An unfortunate high water temperature was against us that evening so doors were opened and multiple coolers of ice were made available to all 8 teams – Chatham Hall, Salem Academy, The Covenant, Roanoke Catholic, Martinsville High School, Virginia Episcopal School, and Miller. It was our first swim/dive meet back from the Break with a new opportunity to set some PB’s and earn themselves a team reward!
- 200 Medley Relay:
- Zach Hall, Leon Qin, Eddie Malin, and John Classen came in 4th overall. Their time of 1:56.74 was just 0.73 seconds off qualifying for States!
- 200 Freestyle Relay:
- Archie Hooper came in 1st for Hargrave and dropped 11.77 seconds! The 1st PB of the evening!
- Thanh Nguyen swam his first ever 200 in competition which is another PB!
- 200 Individual Medley:
- I promised the boys that they had now done this event this year, they do not need to repeat it this year! But next year……..
- Jake Bradley came in 1st for Hargrave. This was his 1st ever attempt in the hardest event and he smashed it! Another PB!
- Will Shen came in 2nd and he also smashed it in his 1st ever attempt in this event! Another PB!
- 50 Freestyle:
- Shawn Dunkle came in 1st for Hargrave and came in 8th overall. Shawn dropped 0.70 seconds and he is now only 1.01 seconds off qualifying for States! Another PB!
- Jerry Li came in 2nd for Hargarve and he dropped 0.47 seconds. Another PB!
- Brown Gaddy in his 1st ever swim meet for Hargrave actually swam his event in under 30 seconds! (:29.61). A great start and a new PB!
- Dylan Herrera rounded out our group and he dropped 3.11 seconds! Ding, ding, another PB!
- 100 Butterfly:
- 8th Grader Jaeden Frick was our sole swimmer in his 1st attempt in this event. He soldiered through, came in 6th overall, and scored out first points of the evening! Obviously a new PB!
- 100 Freestyle:
- Jack Alviani came in 1st for Hargrave. A new PB with a time of 1:16.78
- Primarily a breaststroker, Jake Phetteplace came in 2nd for Hargrave. A new PB!
- Jacob Crowdle who is showing some great technique in practice this week came in 3rd. A new PB!
- Shawn Masese last swam this individual event 367 days ago. In that time Shawn set a new PB as he dropped an amazing 41.31 seconds! Way to go Shawn!
- 500 Freestyle:
- A funny to start. We had one swimmer in this event and when he asked me the day before what he was swimming I said “500 Free”. He said “one event?” I said “yes” and he started jumping up and down, smiling, and shouting how he only had 1 event! I was obviously very happy to see that someone was actually happy about swimming the longest event. On the day of the meet, the same swimmer came up to me and said “500 free?” and I said “yes, the same as I told you yesterday”. He said “but I thought you said 50 free!”. I replied “well at least you’re only swimming 1 event!”
- Andy Li came in 4th overall, set a new PB and scored 4 points!
- 200 Freestyle Relay:
- A Relay: Kelsten Hudson, Shawn Dunkle, Eddie Malin, and Leon Qin came in 4th overall. Lead off Kelsten swam a :25.68 which qualifies him for States in the 50 Bonus Freestyle! A new PB!
- B Relay: Zach Hall, Jaeden Frick, Archie Hooper, and Jerry Li came in 6th overall. Zach’s lead off time of :25.46 also qualified him for States! Another PB!
- 100 Backstroke:
- Breaststroker Jake Bradley swam out of his comfort zone (again), and came in 1st for Hargrave. A new PB!
- Thanh Nguyen came in 2nd for Hargrave and as a new event, he also swam a PB!
- Will Shen rounded out the team with a new event and a new PB!
- 100 Breaststroke:
- Jake Phetteplace came in 5th overall and the 1st for Hargrave. Jake has worked exceptionally hard this week on his technique and it paid off with a 8.74 second drop! Ding, ding, another PB! And 3 points!
- Jaeden Frick was starting to struggle with the water temperature but he showed great grit and determination by attempting this event. He dropped 0.23 seconds. Another PB and another point for the team!
- Jack Alviani had also been working on his technique and he dropped 3.66 seconds! Another PB for him! And he did this with water in his goggles!!
- 400 Freestyle Relay:
- A Relay: Eddie Malin, Leon Qin, Kelsten Hudson, and Zach Hall came in 3rd overall and scored 3 points! Additionally they also produced a qualifying State time so Eddie Malin now joins the team as our 5th alternate! Plus Eddie’s lead off time is a new PB after dropping 1.26 seconds!
- B Relay: Dylan Herrera, Jacob Crowdle, Shawn Masese, and Brown Gaddy ended our swimming evening. Lead off Dylan Herrera dropped an impressive 12 seconds on his previous best 100 Freestyle!
So that means that the entire swim team all scored new PB’s in their individual events! (24 new PB’s!) And no one was DQ’d! I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of them for taking on the challenge and coming through!
- 1 Meter Springboard Diving:
- To qualify for States the divers must either:
- Score 140 or more points for each of 2 sets of 6 dive meets (completely different dives) with the 2nd dive meet dives to be recorded and submitted
- Score 200 or more points in 1 11-dive meet
- Currently our boys have been participating in 6 dive meets. Their first 11-dive meet will be on January 21st! This is their best chance to qualify for States outright!
- Alex Moore came in 1st with 182.75 points (for 6 dives!). Alex has enough dives and is ready for the 11-dive meet!
- 1st year diver Kelsten Hudson came in 2nd with a new PB of 162.45. He also has enough dives for the 11-dive meet!
- Twin, and the biggest supporter/competitor Keylen Hudson came in 3rd with 158.05. He also has enough for the 11-dive meet!
- Another 1st year diver Zach Hall is just 2.25 points to meet the 140 points! This was a PB for Zach!
- Kyle Conlon in his 1st fully completed dive meet with a PB of 114.75!
- To qualify for States the divers must either:
So another 3 PB’s from our divers! A total of 27 across the entire team!
We started the swim meet with 65 PB’s!
The team goals for PB is:
70 – ice cream social
95 – Movie Trip
120 – Pie the Captains and Coaches
145 – Team Dinner
Therefore, drum roll please, we have a new PB total of 92! So, the Captain’s will work on an ice social within the next 10 days for the team to celebrate their accomplishments! We will do this with a fun night time swim where we only turn on the emergency lights and we light up the pool with glow sticks!
For the team scores, the amazing night of what the boys achieved is not reflected in the numbers. I cannot stress enough how proud of them I am. They stepped up, tried some new events, overcame the high water temperature, and represented Hargrave and each other as brothers and supporters:
The Covenant – 117
Virginia Episcopal School – 76
Miller – 36
Martinsville – 14
Roanoke Catholic – 13
Hargrave – 12
The next swim/dive meets are:
- Tuesday January 21st JV Only swimming and 11-dive meet for the dive team. Start time 4:30 pm
- Thursday January 23rd swimming and 6-dive meet. Start time 4:30 pm
Thank you all for the amazing support. I am requesting some adults (and Corps attendance if possible) for the JV meet (21st) and to help support at least 3 divers who should qualify for States in diving. I will provide a timeline as soon as I can, as we may adjust the diving to accommodate the spectators.
