Swimmers Shine in Nail-biting Victory!

During their second meet of the season, the Hargrave Tigers performed extremely well in the Onishi-Davenport Aquatics Center! Check out this recap from Head Coach, Amanda Weishaar:

The 2nd swim meet of the 2022-2023 season was another fun affair with another large number of spectators. The place was packed as we hosted the local public schools consisting of: Martinsville High School; George Washington High School; Magna Vista High School; Bassett High School; and Halifax County High School. 

Summary:

  • 200 Medley Relay: One relay was entered consisting of Isaiah Walton (26) Silver Spring, MD; Nathaniel Duff (23) Vernon Hill, VA; Stephen Yang (24) Oakridge, NC; and Bryce Adkins (23) Gretna, VA. It was a closely fought contest between the teams as they jostled back and forth between each of the four strokes. The boys did a fantastic job of coming in 3rd against some tough competition.
  • 200 Freestyle:
    • Charles Rausch (24) Raleigh, NC came in 2nd overall and 1st for HMA! This was his first attempt at trying the 200 and he put in a solid performance overall.
    • John Classen (25) McLean, VA was unable to beat his personal best but his 5th place finish gave us 2 valuable points.
  • 200 Individual Medley:
    • This was a conflict of interest for me as I had both one of my HMA swimmer’s and one of my club swimmers competing (who goes to George Washington HS and is additionally Coach Cathy’s son!). So, I had a vested interest in seeing them both perform successfully!
    • Sebastian Medina (23) Danville, VA came in first overall and was just outside his personal best time by less than a second! However, his time was fast enough to qualify for State by 7.5 seconds!
    • FYI Jack Jones of GWHS did drop 5 seconds from his personal best and came in 2nd overall! 
  • 50 Freestyle:
    • This was going to be a fun event for so many reasons!
      • Heat 2 – this was the first swim meet for Aidan White (23) Danville, VA and he finished in a respectable time of :47.07. This was also the first time for Archie Hooper (25) Wilmington, NC to swim the short distance and he swam it in :37.01 which was another great time.
      • Heat 3 – this was going to be close! Both Elisha Dixon (27) Ellicott City, MD  and Alex Vorontsov (27) Indian Land, SC started with the exact same times. Additionally Elijah Willette (25) Chatham, VA was just 0.60 seconds faster! There was a lot of back and forth through the 50 yards. Elisha did his flip turns which was great! It ended up with Alex being the victor with Elijah just 0.44 seconds behind, and Elisha being just 0.08 seconds and coming in third out of the group! It was fun to watch the rivalry and with just 0.52 seconds between them!
      • Heat 4  – this was the chance for Aiden Dykstra (23) Ten Sleep, WY to qualify for State in his first individual event. Aidan was just 0.56 seconds off qualifying last year. This year he qualified and dropped a huge 1.51 seconds from his previous fastest time! His time allowed him to come in 2nd overall and much cheering and backslapping from his fellow teammates!
  • 100 Butterfly:
    • Again this was a conflict of interest as Jack Jones from GWHS was up against my swimmer Patrick Souza (25) Clarksville, VA.
    • Jack came in 1st overall and dropped 20 seconds from his personal best.
    • But also very impressive was Patrick, with water in his goggles for the entire event, dropping 21.41 seconds from last year! He did phenomenal for the event and gave us 5 valuable points.
  • 100 Freestyle:
    • This was a new event for every participant.
    • Stephen Yang (24) Oakridge, NC came in first overall by 0.01 seconds!
    • Isaiah Walton  (26) Silver Spring, MD came in 2nd for HMA and scored us 2 points.
    • Dax Alexander  (25) Kalispell, MT came in 3rd for HMA.
    • Zachary Lu (27) Redmond, WA did his first official swim meet dive off the starter blocks! Super proud of him for overcoming this obstacle!
    • Zain Satti (25) Danville, VA rounded up the boys with a strong and steady performance.
  • 200 Free Relay:
    • A Relay – consisting of: Bryce Adkins (23) Gretna, VA; Nathaniel Duff (23) Vernon Hill, VA; Aiden Dykstra (23) Ten Sleep WY; and Sebastian Medina (23) Danville VA. They worked hard and came in 1st overall and was just 2.39 seconds off qualifying for State!
    • B Relay – unfortunately one of our swimmer’s left the starting block before his teammate touched the wall so the relay was disqualified. Too excited to get their swim in!
  • 100 Backstroke:
    • Heat 1 – consisting of Zachary Lu (27) Redmond, WA and Dax Alexander (25) Kalispell, MT. Zachary was unfortunately disqualified as he tried his new backstroke flip turn but he was unable to control it to qualify. Overall I am proud that he was trying it in practice and attempted it for the swim meet. I know he will accomplish this new and challenging skill. Dax successfully swam the entire 100 and posted a respectable time of 2:16.51
    • Heat 2 – everyone dropped time!
      • Isaiah Walton  (26) Silver Spring, MD again came in 1st for HMA and 3rd overall. He dropped 0.51 seconds and scored us 4 points.
      • Archie Hooper   (25) Wilmington, NC dropped 10.91 seconds and coming in 2nd for HMA; 5th overall and scoring us 2 valuable points!
      • Elisha Dixon  (27) Ellicott City, MD had a stellar performance by dropping 18.74 seconds!
      • Zain Satti (25) Danville, VA also dropped time by 3.22 seconds!
  • 100 Breaststroke:
    • Sebastian Medina (23) Danville, VA had a personal goal to qualify for States in this event. He missed out of it last year by a mere 0.25 seconds. In his first attempt this season he qualified for States and dropped 1.05 seconds. To say he was ecstatic was an understatement! It was evident how much it meant to him. Sebastian came in 1st overall.
    • Charles Rausch (24) Raleigh, NC had another strong performance and he came in 4th overall gaining us 3 points.
    • Alex Vorontsov (27) Indian Land, SC came out of the pool with a pulled shoulder muscle so he could not drop any time. He just missed out on securing a personal best by less than 3 seconds.
  • 400 Free Relay:
    • Always a great way to finish a swim meet!
    • A Relay –  Bryce Adkins (23) Gretna, VA had a personal best in his 100 yards by swimming in under a minute for the first time!  Stephen Yang (24) Oakridge, NC;  Kelsten Hudson (25) Danville, VA; and Aiden Dykstra (23) Ten Sleep, WY came in first overall.
    • B Relay –  John Classen (25) McLean, VA;  Elijah Willette (25) Chatham, VA; Isaac Wadsworth (26) San Antonio, FL; and Nathaniel Duff (23) Vernon Hill, VA came in 3rd overall. A strong highlight was Nathaniel who had the smoothest Freestyle I had ever seen from him during his leg. 

So, overall a strong performance with many new personal bests, and the added advantage of incorporating some new skills and techniques that they learned this week and put into practice.

Now onto the scores. This was set up as a Championship Meet and not a dual meet due to the number of teams competing.

HMA – 93

HCHS – 89

GWHS – 40

BHS – 32

MVHS – 7

MHS – 0

So, HMA WIN!