Following a successful 2024-25 season, James Wood boys’ swimming head coach Jessica Barr knew there would be some talented spots to fill in the team’s lineup.
Though the Colonels lost 200 individual medley and 100 breast state champion Joe Warnagirls and state qualifier Alex Hua to graduation, they remained the area’s top swim team this past winter. As a result, Barr is The Winchester Star Boys’ Swimming Coach of the Year.
This season, James Wood hardly declined after losing its key contributors, finishing fifth at the Region 4D championship meet and 12th at the Class 4 state meet. The team finished third and 10th last year.
The Colonels were the fastest area team in all three relays, and held the top area time in seven of the eight individual events. Junior Eddie Grimes was a member of all three relay teams and held the area’s top time in six races. He finished second in the 100 free at states in a season-best time of 47.28 seconds and placed fifth in the 200 free with a personal record of 1:42.91.
Senior Michael Thompson earned the area’s best time in the 100 back with a time of 55.41, recording that performance in the state prelims before finishing 10th in the finals. Additionally, the team’s 200 free and 400 free relays each placed fourth at states.
Here’s what Barr had to say about the team’s impressive campaign.
Q. What qualities made this team special?
Barr: I think this was kind of a very pivotol transition year for us after losing both Joe Warnagirls and Alex Hua. We had some spots that were especially some very competitive spots to fill with some of our other boys that have been on the team prior. I knew Eddie was going to step up big time for the team, but I also really appreciated [junior] Zach Harrington stepping up a lot this year, and also Julian Nardelli — he was a sophomore. He really transitioned to being more of a full-time swimmer. He does swim year-round, but he really put in the time and the effort necessary to really be a key scoring member of our boys’ team this year.
We only had nine boys on the team this year, and one of those nine had zero prior competitive swim experience, so he was basically a newcomer and just learning the different strokes. So we really had to utilize every single swimmer that we had on the team. And I just think throughout the entire season, they were like, ‘OK, what what do we need to do? What events do we need to do?’ Sometimes, if we had someone out sick, or they weren’t able to attend a meet, I would have to make some last-minute adjustments with relays or different events. They were always open to it, and they practice hard. And we focused on a lot of different things throughout each week at our practices. Everyone kind of has their specialty stroke, but we also need to practice and get better at the other strokes as well, because we just never quite know what events we might need someone to swim for us at the next meet.
Q. What individuals impressed you or surprised you the most?
Barr: The addition of [freshman] James Burhoe. I had heard that he was going to be coming to be a part of the team. I didn’t know a lot about him, but he was also very key for us and helped us be able to fill a lot of our events throughout different meets. He’s more of a freestyler, but he also is able to do any of the strokes. So at any point in the season, I could be like, ‘Hey, James, I need you to do this event.’
I think also Josh Harty played a key role for us. He was a senior, so he’s been on the team for multiple years now, and he was able to really step up for our relays, especially towards the end of the season. At the end of last season, we really weren’t quite sure what his status was going to be going into this season, because he had a couple of health issues that he was looking to get a little more clarity on and see how that was going to impact his swimming. But he kind of worked through those, came back this year, and once we got kind of back into regular conditioning and built some stamina up for him, he was able to be a pretty fast sprinter for freestyle. So we used him a lot in the 50 and 100 free, and then those relays, which allowed us to take our other year-round swimmers, like Eddie and Zach and [senior] Michael Thompson, and put them in the more specialized strokes.
Q. What do you consider the most memorable moments of the season?
Barr: One of the most memorable moments that I’ll always remember was at regionals. I could see that they were so nervous, but they were all doing their absolute best to get our 200 free relay to clinch a spot for states. And we knew that we most likely had to qualify by placing. It was top four [advance], and I think we snuck right in there and got fourth place. Same thing for the 400 free relay. It proved to me how hard they had worked, but also just how motivating they were for one another, because we had already swam the 200 medley relay at regionals and had just missed making it to states. So for them to really bounce back from that [was impressive]. It was Julian on the one relay, and then Josh was on the other relay [alongside Grimes, Harrington and Thompson]. So it was truly a team effort to get both of those relays in that final spot and get to move on to states.
— Compiled by Joe Tuman