Good evening all,
Thank you to Assistant Coach Harris for the morning donuts and Mrs. Classen for the Gatorade and additional donuts!
Thank you to the vast number of parents who attended in person. All the boys truly appreciated the support!
In 2 separate vehicles the dive/swim team traveled to the Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center in Manassas. This was the first time that diving had been able to compete due to staffing issues. Coach Willette took 5 divers and they left at 5:00 am compared to the swimmer’s who left at 8:00 am. We had 9 swimmers, and 5 divers.
FYI the DII Invitational is a swim/dive meet just for DII schools (less than 160 9-12th grade students) because at States, they are mixed (DI and DII). This is a real opportunity for the team to experience a “state” meet as there were over 400 swimmers/ divers this year!! Additionally, due to the earlier required entries, the “seed time” does not match the latest results because of the Bedford Y meet.
For the swim team, it was a traditional stop at Bojangles about 2 hours in. We always receive a warm welcome and the boys dined on a “healthy’ choice of deep-fried chicken! The swimmer’s arrived in time to watch some of the divers compete (they started 30 minutes early due to the high number of divers this year). The diver’s mentioned that the scoring was “harder” but this is normal when competing at this level. It gave them some real-world diving experience, and allowed them to prepare for States.
The divers finished with the following places:
- Alex Moore 297.40 (3rd place)
- Kelsten Hudson 244.85 (7th place)
- Keylen Hudson 222.85 (9th place)
- Eli Willette 185.70 (12th place)
- John Classen 181.90 (15th place)
With the extra divers, swimming started late by 10 minutes. Then it just kept going on…and on…. and on….
- 200 Medley Relay:
- A Relay: Jacob Crowdle, Jake Phetteplace, Jack Hatch, and Jack Alviani. A great start with a first 50 backstroke for Jacob Crowdle, and an injured finger with Jack Alviani
- 200 Freestyle:
- We did not have anyone in this event.
- 200 Individual Medley:
- Jaeden Frick stepped up from the 100 IM to the 200 IM. Jaeden did a great job sticking with the plan of technique over speed. Jaeden came in 21st place with a new PB (128)
- 50 Freestyle:
- With 10 heats, there was a lot going on!
- Leon Qin came in 18th overall and was just outside his PB!
- Eddie Malin came in 2nd place in his heat and 30th place. This was not a PB (:26.41 from his Bedford Y meet)
- Brown Gaddy came in 4th place in his heat and 43rd place and dropped 0.95 seconds (129)
- Archie Hooper came in 5th place in his heat and 44th place and was just outside his PB!
- 100 Butterfly:
- We did not have anyone in this event.
- 100 Freestyle:
- Jake Phetteplace came in 2nd place in his heat and 50th overall. Jake dropped 5.3 seconds! (130)
- Jacob Crowdle came in 5th for his heat and he dropped a massive 10.13 seconds!
- 500 Freestyle:
- We did not have anyone in this event.
- 200 Freestyle Relay:
- A Relay: Jaeden Frick, Eddie Malin, Archie Hooper, and Leon Qin came in 5th in their heat, and15th overall. Jaeden Frick came in :27.81. A new PB! (131).
- B Relay: Brown Gaddy, Jack Alviani, Jake Phetteplace, and Jack Hatch came in 2nd in their heat, and 19th overall.
- 100 Backstroke:
- Jacob Crowdle had not swam the 100 Backstroke since November 2023! Jacob was not happy to swim this event and I provided a compromise but Jacob stepped up and tried. To say I was impressed by his technique was an understatement. Jacob battled through the entire event…with a quad cramp……to come in 1st for his heat!……and a time drop of 28.54 seconds! Jacob played coy, but the smile gave it away!! (132)
- 100 Breaststroke:
- Jaeden Frick came in 2nd in his heat and 28th overall. Jaeden dropped 1.41 seconds! (133).
- 400 Freestyle Relay:
- A Relay: Eddie Malin, Jack Hatch, Archie Hooper, and Leon Qin came in 4th in their heat and 12th overall!!
For team scores:Hargrave came in 14th place out of 25 schools!
The meet kept going on… and on… and on due to the extra time handing out the medals at each break. Thank you to Flik for providing some extra bagged meals. We shared the extra with 3 schools who also traveled long distances, and were struggling to find food at the meet and/or on the journey home. It was great to give back.
On our way back, thank you to Chick Fil A, for staying open to accommodate our team. The boys definitely needed more fried chicken! They slept and I drove and we finally made it back at 11:30 pm.
A long day but a great trip for those to experience a true large meet with schools outside of our conference. I was really impressed with the commitment of the team and the support.
Our next meet is the BRAC Conference Championships on Wednesday 5th starting at 2:30 pm.
