Swim Invitational Recap!

The Hargrave Tigers hit the pool last week for their first competition of 2023. Check out the recap below from Head Coach, Amanda Weishaar!

The first swim meet of 2023 happened Friday. Our opponents were: Virginia Epicospal School; Christian Heritage School; and Chatham Hall. With being back on campus for just a week it was going to be a good warm up swim meet and allow for the boys to shake out the cobwebs.

200 Medley Relay:

A Relay: Isaiah Walton, ’26 (Silver Spring, MD); Sebastian Medina, ’23 (Danville, VA); John Wall, ’24 (Mount Juliet, TN); and Aiden Dykstra, ’24 (Ten Sleep, WY) came in 2nd overall.

B Relay: Andrew Francis, ’23 (Stephenson, VA); Nathaniel Duff, ’23 (Vernon Hill, VA); Kelsten Hudson, ’25 (Danville, VA); and Roger Adams, ’23 (Chatham, VA) came in 3rd overall.

200 Freestyle:

Stephen Yang, ’24 (Oakridge, NC) swam his 1st 200 Freestyle and he came in 3rd overall and 1st for HMA!

Isaac Wadsworth, ’26 (San Antonio, FL) dropped 6.55 seconds and came in 4th overall!

50 Freestyle:

Bryce Adkins, ’23 (Gretna, VA) came in 1st overall! He is just outside his personal best and qualifying for State. But with an injury his time was impressive!

Victor Beilstein, ’26 (Cornelius, NC) came in 1st for his heat and 2nd overall for HMA! This was Victor’s first individual event outside of the relays!

Archie Hooper, ’25 (Wilmington, NC) came in 2nd for his heat and 3rd overall for HMA!

Nicholas Meyers, ’23 (Alexandria, VA) was swimming in his first swim meet! Nick did a great job and finished 4th for HMA!

Elijah Willette, ’25 (Chatham, VA) was just outside his PB!

Aidan White, ’23 (Danville, VA) dropped 5.74 seconds. This is especially impressive in such a short distance!

Dax Alexander, ’25 (Kalispell, MT) was just outside his PB!

100 Butterfly:

Sebastian Medina, ’23 (Danville, VA) dropped a further 0.03 seconds from his PB and came in 1st overall!

100 Freestyle:

John Wall, ’24 (Mount Juliet, TN) was neck-and-neck for 75 yards! He was just pipped at the end but he came in 2nd overall!

John Classen, ’25 (McLean, VA) dropped 6.76 seconds and came in 2nd for HMA!

Carson Pan, ’27 (Bellevue, WA) dropped 0.54 seconds and came in 3rd overall for HMA!

500 Freestyle:

Alex Vorontsov, ’27 (Indian Land, SC) volunteered to swim the dreaded 500! He looked exhausted at the end of it, but as the only male competitor, he came in 1st! True guts and determination. His 50 yard splits were fairly close together so he was able to maintain the pace almost the entire time! Super happy and super proud of his effort!

200 Freestyle Medley:

Unfortunately both of our relays DQ’d with one of the swimmer’s from each relay leaving the blocks early. Unfortunately they missed out on coming in 2nd and 3rd place.

100 Backstroke

Isaiah Walton, ’26 (Silver Spring, MD) was just outside his PB but he came in 3rd overall and 1st for HMA!

Charles Rausch, ’25 (Raleigh, NC) showed great courage in this event. Charles swam the 200 IM earlier and was unfortunately DQ’d on his backstroke. And now he had to swim another 100 of it! Not only did he swim it without a DQ, but he also came in 2nd for HMA and 4th overall! Awesome job.

Carson Pan, ’27 (Bellevue, WA) was swimming this competitively for the 1st time. He came in 5th overall and scored us some much needed points!

Dax Alexander, ’25 (Kalispell, MT) dropped an enormous 7.56 seconds from his previous best!

100 Breaststroke:

This event is very technical and you are either a natural or you are not! But I had 3 swimmer’s who wanted to try it for the first time. So, the challenge was set and they did great!

Nathaniel Duff, ’23 (Vernon Hill, VA) was fighting back and forth the entire way. Nathaniel had the final burst of speed and finished 3rd overall!

John Classen, ’25 (McLean); Isaac Wadsworth, ’27 (San Antonio, FL); and Archie Hooper, ’25 (Wilmington, NC) did themselves proud! They not only swam the entire thing without a DQ, but they finished with a smile on their faces! There is a lot of potential here, and it really showed how much it meant to them!

400 Freestyle Relay:

Sebastian Medina, ’23 (Danville, VA) swam a :53.67 and just missed qualifying for State by 0.54 seconds!; Junior Verwest, ’26 (Fort Myers, FL); Aiden Dykstra, ’23 (Ten Sleep, WY); and John Wall ’24 (Mount Juliet, TN) swam another qualifying State time, so Junior Verwest is swimmer number 5 who will represent the school next months at State!

Overall, it was a good warm up meet with some great drops and some lessons to learn. 

The scores were:

HMA 126    24 Christian Heritage Academy

HMA 92     101 Virginia Episcopal School

The next swim meet is at home on Tuesday January 17th starting at 4:00 pm.