Records Fall as AAA Swim Squads Rise
Oakton’s boys (above) and Robinson’s girls (below) won their respective AAA state swim titles Saturday in Virginia Beach. Photos by Jason Norman.
For state and national records, the Princess Anne Recreation Center wasn't a safe place to be over the weekend.
Before the two days of AAA state swimming competition was over, nearly half the marks that had come into the meet would disappear, as roughly 20 participants would finish beneath them. And in the end, one team would take its new spot at the top of competition, while another put the first touches on a dynasty.
After a few new marks were set in the prelims on Friday, Robinson's Corey Bowersox set a new diving record Saturday, scoring a 540. Fairfax's Kelly Stockton's 445 was good enough for the girls' title.
The Langley boys must have enjoyed setting new national records in 200-medley relay action - after finishing a new American mark with 1:46.43 in the preliminaries on Friday, Stephen Richards, Chuck Katis, Ryan Natal, and Chris Pivik started Saturday's meet with a time of 1:45.38. In second place, Oakton also finished below Friday's mark.
"We each did our part," Richards said. "We knew we did real good last night, and we wanted to break it by even more, so each guy pulled through. We put on the performance of our lives."
Brad Phillips set a new state mark for Oakton in the 200-free (his 1:51.6 missed the national mark by .02 seconds), and Atlee's Kaitlin Schroeder followed suit in the girls race. Then things really got crazy, as Oakton's K.J. Parks, McLean's Charlie Putnam, and Langley's Richards and Katis all broke the state record in the 200 individual medley. Since Parks' time was the fastest, however, he snared the most points.
In the girls race, Parks' teammate Kaitlin Pawlowicz rewrote a new line in the record book, cutting over three seconds off the national record with a 2:16.39 finish.
"I really didn't know about the record, so it wasn't my focus," she said. "I just wanted to score some points for the team. I usually get out pretty quickly in the fly and the back, but my breaststroke is my weakest, so I tried to do that stronger."
After Fairfax's Joey Kelly set a new state record in the 50-freestyle, Western Branch's Julianne Phillips pulled the upset of the day; entering the girls race seeded seventh, she charged through to take it, her 26.57 seconds nearly half a second faster than top-seeded Taylor Vincent of Gar-Field. After Pawlowicz took the 100-butterfly, Phillips set a new state record in the 100-free.
"I had a bad start and a bad turn yesterday," Phillips said of the 50-free, "so I was really looking forward to today, to go out and race. Winning felt pretty awesome. Setting the state record was pretty amazing."
"Amazing" could hardly describe the 400-freestyle performances; Brad's time of 3:54.88 set a new record by nearly three seconds, while Oscar Smith senior Kasey Morris chopped nearly five seconds off the country's mark with a 4:14.9 - and nearly six seconds off the state mark she'd set the night before.
"It felt great," Brad said of setting the record. "I felt on top of the world. I've been looking forward to it for a while."
While Brad plans to continue his swimming career at the University of Virginia this fall, Morris will be heading a bit farther north; she's heading to Princeton.
"I went out really fast like I normally do," she said of the 400-free. "After 200 meters, I felt really good. My coaches kept telling me to stay positive, because they knew what I could do. I knew I would have to choose between the 400-free and the 100-back, but I decided I wanted a national record over a state title." She took fourth in the 100-back, behind Maury's Madison Hahn's state record of 1:02.76.
Records continued to fall in the 200-freestyle relay, as Woodson's boys set a state record and Langley's girls nabbed a national mark, their 1:48.94 beating the country's record by a tenth of a second.
"We were confident that we were going to get the state and the national record," said Langley's Megan Howard. "As a team, we knew we were going to get it."
As the meet wound down, squads from northern Virginia gathered to fight it out - again; Concord District/Northern Region rivals Langley, Fairfax, Oakton, and Robinson squared off for the title of "Tops in the Old Dominion." Just as the male competition had begun, Oakton finished it with a nationwide record, as Brad, Park, Chris Megaw, and Philip Hu cut a second and a half off the 2007 record with a 3:31.44.
"My adrenalin was sky-high, over the roof," Brad said. "Being state champions is something we've been waiting four years for. Without my teammates, we wouldn't be here. They gave me a great lead to hang on." It cinched the first state title of the millennium for the Cougars, charging past local rival Langley 202-173.
"A lot of kids had to really focus today," said Oakton coach Hunter Owen, "and we did. Wherever we were, we had to do well. When we came into the season, we said, 'Districts, regions, states,' and we did all three. The kids did a phenomenal job."
Though their only first-place finish was the meet-opening 200 medley relay, Robinson consistently finished near the top in nearly all of the meet's races, securing a runaway 227.5-166 win over Langley for the Fairfax school's second consecutive state title.
"It's not about coming in first," said rookie Robinson coach Clayton Joyner, "but about making sure that you have a lot of people that are in the finals. We're not a team of stars; we're a team of players."
