Conference 21A Swimming

Posted: January 30, 2016
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI

WARRENTON - One race doesn’t make a meet, but the Sherando boys’ swimming team sent a message right from the start that it had no intention of seeing its unbeaten season end yet.

For the second time this year, the Warrior’s 200-yard medley relay team broke a school record that had stood for 12 years in the meet’s opening event, and Sherando went on to win the Conference 21A meet Friday night at the Warrenton Aquatic Center.
The Warriors scored 250 points to edge Woodgrove by 12 in the six-team competition.

“It set the mood for the rest of the meet,” said junior David Restrepo, who teamed with Jeremy Linaburg, David Restrepo and Ethan Medrano to win in 1:44.55, 1.45 seconds faster than their seed time and more than eight seconds better than runner-up Woodgrove’s time. “It kind of hyped everybody up, because we were only seeded to win by (0.7).”

The Wolverines didn’t go down without a fight, but they couldn’t match the energy and performance of the Warriors.
“I think our team really demonstrated a lot of spirit tonight,” Sherando coach Joe Knight said. “Everybody really stayed together. When the kids weren’t swimming, they were on the deck cheering for everybody, and I think that inspired a lot of kids to do really well tonight.

“This is the culmination of a lot of hard work. We knew coming into this season that Woodgrove was the team to beat in our conference. We started working toward this goal in summer, and this completes our long-term dream.”
Knight said the 200 medley relay definitely started things off with a dream performance.

“We got really, really excited when we had that result come out,” Knight said. “I told everybody we just crushed a school record, and that perked them up even more.”

Harrisonburg was third on the boys’ side with 171 points, Handley was fourth with 116, James Wood was fifth with 102 and Millbrook was sixth with 56. Woodgrove won the girls’ meet with 260 points, and the Wolverines were followed by James Wood (157.5), Handley (133), Sherando (132), Millbrook (123) and Harrisonburg (88.5).

The top six individuals and top three relays, as well as those who achieved qualifying times, advance to the 4A West Region meet on Feb. 13 at the Freedom Center in Manassas.

Junior Daniel Milburn led the way individually for Sherando by winning the 200 IM and 500 free, and Restrepo added an individual win by taking the 100 fly.

Milburn last swam in a conference meet as a freshman. Last year he focused on competing with Nation’s Capital Swim Club. Milburn’s definitely come a long way in two years. When he took third in the 200 IM at the conference meet as a freshman at the Claude Moore Recreation Center in Sterling, he recorded a time of 2:15.

But on Friday, he won the 200 IM in 2:03.20 to win by a whopping 11 seconds over Woodgrove’s Gage Russello. then set a season-best by seven seconds in the 500 free. Milburn recorded a time of 4:59.36 to beat Millbrook’s Patrick Northrup by almost 25 seconds (5:24.14).

“Not being on the high school team last year], I wasn’t really as connected to the school as I was as my freshman year,” Milburn said. “Now I’ve got more school spirit, and I’m also getting to see what it’s like to win, because with USA swimming I was always going up against great swimmers.”

Milburn said he particularly enjoyed swimming on the 200 medley relay team on Friday.
“We crushed it,” Milburn said.

Restrepo recorded a 58.33 in the 100 butterfly to barely hold off late-charging Brian Hua of James Wood (second in 58.55). Restrepo also took third in the 50 free (23.98).

Restrepo said he was pleased with the 50 free because he placed higher than he was seeded. Despite the win, he’d rather not duplicate his 100 fly. His cap flew off shortly after the race started, a big reason why he was unable to match his seed time of 57.53.

“Prior to the race starting my cap ripped, so I had to tie it back together in an interesting way,” Restrepo said. “During my first 25 my cap flew off, so that kind of messed up my rhythm.”

Restrepo’s cap issue was one of the few things that went wrong on an otherwise stellar night.

“We have a lot of swimmers who are very good in specific events, and can transition into other things as well,” Restrepo said. “This team has been stronger than some of the previous teams I’ve been on Sherando just because of our depth.”
Also for the Sherando boys, Medrano took second in the 50 free (23.34) and third in the 100 free (52.35).
Matthew Pham took second in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.61) and third in the 200 free (1:56.11), the 200 free relay took second (1:34.33), Hunter Mayo took third in the 100 back (1:03.57), Linaburg placed third in the 100 breast (1:07.25) and the 400 free relay placed third (3:46.58).

Sherando’s girls’ 400 free relay placed third in 4:17.84, and Abigail Sears took third in the 100 breast (1:17.45).
The James Wood girls took second in the 200 medley relay (2:04.47) and 200 free relay (1:50.53), Zoe Schopick took second in the 100 butterfly (1:03.19), Erin Jackson took third in the 50 free (27.06) and third in the 100 backstroke (1:08.19) and Lydia Sunderlin took third in the 100 free (1:00.01).

James Wood coach Elizabeth Mumaw said she wasn’t really thinking about what place her team would take coming into meet, but she was definitely happy with second.

“We were just thinking about taking it one race at a time, and what we could do to improve our times,” said Mumaw, whose team lost duals to Handley and Sherando this year and had finished behind the Warriors in multiple large meets. “We’re surprised and really, really excited with this performance.”

On the boys’ side, James Wood was hoping that the freshman Hua would just get under 1:00 in the 100 fly, but Hua dropped 1.62 seconds off his seed time in recording his 58.55.

“That was fantastic,” Mumaw said. “Across the board, everybody dropped a lot of time. David Dorsey dropped 10 seconds in his 500, which is great. Both of them are freshman, so this was big for them.”

Abbey Esslinger was Millbrook’s lone individual winner, taking the 200 IM in 2:20.24 to win by 4.41 seconds. Esslinger also took third in the 100 butterfly (1:03.89) and swam on the winning 200 medley relay team with Lindsay Fairbanks, Eliza Grigsby and Taylor Linder (2:02.42).
The medley team was seeded five seconds behind Woodgrove, and Esslinger said the excitement of that win helped her individual performance. Esslinger set season-bests in both of her races.

“I’m excited for regionals, because I think I can do even better,” Esslinger said.

The Millbrook girls also had Fairbanks take second in the 200 free (2:01.32) and 500 free (5:24.98). Linder took second in the 50 free (26.94 ) and 100 free (59.37). The 400 free relay took second in 4:03.95.
For the Millbrook boys, Northrup also took second in the 200 free (1:55.66).
Millbrook hadn’t had a meet in three weeks after losing two meets last weekend because of the snowstorm.

“Sometimes rest is good, and I think rest might have helped us out a little bit,” Millbrook coach Will Sigler said. “The girls’ medley relay came out and swam hard, and that carried over to everyone else. We had a lot of people drop some time.”
Senior Carter Watts led the Handley boys by taking first in the 50 free in 23.21, edging Sherando’s Medrano by pushing past him in the last 10 yards to win by 0.13.

Watts also took second in the 100 free (51.99). Watts also swam on the 4x400 team that placed second in 3:43.76.
Watts’s win in the 50 free was his first postseason triumph since taking the 100 backstroke at the Northwestern District meet as a freshman. Watts didn’t swim for Handley either of the last two seasons while he focused on tennis. He’s glad to be back, though it was definitely a major adjustment.

“The biggest thing I love about any sport is just competing,” said Watts, who won the Group 4A state doubles title with Parker Wilson last year. “The last two years I hadn’t done much competing over the wintertime, and I just figured if it didn’t interfere with tennis, I’d have another go at it.

“I swam for 10 or 11 years straight, and when you never take a break, you don’t realize how hard the sport actually is. When I came back after almost three years of no swimming, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But I’ve really enjoyed getting back into shape, and I’m just looking to see what I can do in the postseason. There’s no pressure. I’m just having fun and enjoying myself.”
Still, Watts competes to win, and his will helped him pull out that win against Medrano.

“I knew he was right there,” Watts said. “I didn’t know if he was a little bit ahead or a little bit behind, but coming into the wall I knew I had to start kicking it a little bit more. Once I kicked that into gear, that’s what gave me the edge, and I had a great finish.”
The Handley girls had Mackenzie Fergus take second in the 100 back (1:04.77) and third in the 500 free (5:37.06). The 200 free relay took third in 1:52.30.

Handley coach Tag Grove said he wasn’t sure what to expect with just one day of practice leading up to he meet because of the snowstorm, but he couldn’t have asked for more from both of his teams.

“The times tonight were great,” Grove said. “We really can’t complain about that. Some of these kids were taking 10, 15 seconds off. What we’ve been talking about is swimming faster than they have at this time of the year, and they did it, so I couldn’t be more proud of how they challenged themselves and each other.

We ended up with a lot of sevenths and eights where we barely missed out [on regional spots], but we have a young team. I think those sevenths and eighths can turn into thirds and fourths next year.”
Grove said William Yuan gave a gritty effort after suffering a shoulder injury in the 200 medley relay, but his performance suffered because of the injury - he took fifth in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free.

For results on other individuals who placed in the top six, see Monday’s edition of The Winchester Star.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1