Osbourn Park sweeps Cardinal District swim titles

Heading into the third leg of the girls’ 200 medley relay at the Cardinal District Swimming Championships Saturday night, Woodbridge and Osbourn Park were swimming just about neck and neck until Taylor Vincent swam against Audrey Kula in the butterfly leg.

Suddenly, Vincent pulled ahead and the Vikings stayed in front after the freestyle leg as Woodbridge defeated Osbourn Park in the medley relay. However, despite a stiff challenge by Woodbridge, Osbourn Park’s depth proved too much in the end as the Yellow Jackets won their second consecutive Cardinal District girls’ title (and their seventh consecutive district title overall dating to their time in the Cedar Run District).

Osbourn Park’s boys’ team also won the district title for the second straight year, mainly due to terrific performances in the relays and strong individual efforts by several swimmers, including the News and Messenger’s reigning Swimmer of the Year, Greg Stoffa.

So with Osbourn Park netting five individual and three relay wins on the boys’ side, and three individual and one relay win on the girls’ side, it is likely the Yellow Jackets will again be a factor at both the Northwest Region meet, which will be held at the Freedom Aquatic Center in Manassas on February 11 and the Group AAA state meet, which will be held at George Mason University on Feb. 18.

But for the first time in quite a while, another school (Woodbridge) gave the Yellow Jackets’ what Osbourn Park girls’ coach Amalie Eichas called “a run for our money.”

Thanks to the medley relay victory, the strong swimming in the 50-yard freestyle by Vincent, as well as a victory in the 200 freestyle relay by the Vikings, Woodbridge finished a strong second in the team competition. The Woodbridge results were so strong that Vikings’ coach Cindy Woll was overheard telling one of her swimmers in tongue-in-cheek fashion, “We demand a recount [of the team points].”

That’s because Woodbridge’s underclassmen were spectacular. Sophomores Victoria Coughlin (who won the 100 freestyle) and Emily Kelly (who took the 100 backstroke title) each also played key roles in the Vikings’ two relay victories.  In addition, Woodbridge freshman Courtney Laird benefitted from a false start by Osbourn Park’s Courtney Mizerak to win the 100 breaststroke title. However, Mizerak will still swim in the event at regionals, due to having qualified for the event by seed time earlier in the season.

Eichas said she thinks the Yellow Jackets will benefit from the “push” they received from the Vikings.

“When we swam [against] them a couple weeks ago, we said, ‘All right. This is what we want to see.’ They [Woodbridge] gave us a run for our money then and they gave us a run for our money tonight. We look forward to swimming against them at regionals and lining up our girls the best way we can. But we look pretty strong because almost every girl who competed at districts advanced to regionals,” Eichas said.

Eichas said because the talent level in the entire district is evening out, Osbourn Park “has to watch our backs.”

“We definitely aren’t an overconfident team. We can’t be,” Eichas said. “That’s one of the things we have tried to stress to our team is that even though we are bigger, it doesn’t mean we will always win.”

After the night started promisingly for Woodbridge with a spectacular swim in the meet’s first event, the medley relay, Vincent was able to propel herself to victory in her best event, the 50 freestyle, despite suffering tendonitis in both shoulders that requires thrice-a-week physical therapy sessions to endure.

Thus, Vincent’s night could have been even more promising, with a victory in the 200 freestyle, where she already holds the school record. However, due to the crankiness with the shoulder (an injury that is a common hazard for year-round swimmers) she decided to forego competing in the event by a declared false start.

“I am already going to compete in the 50 and 100 freestyle at regionals, and was just competing in the 200 here to give other people a chance to compete in the 100, so I didn’t think it was worth risking [further injury] to compete in the event. The main thing is I was able to win the 50 and do well in the relays to help the team and that was my focus,” Vincent said.

Osbourn Park’s girls’ got strong swims in two events from Emma Skelley, who won the 200 and 500 freestyle races in impressive fashion and Audrey Kula, who placed second in the 200 freestyle, but won the 100 butterfly, while just missing a state cut time.

On the boys’ side, there were three thrilling individual storylines that may be worth keeping an eye on at regionals in a couple weeks. The first was the continued dominance of Stoffa, who despite his talent, will walk-on at the University of Virginia next fall. That’s because the Cavaliers are a top-ten program in NCAA Division 1.

Stoffa beat his year-round teammate and friend, Peter Lord, in perhaps the night’s most thrilling race, the 200 individual medley, by out-touching him by .35 at the end, despite Lord’s having led for most of the race.

“I knew it was going to be a close race and finish like it did because I am [usually] better at the second half of the race and he is better at the first half,” Stoffa said. “[QDD Aquatics] Coach [Rick Benner] was actually working with him on his breaststroke earlier in the week to try to help him and when he was so far ahead of me [going into the breaststroke and freestyle legs], I was actually kind of nervous that I wouldn’t beat him,” Stoffa said.

Osbourn Park coach Matt Ragghianti said Stoffa’s close victory in the 200 and his fairly easy (by nearly nine seconds) victory in the 500 is a testament to his determination and work ethic.

“He works at hard at his high school practice as he does at his year-round practices,” Ragghianti said. “He’s a great kid and an amazing swimmer.”

Ragghianti, who took over for longtime Osbourn Park coach Kate Thomas this season, said he could not have walked into a better situation.

“They’ve gone beyond [my expectations],” Ragghianti said. “I knew they had been successful in the past, but I don’t think I realized how deep they were. A lot our middle depth swimmers scored really well tonight, including some who don’t swim year-round, such as A. J. Shields and Joshua Feshari [who both contributed to relay victories].”

A testament to the Yellow Jackets’ depth was the performance of Feshari, who replaced Joe Worrick in the medley relay (because Worrick was trying to achieve national cuts in other events) and helped the team finish faster than it had before.

“It’s impressive. It’s nice to have the kind of depth where you can slide someone like Josh right in and we don’t skip a beat,” Ragghianti said. “They are a great bunch of kids, too. It’s fun to watch them swim.”

The other two storylines involved Woodbridge’s Harrison Sweeney, who swept the freestyle sprints, and Forest Park’s Jordan Murrin, who won the 100 breaststroke by breaking his own school record in the event and setting a state cut time in the process.

CARDINAL DISTRICT SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

At Chinn Aquatic Center (all distances yards)

Boys Team Scores

1.       Osbourn Park 221.5; 2. Woodbridge 94; 3. Forest Park 73.5; 4. Hylton 68; 5. Gar-Field 20; 6. Potomac 17; 7. Freedom 10.

Event Results

200 medley relay—1. Osbourn Park (Peter Lord, Greg Stoffa, A. J. Shields, Joshua Feshari) 1:43.05; 200 freestyle—1. Sam Stronko (Osbourn Park) 1:46.40; 200 individual medley—1. Greg Stoffa (Osbourn Park) 1:58.46; 50 freestyle—1. Harrison Sweeney (Woodbridge) 23.19; 100 butterfly—1. A. J. Shields (Osbourn Park) 56.55; 1. 100 freestyle—1. Sweeney, 50.55; 500 freestyle—1. Stoffa, 4:39.05; 200 freestyle relay—1. Osbourn Park (Joshua Feshari, Mike Weiser, Trevor Heckman, Joe Worrick), 1:34.12; 100 backstroke—1. Peter Lord, 53.84; 100 breaststroke—1. Jordan Murrin (Forest Park) 1:05.42; 400 freestyle relay—1. Osbourn Park (Worrick, Lord, Stronko, Stoffa) 3:22.24.

Girls Team Scores—1. Osbourn Park 192.5; 2. Woodbridge 116; 3. Forest Park 72.5; 4. Gar-Field 54; Hylton 42; Potomac 23.

Event Results

200 medley relay—1. Woodbridge (Emily Kelly, Courtney Laird, Taylor Vincent, Victoria Coughlin), 1:50.44; 200 freestyle—1. Emma Skelley, 1:55.41; 200 individual medley—1. Courtney Mizerak (Osbourn Park) 2:11.12; 50 freestyle—1. Taylor Vincent (Woodbridge) 24.52; 100 butterfly--1. Audrey Kula (Osbourn Park) 59.80; 100 freestyle—1. Victoria Coughlin (Woodbridge) 54.95; 200 freestyle relay—1. Woodbridge (Vincent, Kelly, Madison West, Coughlin) 1:39.86; 100 backstroke—1. Emily Kelly (Woodbridge) 1:01.33; 100 breaststroke—1. Courtney Laird (Woodbridge) 1:07.72; 400 freestyle relay—1. Osbourn Park (Ashley Clark, Kula, Natalie Tabor, Skelley) 3:48.52.