Each year we kick off our season with a Time Trial Meet at the Freedom Center with a few goals in mind:
- Ensure that we have good baseline times on every swimmer against which we can measure improvement and with which we can prepare our meet and relay entries.
- Ensure that everyone clearly understands how Seton Swimming operates at a Meet, particularly arriving on time, warming up efficiently, showing great respect for the national anthem, getting to the blocks in time for your events, and starting a race with the whistle rather than voice commands.
- Gather data with which I need to prepare relay entries for each swimmer.
- Ensure that we have all the parent volunteers and supplies that we need to run our meets.
If those were the goals for our Time Trial meet on Friday, November 15th, then I would have to say that we were highly successful. Not only did we accomplish those goals, but several swimmers made their presence known, especially several swimmers who are new to the team. Watching the swimmers on Friday gave me a lot of faith in the future of Seton Swimming.
So Proud of Our Captains and Parent Volunteers
After I got back to our local Irish Pub here in Warrenton and reflected with several of my adult children (former Seton Swimmers, all) on the results of the Time Trial Meet, I found myself smiling broadly while thinking about how smoothly things went. It is no small feat running a smooth event that involves 105 kids and more than 30 parent volunteers.
What made me smile was one of the biggest reasons the event went so smoothly – the performance of our Captains. Led by Captain-of-Captains, Connor, I watched as Clara Condon, Haley Fifield, Connor Koehr, Liam Halisky, Molly Bauer, and William Sokban each took charge of their own sub-teams with a great balance of discipline and fun. Thank you also to Joe Bornman for stepping in to help.
Another thing I saw that made me smile was the great work our new Team Managers, Seth Kellogg and Elizabeth Francis. Led by Katie Condon, they took charge of an often-chaotic Clerk of the Course. Fortunately for all of us, this was the last time we will be using a Clerk of the Course 😉
The process of teaching 105 kids all the things involved in Seton Swimming’s pre-meet routine normally results in us starting the actual meet late – this year (for the 3rd year in a row), we actually started the first event early.
I really couldn’t believe how smoothly our two brief warm-up sessions went. Everyone was exactly where they were supposed to be, and for the most part, each heat simultaneously hit the water with the military precision that I will expect during our public warm-up sessions.
The highlight of the training session on our pre-meet routine for me is always our lesson on why and how we respect the National Colors before each meet – and not just because Orla Haggerty (SR) did such a great job singing it. Those of you who were there probably figured out what returning swimmers have known for a while – how we show gratitude for our country is very important to me. I’ve re-posted my blog on “Why and How Seton Swimming Respects our National Anthem and Colors”. Please read it.
And finally, I was so pleased with how quickly our large group of parent volunteers gelled to ensure our ability to host eleven (11) meets this season. Without that ability, we could never give 135 kids the opportunity to swim and dive at Seton because no other school would ever allow us to bring that many kids to one of their swim meets.
It is impossible to highlight every parent involved, but I will say how grateful I was to have so many parents step into significant leadership positions: Bill Dealey, Mike Judge, Melissa Sokban, and Hume Nguyen with the dry-deck officials, Richard Borneman heading up the wet-deck officials, Will Waldron and Chris Condon heading up the timers, Anne Judge and Kimberly Dalrymple leading meet set-up, and Katie Condon with the Clerk of the Course plus nearly everything else that was left undone.
And, of course, our head Referee, the Godfather of Seton Swimming, Charles Seltman. This is Mr. Seltman’s 31st season with Seton Swimming!
“E” is For Excellence – We focus on better. Good takes care of itself.
His Master said to him, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.”
- Matthew 25:23
This is my favorite quote in the bible – I have it hanging prominently in my house, and I’ve given a framed copy to every one of my children. It is from the Parable of the Talents, which every third year just happens to be the Gospel reading at Mass on the weekend of Time Trials.
For those of you who have been on the team for a while, you probably recognize it immediately as a frequent reference in my talks and interactions with you.
For those of you who are new to the team, do you remember the story?
The Master went on a journey and called in his three (3) servants. To one he gave five (5) Talents, to one he gave two (2) Talents, and to one he gave one (1) Talent – “to each according to his ability”. Then the servants with five (5) and two (2) doubled what they had, but the servant with only one (1) Talent buried his.
When the Master returned home, he settled accounts. To the ones with five (5) and two (2) Talents, he was well pleased: “Well done my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your Master’s joy.”
But to the servant who buried his Talent out of fear that he might fail, he was not pleased at all: “You wicked, lazy servant! Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
Whoa!
I have spent a lot of time pondering that parable. Jesus only had 1,000 days, so I don’t think he was saying anything superfluous. So, why did Jesus choose to tell that story?
Is there more to our path to heaven than just being a “good” person? Surely, you can be a “good” person without working really hard, or without continually improving yourself, or without taking any risks.
Can’t you?
So, there must be more to being a “good” person that just being pious, loving, and kind. More to the point we are discussing here though: is there a reason why, in Jesus’ story, the Master gave a different number of Talents to each servant?
In my 61 years in this world, I’ve noticed that it is quite normal to see that the people around me start with different levels of ability in various things. Doesn’t the fact that Jesus told this story sort of imply that that is part of God‘s plan?
If God wanted us all to be great swimmers in the objective sense, wouldn’t he have made us all 6’5” tall with big muscles, long arms, and tiny hips? And isn’t it interesting that the Master seemed equally pleased with the servant who returned five (5) Talents and the servant who returned two (2)?
In pondering this Parable, I have come to these inescapable conclusions:
- There IS more to being a “good” person than just being pious, loving, and kind.
- It doesn’t matter how many Talents we have been given as long as we use them to the best of our ability.
- If we have a Talent and are afraid to use it, we are wasting a gift from God.
This is the biblical foundation for my definition of Excellence in our GEMS – It’s not about good – it’s about better. Now let’s take this one more step and try to apply to all your lives.
On the continuum from massive failure to massive success, what is the middle called? “Average”? Or less charitably, “mediocre”? Lord, may my name and the word “mediocre” never be used in the same sentence!
Do you want to know the formula to guarantee mediocrity in your life? It’s simple. Only do the things that you like to do.
And what are the things we tend to like to do? The things that we are naturally good at – the things that come naturally to us. In other words, the things for which we were given a lot of Talents.
So, what about the things for which we were given only one (1) talent – say breaststroke? Are we not responsible for doubling that Talent too.
If you’ve read this far, I’m sure you know the answer. This is why I try to get as many of you as possible to swim in all eight (8) individual events during the season. I want to know the events where you are the weakest so that I can use them to push you out of your mediocre mindset.
Breaststroke is more than a swimming stroke. It is also a metaphor for anything in your life where you lack confidence. So, let’s double our Talents in breaststroke and then go crush the 200 IM, both literally and figuratively!
A Coming Out Party for Some New Swimmers
One thing that invariably happens at Time Trials is that several new swimmers make their presence known with outstanding early season performances. This year was no different:
- Isabella McCook (SO) is joining the team as a sophomore, and already looks like she will be a player on our “A” Relays this year. 48 for 100 Free and 1:07.17 are pretty strong times for this early in the season.
- Lara Martinez (7) is not eligible to score which is a good thing for our competitors. She really turned some heads on Friday, including mine. 1:01.61 in 100 Free and 1:17.14 are really fast times for a 7th grade girl!
- Charlotte Meadows (8) is a new part of our 8th grade class that showed that she will be a key part of our States’ team in the future.
- Luke Pillion (SO) is another swimmer joining us for the first time as a sophomore. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do after he has gone through our stroke progressions to refine his technique.
- Raffa Di Micoli (FR) looks like he can be another good one once he has a chance to refine his strokes this season.
- Emma Beltran (7) is a new young swimmer who shows a lot of promise based on what I saw Friday night.
- Will Judge (6) is on our homeschool team for Seton families with kids coming to Seton next year, and boy did he look good. In the water, he certainly didn’t swim like a normal 6th
Swimmers Who Were Great Examples to the Rest of Us
Time Trials can be a tough meet for a young swimmer because we ask them to swim multiple 100-yard races in quick succession – and then we cap it off with a 200-yard race. It takes a lot of courage to try something so far out of your comfort zone, but courage is one of the things I want you to learn from being on this team.
You can always do more than you think you can do!
For you newer swimmers, have faith. Here are some swimmers who demonstrated how much you can improve if you just keep working at it and don’t quit:
- Evie Mayer (8) wins the award for the most improvement over her last year’s times. How about dropping almost 2 full minutes (113.00 seconds) in 200 Free! That was after she cut more than 20 seconds (20.21 seconds) in 100 Free earlier in the meet. It was a great start to the season for Evie!
- Angela Andreu (FR) dropped 93.62 seconds in 200 Free, and she completed 50 Fly for the first time also.
- Julia Maranian (FR) was rewarded for her efforts in practice over the past year with a massive 23.15 second PR in 100 Backstroke.
- Eamon Haggerty (8) dropped a huge 22.78 seconds in 200 Free over his PR from last year.
- Lucy Herwick (8) smiled her way to two big PRs. In 200 Free she cut 22.30 seconds, and in 50 Free she cut 1.05 seconds.
- Penny Kramer (SO) really came on strong in 100 Breaststroke, beating her best time from last year by 20.91 seconds.
- Molly Bauer (SR), one of our captains, is a great example of a swimmer that all young swimmers should emulate – which is why she is a captain. Her 16.54 second PR in 200 Free put a big smile on my face.
- Veronica Bingham (8) came on Friday night ready to play. She dropped 16.68 seconds in 200 Free, 14.29 seconds in 100 Breaststroke, and 2.93 seconds in 50 Fly.
- Orla Haggerty (SR) is another senior who is such a great example of bringing joy to the hard work. I was so pleased to see her drop 15.48 seconds in 200 Free.
- Matthew Maranian (7) overcame any hesitation he may have felt, and he was rewarded with a 15.19 second PR in 100 Free. He also cut 4.26 seconds in 50 Free which was another big drop for him.
- Dominic Henry (FR) destroyed his previous best 100 Backstroke time by 11.96 seconds.
- William Orellana (7) is completely new to swimming, so it was very exciting to see him already cut 7.84 seconds since the first day of practice.
- Addi Hadro (7) has already dropped 6.84 seconds from the 50 Free time she swam just a little more than a week and half ago.
- Katie Cooley (7) rocked her 50 Fly, cutting 6.58 seconds from her PR last year.
- Jonas Wilson (FR) is going to be one to watch in the future. His 50 Fly was particularly good at 33.64, which was 6.53 seconds faster than his previous best. He also crushed the 30-second barrier in 50 Free at 28.53, a PR by 3.85 seconds.
- Paul Partridge (7) is still young, but that didn’t keep him from going a blazing fast 32.72 in 50 Fly, a 5.28 second PR. He also cut another 1.00 seconds from his 50 Free PR to come within .12 seconds of breaking the 30-second barrier. Not too shabby for a 7th
- Monica Irving (FR) beat her 50 Fly PR by a massive 5.12 seconds, and she also dropped 1.62 seconds in 50 Free. Her walls are excellent, and I think that is helping her times.
- Caroline Schroer (7) showed that she learned to swim Fly by the end of last season with her 4.77 second PR in 50 Fly at the beginning of this season.
And here are the swimmers who showed the courage required to swim 200 Free and 50 Fly in public for the first time:
- Will Judge (6)
- Dominic Sciscilo (6)
- Raffa Di Micoli (FR)
- Eamon Haggerty (8)
- CJ Pennefather (6)
- Dominic Henry (FR)
- Patrick Heiny (7)
- Joe Witter (FR)
- Phillip Saffian (8)
- John Goodman (FR)
- Philip Nguyen (7)
- Thomas Goodman (7)
- James Beltran (6)
- Rebecca Kramer (7)
- Chiara Gonzalez (7)
- Emma Beltran (7)
- Madelyn Fioramonti (7)
- Rose Ellis (JR)
- Gianna Pillion (8)
- Angela Andreu (FR)
- Adeline Youngblut (7)
- Siobhán Mayer (7)
- Evie Mayer (8)
- Jane Vaughan (8)
- Bella Gorman (7)
- Mia Nguyen (6)
- Bella Vaughan (8)
- Addi Hadro (7)
- GG Henry (7)
71 Personal Records Already!
Our team’s core values, or GEMs, are Gratitude, Excellence, Meekness and Sacrifice. The second GEM is Excellence, which has nothing to do with how good you are – it has everything to do with how much better you are. Over the years, I have noticed that, if we all get better, the winning seems to take care of itself.
From our first practice until Christmas, we will use large chunks of our practice time to build every stroke and every wall from scratch. This is the result of another truism that I learned long ago – the fastest way for a high school swimmer to get faster is to do the strokes right. Dramatic improvements will never come by just getting incrementally better at swimming inefficiently.
As you will see throughout the season, I will meticulously track Personal Records or “PRs” (i.e., Best Times) for each swimmer. That is why seeing new swimmers at Time Trials is so important, and that is why it was so disappointing to see some of you try to avoid scheduled events – to get a PR, you must have a time from which to improve.
It is nearly impossible to write a blog each week that mentions all 135 athletes on the Seton Swim & Dive teams, but one thing I will commit to – if you swim a PR, you are going to get highlighted. So, here are the swimmers not previously mentioned who swam at least one PR:
- Betsy Arnold (FR) cut 4.05 seconds from her 50 Fly PR
- Greg Bauer (JR) dropped 3.61 seconds in 50 Fly and just missed breaking :30 seconds.
- James Beltran (6) already cut 2.33 seconds from his time on the first day of practice.
- Lucia Bingham (SR) looked good in 50 Fly, swimming it 1.15 seconds faster than she did last year at this time.
- Meg Blanchette (SR) demonstrates a lot of the stroke drills in practice for me, so I was very pleased to see her focus on technique pay off with a 1.27 second PR in 50 Fly.
- Joe Borneman (SR) has come back for his senior season more focused than I have ever seen him, so it was no surprise to me to watch him drop almost 3 seconds (2.96 seconds) in 50 Fly.
- JJ Cooley (JR) broke :30 seconds for the first time in 50 Free after a .78 second PR
- Annie Dusek (FR) cut .47 seconds from her 50 Free PR.
- Ben Ellis (SO) has come to practice with a renewed focus this year. It was great to see Ben swim a 3.05 second PR in 50 Fly.
- Rose Ellis (JR) had a big 4.18 second PR in 100 Breast coupled with a .80 second PR in 100 Free.
- Haley Fifield (SR) led pre-season practices with some of her friends, and part of the result was a 1.76 second PR in 50 Fly.
- Kyleigh Fifield (SO) also benefited from pre-season practice with her own PR in 50 Fly – by 2.70 seconds.
- Anastasia Garvey (JR) beat her previous best 50 Free time by .10 seconds.
- John Goodman (FR) has already shown improvement after just a week and a half of practice. On Friday, he swam 50 Free 3.82 seconds faster than he did on the first day of practice.
- Bella Gorman (7) looked good in 50 Free, beating her time from election day by 2.33 seconds.
- Liam Halisky (SR) rocked his 50 Fly, breaking :30 seconds with a 3.09 second PR.
- Sophia Halisky (FR) also crushed her previous 50 Fly PR by 3.00 seconds.
- Gianna Henry (7) improved by .04 seconds in 50 Free. It is just a matter of time now before she breaks 1:00.
- Jack Herwick (FR) got me to look up during the 50 Free when he crushed his heat with a .88 second PR to go a blazing fast 25.60.
- Gigi Hill (JR) beat her 50 Fly PR by 1.82 seconds.
- Dominic Judge (SO) swam twice and PR’d twice. He cut 1.24 seconds in 50 Fly and 1.11 seconds in 50 Free. Both times were excellent.
- Claire Kay (7) is becoming a dual-threat swimmer and diver. On Friday, she showed the swimming side of the threat with a 1.06 second PR in 50 Free.
- Philomena Kay (SO) is totally focused on improving her strokes this season. I was pleased to see her drop 1.09 seconds in 50 Fly even though we haven’t worked on that yet.
- Connor Koehr (SR) dropped by .50 seconds in 50 Fly.
- Daniel Kohlhaas (8) beat his previous 100 Back PR by 3.87 seconds.
- Sofia Kohlhaas (FR) looked great in 50 Fly, lowering her PR by 2.38 seconds.
- Colette Kramer (JR) dropped another .19 seconds in 50 Free.
- Rebecca Kramer (7) swam 50 Free .43 seconds faster than she did on the first day of practice.
- Joey Lynch (FR) broke :30 seconds in 50 Free for the first time after his .93 second PR.
- Thiago Martinez (FR) went 26.31 in 50 Fly, an amazing time for a freshman and 2.33 seconds faster than last year.
- Lionel Martinez (SO) a USA swimmer who smoked his 50 Free and 50 Fly with season-best times of 22.58 and 25.05.
- Annabelle Mikkelson (8) dropped a huge 1.56 seconds in 50 Free.
- Maggie Mikkelson (7) also had a big drop in 50 Free, by 1.47 seconds.
- Drew Nguyen (SR) looked smooth in 50 Fly, and it showed with a 1.01 second PR.
- Mary Claire Osilka (JR) is building confidence in Fly after her 2.54 second PR in the 50.
- Luke Partridge (SO) had a strong swim in 50 Fly, beating his previous best by 2.70 seconds.
- James Reynolds (8) cut .62 seconds from his 50 Free PR.
- Maggie Schroer (FR) is another swimmer who is laser focused on refining her swimming technique. So far, so good with a .66 second PR in 50 Free.
- Daniel Sokban (SO) looked very strong in 50 Fly, beating his PR by 1.35 seconds.
- Rose Waldron (SR) crushed her 50 Fly PR by 2.81 seconds.
- Evan Wible (8) showed early improvement with a .50 second PR in 50 Free.
- Max Wilson (SR) is primed for a great senior season, and it started off strong with a 1.03 second PR in 50 Fly.
- Michael Zahorchak (SO) looked great during his 2.57 second PR swim in 50 Fly.
More Things That Worked Quite Well
I started this blog by highlighting several things that pleased me about the way we performed as a team on Friday night. Among those were the way the captains led, the way we handled the National Anthem, and the way our parent volunteers jumped in to run an excellent meet.
Let me highlight just a couple of others:
- Almost No Events Missed
- Unlike most of our upcoming meets, we used a modified Clerk of the Course at this meet, but starting with our meets in December, we will not provide you with that level of supervision. You are swimming on a high school swimming team now, so we make the assumptions that you can get yourself to where you are supposed to be. Overall, I was impressed with how well our young team was able to get themselves to where they were supposed to be, on time.
- Very Few Swimmers Skipped an Event
- We had very few people skip their events without talking to me first. Usually that is a problem at this first Time Trial meet, but I’m happy to say that, for the most part, it wasn’t as big a problem this year.
- I want to be clear on one thing going forward though – you are never allowed to skip an event without permission from me personally. Don’t go talk to Mom because you don’t want to talk to Dad.
- I was a swimmer once too, so I know how nervous you can get before a race. Being nervous is never a reason to skip an event.
- Notification by Swimmers Who Must Miss the Meet – Normally at this point in the season, we have kids who fail to show up to the meet without notifying me in advance – or notifying me after I have gone through the effort to post the entries. I’m happy to report that it only happened a few times this past weekend! Thank you!
- Please keep it up. If you have to miss a meet at any point for the rest of the season, please just send me an e-mail now.
Opportunities to Improve
There were only three (3) areas I saw on Friday night where we must improve:
- Streamlines and Underwaters
- Our mantra for this season is “Last ones up” meaning Seton Swimmers are universally great off the wall resulting in them surfacing last and out front off of every start and every turn.
- Even after working on it at practice, I was surprised to see so many kids pushing off on the surface and starting to swim right away. Why swim all 25 yards when you can glide underwater and make the pool seem like it is only 20- or 15-yards long?
- Arriving On Time
- Did you ever wonder why I publish such odd times for the start of our various events? It’s because that is exactly what time I want to start. When I say that you should be stretching on 6:39 p.m., I do not mean “about 6:39 p.m.”. I mean for you to be there before 6:39 p.m. so that you can be ready to go exactly at 6:39 p.m.
- Leaving Early
- High School Swimming is not an individual sport – we are a team. We don’t leave to go home when we are done individually. We stay and cheer for our teammates until the very end. Then we leave when we are done as a team. Can you imagine a football player going to the locker room before the game is over because he is done playing?
- In our regular season meets, the final event is the 400 Freestyle relay. We make it a tradition at Seton to have the entire team in the team area by the side of the pool cheering for the swimmers in this final relay. No one should be in the locker room or the bathroom during this final event.
Final Notes
- For this coming week, we’ll finish our work on freestyle – so don’t miss practice! We build every stroke and every wall with every kid, from scratch, each season between Election Day and Christmas. If you miss a practice, you miss that lesson until next season. There is no time to go back.
- Look out for Matt Schroer’s upcoming guest blog on setting goals for the season.
I was so pleased to see so many of you on deck with me and the other coaches for morning practice. Your smiles, your laughter, and your desire to get better make it fun for me also.
See you tomorrow morning,
Coach Jim Koehr