The Hargrave Tigers earned their third straight victory on Tuesday afternoon as they took home first place in the Hargrave Invitational against Roanoke Catholic School and Southwest Virginia Home School.
On the heels of a 47-39 victory over Fishburne Military School (1/22) where Hargrave saw strong individual and team performances, the Tigers returned to the ODAC to host the Hargrave Invitational, their first multi-team in-person meet this season. The Tigers did not disappoint, as they swam their way to an overall victory in addition to some strong individual performances.
Of these performances, none was stronger than senior captain Nathan Higdon’s afternoon in the pool. Higdon’s record-breaking afternoon started off with a personal best in the 200 Yard Individual Medley, where he swam a 1:57.61, which was 4.5 seconds faster than his previous best and 2 whole seconds faster than the Hargrave Swimming record in the 200 IM, which stood for 20 years. Next up, Higdon broke his own school record in the 100 Yard Breaststroke, a record that stood for 17 years until Higdon broke it last year as a junior. This year, Higdon swam the event in 59.77 seconds! “Nathan was in a class of his own for this swim meet!” remarked Head Coach Amanda Weishaar.
Team Scores:
Hargrave–54
Southwest Virginia Homeschool–26
Hargrave–70
Roanoke Catholic–12
Notable Performances Included:
Nick de Veer ’21–Finished in 1st place in both of his events (200 Yard Freestyle and 200 Yard Fly)
Nathaniel Duff ’23–Cut time in the 50 Yard Freestyle and the 100 Yard Freestyle (by 5 seconds); placed 2nd on the team in 100 Yard Freestyle
Ben Gregori ’21–Finished 3rd in 50 Yard Freestyle; Set personal best in 100 Yard Freestyle
Wesley Marquardt ’21–Placed 3rd in the 200 Yard Individual Medley; swam a personal best in the 200 IM (2 seconds faster than last year)
John Mauriello ’21–Finished in 3rd place in the 200 Yard Freestyle
Dimitri Mesidor ’24–Finished in 3rd place in the 100 Yard Freestyle
David Mueller ’21–Dropped 0.76 seconds in the 50 Yard Freestyle
Andrew Ponton ’22–Placed 1st overall in the 50 Yard Freestyle
John Ratchford ’22–Finished in 2nd place in the 100 Yard Backstroke; dropped seven seconds from previous time
Mason Rucker ’22–Dropped over 1 second in the 50 Yard Freestyle
Ethan Teluk ’22–Dropped nearly 2 seconds off the 100 Yard Freestyle; Led team to a 1-2-3 finish
Jay Thompson ’21–Dropped 3 seconds in the 100 Yard Breaststroke
The Tigers will be back in action on Tuesday, February 2nd as they are set to host Fishburne Military School in the ODAC. The meet will be streamed on Hargrave’s Facebook page and should get started promptly at 3:30 PM.
