The Hargrave Swimming & Diving team wrapped up their first semester slate on Friday, December 10th. Here is a recap of the meet from Head Coach, Amanda Weishaar!
This was the last swim meet of the 2021 year and the boys had worked hard these past couple of weeks. The main focus this week was on slowing down and letting their bodies recover a little during practice so as not to injure themselves. The boys played water polo for half of one day and they watched the middle school basketball team in their first game of the season for half of another day.
Even with these mini breaks the boys looked tired. They still had the same enthusiasm and determination but you could see that 100% on Friday was a normal 80-90% on any other day. Also with this being only 2 teams they had less rest between each event which I know compounded their tiredness. They fought hard and valiantly but unfortunately we were missing part of the team due to academic restrictions and this really cost us overall. It was a lot closer than our swim meet at FUMA on November 30th, and those that participated should hold their heads up high and be recognized for still trying their best. It was a close contest but at the end of the day the scores were: HMA – 115; FUMA – 131.
As always there are many positives to be taken away from each swim meet. These are the highlights:
- 200 Medley Relay – both of our relay teams scored points by finishing 2nd and 3rd overall
- 200 Freestyle
- Sebastian Medina (Danville, VA ’23) qualified for State in this event (his 3rd individual event this season) and finishing 1st overall
- Kelsten Hudson (Danville, VA ’25) who at the start of the season said he never wanted to swim a 100 of anything, only 50’s; came in 2nd overall!
- Daniel Shepler (Memphis, TN ’27) was neck and neck with Kelsten until the last 25 yards when he just ran out of energy, but he was successful in swimming his longest event non-stop. I am super proud of his accomplishment as a 7th grader, when many older boys would not even attempt the event! He has the right to hold his head up high.
- 200 IM – Patrick Souza (Halifax, VA ’25) swam his first 200 IM. Patrick has done alot of first events this year in competition. This event is super technical and just a minor mistake can cause a DQ (disqualification). Patrick did brilliantly and successfully swam each of the 4 strokes. I said to him at the end “I’m so stinking proud of you!” and Patrick gave one of his rare smiles that day!
- 50 Freestyle. This event was where the tiredness had set in for most of the swimmers.
- Aiden Dykstra (Ten Sleep, WY ’23) was the only one to drop time from :27.52 to :27.25 which sees him just 1.11 seconds of qualifying for State in the 50 Freestyle Bonus event. This makes him the 2nd fastest 50 Freestyler on the team! Aiden came in 1st for HMA; and 2nd overall.
- Junior Verwest (Fort Myers, FL ’26) was the youngest competitor in this event and he came in 3rd overall! Looks like we’ll have to add him in more of the 50 Freestyle events!
- 100 Butterfly – Bryce Adkins (Gretna, VA ’23) swam his first individual Butterfly event. He did an awesome job and plowed his way through. I know he was extremely tired at the end as I didn’t receive my usual “not again coach!”. Just the shaking of the head! But his efforts saw him come in 2nd overall and a much needed 6 points.
- 100 Freestyle – saw the boys come in 3rd and 4th overall. 2 strong positives were from our 7th graders: Carson Pan (Bellevue, WA ’27) who dropped over 4 seconds; and Daniel Shepler swimming his first 100 Freestyle after a energy sapping 200 Freestyle earlier in the night.
- 500 Freestyle:
- “Legs” Classen (McLean, VA ’25) continues to volunteer to swim the 500 Freestyle. With 3 500 events over 10 days this really was an uphill challenge but he stayed fairly consistent after his first 100 yards. The splits look positive for future 500 events.
- Isaac Wadsworth (San Antonio, FL ’26) swam his first 500 Freestyle event. He even volunteered! What was impressive about Isaac’s swim was that he was able to do the entire thing with flip turns! It was great to watch him stay focused and work hard.
- 200 Free Relay
- A Relay:
- Sebastian Medina swam the lead-off leg in :25.41 which qualifies him for the 50 Freestyle Bonus. He is just 1.27 seconds off qualifying for the 50 Freestyle outright.
- Roger Adams (Chatham, VA ’23) brought the team from behind and came in 1st in his leg, which brought the boys up from their feet. The noise was deafening.
- B Relay:
- Kelsten Hudson swam the lead-off leg and he dropped his 50 Freestyle time by another 0.22 seconds!
- The boys in this relay gave us another valuable point
- A Relay:
- 100 Backstroke:
- Bryce Adkins recovered enough from his 100 Butterfly to drop 4 seconds on his 100 Backstroke
- Zain Satti (Danville, VA ’25) dropped an impressive 12 seconds. Zain has been working on this stroke more in practice and it really paid off!
- 100 Breaststroke:
- Sebastian Medina dropped another nearly another 2 seconds off his previous time. He is only 0.47 seconds off qualifying for State in another event.
- Sonny Le (Houston, TX ’23) and Ethan Teluk (Manilus, NY ’22) struggled as they failed to drop time. I know these boys have been working hard during practice so this upcoming break will give them their energy reserves back.
- Carson Pan swam his first 100 Breaststroke. He had demonstrated some good technique in practice so this was a great opportunity for him to try it at a competition level. This looks promising for the coming years.
- 400 Freestyle Relay:
- Unfortunately a member of the A relay was a little too enthusiastic and left the blocks before his teammate had reached the wall. So they earned a DQ.
- This left our B relay (that consisted of swimmers who volunteered to take on an extra event to give us the maximum number of chances in this event) to score the only points.
- Great effort:
- Isaac Wadsworth
- Zain Satti
- Legs Classen
- Kelsten Hudson
- Great effort:
- This just left the diving portion of the evening. FUMA had 4 divers; HMA had 1 diver (unfortunately 1 pulled out due to injury); and 1 diver from Chatham Hall. Jagger Ellis (Parker, CO ’27) was our sole diver. He has had a niggling injury and was unable to perform the 2nd twist in his dive which led to a failed dive and his lowest score this season. But the practice is doing him good and he’s still very much enthusiastic about the sport. His efforts still allowed us to score some points.
