (SO), Andrew Nguyen (SR), and Joe Borneman (SR)

It was a great Saturday, February 8, 2025, for Seton Swim & Dive, as you have just seen.

For those of you who are counting, those were the 56 and 57^th times that Seton has won either the regular season championship or the Conference Championship meet or both in a season.

Since the 1994-1995 season, our Conference Championship record is:

• 30 of 31 years for the girls, and
• 27 of 31 years for the boys

Not too shabby for a small independent Catholic high school in Manassas, VA.

Other Great Performances and Personal Records

I’ve spent a few thousand words describing the most impactful swims for Seton in the State Championship Meet and VCAC Champs, but we had a number of other great Personal Record performances too.

With our 39 new PRs at VCAC Champs and our 32 new PRs at VISAA States, it brings our final season total to 1,144 Personal Records!

That is simply remarkable – the second highest total in Seton Swimming history.  Here are the Personal Record performances that I have not previously mentioned:

• Betsy Arnold (FR) dropped .96 seconds in 100 Back at VCAC Champs.
• Greg Bauer (JR) cut .32 seconds from his 50 Free at VCACs and .68 seconds from his 500 Free at States
• Lucia Bingham (SR) beat her previous best in 100 Back by .39 seconds at VCAC Champs.
• Lucy Cunningham (SR) rocked the last meet of her career at VCAC Champs. She beat her 200 Free PR by 1.43 seconds and her 500 Free PR by 2.77 seconds.
• Annie Dusek (FR) made the most of her first swims on the Varsity team by cutting 5.26 seconds from her 100 Free PR.
• Haley Fifield (SR) dropped .29 seconds in the last 50 Free of her career at States.
• Anastasia Garvey (JR) showed her prowess in 100 Fly for next season with another drop of 1.26 seconds at States. That was after her 1.05 second drop in 200 IM and her 1.65 second drop in 100 Fly the week before..
• Gigi Hill (JR) finished strong with a .01 second PR in 50 Free.
• Liam Halisky (SR) cut .29 seconds from his flat-start 50 Free to go 23.21. He will end his career as the 7^th fastest sprinter in Seton history.
• Jack Herwick (FR) had three (3) PRs at VCAC Champs. He dropped .89 seconds in 100 Free leading off a relay, .34 seconds in 100 Fly, and .30 seconds in 50 Free.
• Daniel Hurley (JR) jumped onto the Varsity team at the last minute and performed well, cutting 1.31 seconds from his 50 Free PR.
• Dominic Judge (SO) killed it at VCAC Champs, especially in the 200 IM where he cut 3.21 seconds to make the State Championship team on the last possible weekend. He also cut .64 seconds in 100 Fly.
• Patrick Kay (FR) had a great swim in 100 Back at States, going 1:02.14 or .61 seconds faster than ever before. He should break the 1:00 barrier next season.
• Philomena Kay (SO) had three (3) PRs in the last two (2) weeks including a .58 second drop in 200 IM and a .10 second drop in 100 Breast at VCAC Champs, and a .08 second drop in 50 Free at States.
• Joey Lynch (FR) showed he belonged on the Varsity team with a 4.41 second PR in 100 Back at VCAC Champs.
• Avila Mantooth (FR) cut .44 seconds in 100 Free at VCAC Champs.
• Thiago Martinez (8) had a tremendous two (2) weeks of swimming. At VCAC Champs he dropped 1.00 seconds and 1.38 seconds in 100 IM and 500 Free, respectively.   Then at States, he dropped even more in the same two (2) events, by .49 seconds and 1.46 seconds, respectively.  He also cut .02 seconds from his 100 Free PR leading off a 400 Free Relay at States.
• Isabella McCook (SO) wrapped up her first season at Seton in style. At VCAC Champs, she dropped 4.94 seconds in 500 Free and .59 seconds in 50 Free leading off a relay.  Then, on the first day of States, she dropped another .66 seconds in 100 Fly.
• Drew Nguyen (SR) showed what a great swimmer he is over the past two (2) weeks. I was so pleased to see him drop .26 seconds to go 23.98 in 50 Free at VCAC Champs, his first time under :24.  I was also pleased to see him drop 1.99 seconds in 200 Free to go 2:01.63 in 200 Free.  At States, he jumped on to the all-time top-20 list for 100 Free at #16 after a .54 second drop.
• Luke Partridge (SO) cut another .14 seconds from his 50 Free PR at VCAC Champs.
• Gabby Russo (SO) looked great in 100 Back, and it showed with a 2.24 second PR.
• Daniel Sokban (SO) cut .03 seconds from his flat-start 50 Free PR at VCAC Champs. That bumped him to #11 on the Seton all-time top-20 list.
• Jonas Wilson (FR) just went crazy in the 500 Free at VCAC Champs where he beat his previous best by 35.02 seconds! He also dropped 2.50 seconds in 100 Breaststroke.
• Max Wilson (SR) has been a model of improvement all season long, and the last two (2) weeks of his swimming career were a continuation of that. At VCAC Champs, he had a 1.81 second PR in 100 Back, a .33 second PR in 100 Free, and a .14 second PR in 200 Free.  Then at States, he had a .70 second PR in 50 Back and a .50 second PR in 50 Free, both leading off relays.  I will also note that his anchor leg for our 400 Free Relay at the end of the meet at States 50.26!

Thank you Katie Condon

Thanks to the leadership of Mrs. Katie Condon, with her team of “House Moms” including Mrs. Judge, Mrs. Bingham, and Mrs. Nguyen, we had wonderful team meals that didn’t require long waits for restaurants to serve drinks and take orders.  I also noticed that several of the dads were dutifully fulfilling their assigned tasks also.  Mrs. Condon knows how to get things done!  I’m quite sure no other team was eating like we were at States this year!

I was particularly appreciative of Mrs. Condon’s tremendous organization and communication of all the required movements for the States trip.  With 40 students and 12 adults across 4 different properties and 7 different sessions, her countless hours of planning made the weekend smooth for all of us.

Thank you, Katie Condon!

Awards are All That Remain

Our Swimming Awards are set for Sunday, March 2^nd at Renaissance Montessori School starting at 2:00 p.m.  Thank you to Mrs. Judge, Mrs. Mantooth, Mrs. Partridge, Mrs. Blanchette, and Mr. Fifield for taking charge of the planning for the event.  I’m traveling a lot this week and next so I’m not exactly sure what is planned beyond that, but I think it may involve delicious treats.

Final Thoughts

It certainly has been another great season for Seton, and I’m quite encouraged by our future here.  I’ve written in past blogs of the great joy that comes from achieving things that you never thought possible by working hard, believing in yourself and taking a risk.  I saw countless examples of that this season, and I’ll tell you truth – you swimmers are not the only one who get great joy out of it.

At the end of recent seasons, I also spent a lot of time writing about our GEMS: Gratitude, Excellence, Meekness and Sacrifice.  Those are the values that have powered our team toward a commonality of purpose and a mutual support for one another to do always do our best with the gifts that God has provided.  I feel particularly good about the fact that we were able to tap into that power this year – and the results speak for themselves.

So even though the season is over, we are still a team.  I look forward to seeing you all support each other for the rest of the year outside the water the way our State Team supported each other this past weekend in the water.

Coach Jim Koehr