The Hargrave Swimming & Diving Team took to the pool in the beautiful Onishi-Davenport Aquatic Center to open their season on Wednesday. Below is a recap from Head Coach, Amanda Weishaar!
The day after! After our daily stretch, your swim team chose to hang out and be a team outside of the water. They voted to watch the movie Jaws (!) and I hope it is a strong motivator for the next meet, which will be away at Fork Union Military Academy on November 30th!
This year’s team is exceptionally young and with 75% being new to the Hargrave team; and 75% of those having never been on a team before, it was going to be a memorable and rewarding experience for them in their first swim meet. I have spoken to every member of the team individually and as a group multiple times throughout these past 2 weeks mentally and physically preparing them for their first challenge. As I repeatedly told them, they are not at 100% right now. They are at about 80%. The goal is to be at 100% ready for the last swim meet of the season. These are small steps to accomplishing that goal. Some were overwhelmed by the prospect and they opted to sit out and observe this time. We have many more meets ahead of us and I hope that one day they will believe that they are capable and can take on this challenge. Like the young men who stood on the blocks for the first time last night, they will be pleasantly surprised and come out of the pool with a huge smile on their face!
We faced a very experienced team from The Covenant School. As a USA Swimming club coach I have seen these names in swim meets outside of the high school season. Your swim team was competing against young men who swim and compete year round. It was always going to be an uphill battle. We ended the battle with a 78-16 loss, but I am proud of every single one of your swim team for their guts, effort and determination. That evening at Thanksgiving Dinner, today at lunch, and during today’s stretch, every single one said they really enjoyed themselves; they want to swim shorter events!; and are ready for the next one. This is extremely encouraging and exciting.
There were some additionally individual moments that should be shared:
- Sebastian Medina (Danville, VA ’23) qualified for State in the 200 IM (2:12.25) and 100 Butterfly (:59.30)
- Bryce Adkins (Danville, VA ’23) swam his fastest 50 Freestyle (:28.05) and 100 Freestyle (1:06.21)
- Aiden Dykstra (Ten Sleep, VA ’23) in his first swim meet surprised everyone with his powerful and speedy 50 Freestyle finishing 2nd for the team (:28.40)
- Kelsten Hudson (Danville, VA ’25) in his first swim meet rounding out the top 3 in the 50 Freestyle (:33.25)
- Junior Verwest (Fort Myers, FL ’26) finished first for the team in 100 Freestyle (1:05.71)
- Nathaniel Duff (Vernon Hill, VA ’23) swimming his fastest 100 Freestyle and dropping just over 2 seconds (1:11.93)
- Roger Adams (Chatham VA, ’23) for finishing just outside the top 3 in the 100 Freestyle (but his first swim meet) in a time of 1:12.00
- Ethan Teluk (Manlius, NY ’22) swam his fastest 100 Breaststroke (1:31.07)
