Titans Take First State Title
Brentsville’s boys (above) and Hidden Valley’s girls (below) celebrated wins in the A-AA swimming competitions on Saturday. Photos by Jason Norman.
In one race after another Saturday, Hidden Valley (HV) and Brentsville went to the mat, or at least the pool. The two schools from northern Virginia broke away from the pack at the AA-A state championship swim meet at Old Dominion University.
In the end, one race would make all the difference.
Heading into the last event, HV clung to a 173-172 lead. In the preliminaries, the Tigers had qualified nearly six seconds faster in the boys 400 free relay, but anything could happen.
As the race began, top seed Jefferson Forest took control quickly, but Brentsville could afford to finish behind it. Nathan Brown got things started for the Tigers, and Michael Hughes followed him up. As the race neared the two-minute mark, the Tigers were in a solid second, with HV's Roanoke rival Cave Spring, as well as Broad Run, in the mix.
Jacob Katuin took the third lap for Brentsville, eventually leaving Ryan Dunne to finish things off for the Tigers.
Coming down the pool for the last time, Dunne saw Carter Watson finish the race for Forest ahead. Then he reached the edge of the pool, and looked around.
He saw Cave Spring finish, then Broad Run. Finally, nearly six seconds after Dunne had hit the wall, HV came in fifth - and the Tigers had their first-ever state title, edging both HV and Forest, 206-201-191.
"We were confident, but not cocky," Dunne said. "I just did my job, swimming as fast as I could." Consistency was the key for both of Virginia's top male squads - although Hidden Valley opened the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay, neither team finished first in a race for the remainder of the day, though both often notched one of the top three spots.
"I have no voice left," said first-year Brentsville coach Ashleigh Krzywicki. "I've been screaming all day! I would have been happy with whatever they came up with."
Steadiness won the day for HV's girls - aside from Lauren Gray's second straight state title-winning performance in the 500 free, the Lady Titans didn't take any other firsts. But constantly finishing near the top was good enough - HV took home its second straight state title, roaring past Lafayette 486-321.
"The girls started last year, and they wanted to keep it going this year," said HV coach Sheri Vaughn. "It's been a great weekend. We have a lot of depth. We had eight girls that scored today."
Gray's 500-winning time of 5:00.95 was exactly six seconds slower than her state record performance of 2009.
"Winning was our main goal," she said. "It made us so excited to do it after doing it last year. (In the 500) I had to get out faster than I had in the 200 to keep my state title." Tabb's Rachel Sepanski edged her by .07 seconds for the 200 free race title.
Both diving records fell Saturday, as Jamestown's Evan Walter's 378.6 score made him the new titlist by a fifth of a point. Christiansburg freshman Leah Piemonte went a bit farther, as her 368.6 annihilated a nine-year-old record by nearly nine points.
Handley's Ben Grove was the only individual to set a new record, cutting a third of a second off his own mark in the 100-breast. In 200-free relay competition, Sepanski teamed with Katie O'Connell, Victoria Barley, and Danielle Kimball to finish in 1:37.94, a second and a half faster than anyone in A-AA Virginia history.
