Seton boys place sixth thanks to Hill
By HUGH RIST
For the News & Messenger
Published: February 15, 2009
A swimming program that has made success a standard, especially during coach Jim Koehr’s tenure, finished off another strong season by hosting the Virginia Section of Independent Schools’ State Championship this past weekend at the Freedom Aquatic Center in Manassas. Published: February 15, 2009
The Seton Conquistadores won the Division 2 title by wide margins at the event as the girls’ team placed fifth overall (two points behind fourth-place Bishop Ireton) while the boys’ team finished sixth overall (two points behind St. Stephen’s). Koehr said the meet was “super fast” as 16 of 24 state records were broken at the event.
Without a doubt, the story of the event was the stellar swimming of junior Jameson Hill, who relocated with his coach Rick Benner, also the coach for QDD Aquatics, from Savannah, GA before the season.
On Friday night, he swam the 200 yard freestyle in a state-record and all-American time of 1:38.59, breaking the former state record (set in 2001) by nearly two seconds. On Saturday, he followed that up by winning the 500 freestyle in 4:29.41, an all-American standard that was nearly five seconds better than the state record time set in 2003. Hill now owns the All-American times in the 100, 200 and 500-yard freestyle, Koehr noted.
“Jameson’s times were stupid fast,” Koehr said. “I promise you, we’ve never seen times this fast in Prince William County.”
Hill also swam the freestyle leg on Seton’s sixth-place 200 medley relay team of junior Connor Cook, Daniel Koehr, and sophomore David Basinger.
Cook, brother of former News & Messenger swimmer of the year Nevin Cook, placed seventh in the 100 backstroke (55.68) and eighth in the 200 individual medley (2:03.04). Daniel Koehr, the coach’s son, finished ninth in the 100 breaststroke at 1:03.65, nearly five seconds better than his previous best time.
On the girls’ side, freshman Alex Doonis placed third in the 50-yard freestyle (24.83) and fourth in the 100 backstroke (1:00.51). Sophomore Lauren Donohoe placed fifth in both the 50 freestyle (24.93) and the 100 freestyle (54.15).
Doonis and Donohoe also swam legs of Seton’s third-place 200 freestyle relay team (1:42.73), along with freshman Cat Rogers and junior Laura Talbott. Seton’s 400 freestyle relay team placed fourth (3:42.82) behind Doonis, Talbott, junior Carolyn Claybrooks, and Donohoe.
Senior Mary Kate Kenna was sixth in the 100 breaststroke at 1:11.84 and 10th in the 200 individual medley at 2:20.16. Sophomore Ann Duran placed eighth in the 11-meter dive with a score of 204.75.
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